At the beginning of the Animal Advisory Board meeting Wednesday, City Manager Jacob Wood provided an extended statement addressing ongoing public concerns regarding the Salina Animal Shelter.
Wood began by confirming that the Kansas Open Meetings Act notice had been properly provided and that a quorum was present before asking to speak prior to public comment.
“I’m Jacob Wood. I’m the city manager,” Wood said. “Obviously, we’ve had… quite a few people here that want to discuss animal shelter and stuff that’s gone on there. I just wanted to come down here… and give you a background and overview of kind of where I sit and what I’ve seen over the last couple of years.”
How “We Got Here”
Wood said he became directly involved with the animal shelter in 2023 while serving as Deputy City Manager after a series of state inspection reports were triggered by complaints.
“We got this first inspection report… in July of 2023, and it was a pretty scathing report,” Wood said. “There was a lot of stuff on there that was really bad… things that I had not anticipated.”
He said the first report contained “probably 10 or 11 things… negative things that I think we really needed to address.” A second complaint followed in August, adding additional concerns.
Principal issues cited at the time included:
- Cleanliness deficiencies
- Insufficient staffing
- Failure to properly walk dogs
- Inadequate logging and reporting
- Recordkeeping problems
Wood acknowledged that responsibility did not rest solely on shelter staff.
“I don’t know that it’s all the animal shelter’s fault,” he said. “I think there’s some blame that can be taken by the city, the city manager’s office, for not supporting the function.”
Changes Since 2023
Wood outlined several corrective actions taken after the inspections:
- Hiring additional staff
- Adding a full-time administrative assistant for recordkeeping
- Hiring additional personnel for dog walking and cleaning
- Installing additional kennels in garage space with ventilation
- Building a new dog park
- Updating HVAC systems
- Making improvements to laundry facilities
He said the City paid a state fine following the inspections and worked toward compliance. An October 2023 reinspection was deemed satisfactory.
“We really have made a lot of improvement since that time,” Wood said. “The issues that we have today are not the issues that we had in 2023.”
Wood said six additional complaints have been filed since then but characterized them as minor.
“There’s little things on the report, but nothing that was major, nothing that couldn’t be fixed within 24–48 hours.”
Ongoing Concerns
Wood acknowledged that the most recent inspection report contains items the City must address.
“There’s some concerning things in there, things that we need to change, and we will work towards that and try to make the facility a better place,” he said.
He also addressed criticism directed at shelter employees.
“These are my employees. They are good people. They’re just trying to do a job,” Wood said. “Being an animal control officer is a difficult job… every time they have an interaction with the public, it is generally negative.”
Wood said public hostility makes hiring and retention more difficult.
“Anytime we want to hire somebody, they’re going to come and watch these meetings and see that they’re going to get called stupid… that makes it difficult.”
Volunteer Program Discussion
During board questioning, Wood was asked about the role of volunteers.
“We weren’t following the Kansas animal pet act when these first reports came back,” Wood said. “We were depending on volunteers to do stuff that we should have never depended on volunteers to do.”
He said the City has since restarted a volunteer program but noted that the board has had varying opinions over time about its structure.
“Volunteers are great… and I’m hopeful that over time we can continue to build that program,” he said.