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City officials, citizens conflict over municipal animal shelter

Caleb Slinkard
/
The Commerce Journal
Over 50 people attended the Oct. 21 city council meeting, during which the mayor and council refused to hear comments regarding the city's municipal animal shelter.

The ongoing criticism of the City of Commerce’s municipal animal shelter – and the refusal of local officials to allow public comment on the topic at the Oct. 21 city council meeting – has many people in Commerce frustrated and angry.

More than 50 members and supporters of the No Kill Hunt County group, an organization dedicated to making all shelters in the county no-kill shelters, attended the meeting to protest what they said were poor conditions at the Commerce Animal Shelter and alleged mistreatment of the animals by shelter personnel, according to the Commerce Journal.

There was no agenda item related to the shelter, but a recent change in the shelter’s volunteer policy, along with other issues, prompted the strong turnout at the Oct. 21 meeting, the report said.

However, rather than allow those in attendance to speak on the topic, Commerce Mayor John Ballotti chose to disallow public comments, according to the Journal.

“This is an issue that does not have to be brought forth,” Ballotti said. “I get to pick what items we go over. That is the end of the discussion. You may all leave.”

After more questions were asked, Ballotti added that the city entered into an agreement with No Kill Hunt County earlier this year, but that there was “some misunderstanding about what the city was entering into,” the report said.

None of the council members were available for comment following the meeting, but supporters of No Kill Hunt County expressed their frustration with both the shelter and the council.

“I’ve seen the abuse and deplorable conditions at the shelter, and I wanted to talk with the city first to ask them to fix their stuff,” Brooke Shelton told the Journal. “But since they didn’t allow us to talk, I will be reporting them for sure. I feel like it’s completely unnecessary and unprofessional [to not allow us to speak].”

Complaints ranged from shelter personnel killing animals to keep numbers low to keeping un-spayed and un-neutered male and female dogs in the same kennels, the report said. “We are taxpayers, and for them not to allow us to speak our minds about what is going on in a city building is horrible,” Misty Nixon told the Journal. “Those people should be removed from office.”

Commerce City Manager Marc Clayton told the Commerce Journal that city council will release a statement on the issue later in the week.

“We began a relationship with No Kill back in March of this year,” Clayton said, adding that he would like to defer mostly to the statement in regards to the issue. “That was terminated some time in August. We never had a written contract, but we had a handshake agreement on some things we’d like to see done. We reached a point where it wasn’t working, it wasn’t a good working relationship.”

Clayton confirmed that the mayor does have discretion over who speaks at a city council meeting and when they are allowed to do so, the report said.

Mark Haslett has served at KETR since 2013. Since then, the station's news operation has enjoyed an increase in listener engagement and audience metrics, as well recognition in the Texas AP Broadcasters awards.