The city of Las Vegas moved Wednesday to audit the public funds it provides to the embattled Animal Foundation shelter.
The City Council voted unanimously Wednesday to recruit a third-party firm to conduct the financial evaluation.
The motion — brought forth by Councilwoman Victoria Seaman — was mostly symbolic, because contracts between the city and the shelter already allow for such review.
But this is the first known audit from the city, which has partially funded the shelter along with Clark County and North Las Vegas since 2015, city staff said.
The vote followed a lengthy discussion about the state of the shelter, which is accused by animal advocates of mismanagement, retaliation and inhuman treatment of the pets in its care.
Dozens of them packed City Hall, and all who spoke during public comment chastised the shelter.
They want the city to take over the shelter’s operations or shut it down.
The city’s yearly contributions hover around $3 million. City staff said the shelter has been in compliance, and any issues spotted during inspections have been fixed within 48 hours.
City Manager Jorge Cervantes said that building a shelter, which every municipality is required to have by law, would cost the city between $20 million to $30 million, with yearly operational costs between $10 million and $15 million.
Outgoing Councilman Stavros Anthony made several suggestions city staff said they would evaluate.
One would place City Council members on the Animal Foundation’s board of directors and to open the organization’s meetings to the public.
Anthony also suggested allowing city employees to volunteer one day a month in lieu of their current job duties.
Another suggestion was to require minimum job qualifications from the foundation’s executive director, something the Animal Foundation would ultimately have to decide on its own.
Seaman put the discussion on the agenda after a “surprise inspection” she conducted in September, where she found what she described as “disgusting” conditions at the animal intake area.
Fellow council members criticized her move, alleging that she stepped on city staff in charge of formal inspections.
Later that month, the foundation announced eight members of its intake team had suddenly walked out, disrupting its operations.
And in early October, the shelter paused adoptions of dogs after more than a dozen of them showed symptoms of a respiratory illness.
This is a developing story. Check back for updates.
Contact Ricardo Torres-Cortez at rtorres@reviewjournal.com. Follow @rickytwrites on Twitter.
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