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Volunteer Betty Anderson socializes with a 2-week-old kitten at the Rock County Humane Society on Friday.
Volunteer Betty Anderson socializes with a 2-week-old kitten at the Rock County Humane Society on Friday.
Health Tech Jed Kjornes treats a male cat for ear mites at the Rock County Humane Society on Friday.
JANESVILLE — The Rock County Humane Society would like a new home, and board members hope a new executive director with experience raising money will help them find one.
"Ultimately, we'd like to obtain property to build a new or existing building to be modified, but we put that idea on hold for a while and will proceed cautiously due to the economy," board President Debra Mills said.
If the Humane Society gets a new home, longtime executive director Chris Konetski won't be involved.
She was fired Monday.
Konetski hinted that board members wanted to meddle in the day-to-day operations of the shelter.
Mills would say only that Konetski's firing was "generally performance related."
New direction
Mills said the board wants to move into a new direction.
"We're trying to lose the pound image. It's not an accurate reflection anymore," she said.
The board wants to educate the public about being a responsible pet owner and do a better job matching animals with people, Mills said.
Other goals include:
-- Putting more emphasis on the customer.
-- Improving the adoption process.
-- Starting a foster-to-adopt program.
-- Creating programs to test for heart worm and feline leukemia.
-- Giving vouchers for people who can't afford to feed their animals.
-- Expanding the low-cost spay and neuter program.
-- Opening a cat colony where cats could spend a good part of the day out of their cages.
The biggest challenge?
"Money," Mills said.
The board hopes the new executive director has experience in fundraising if a new home for the shelter becomes a goal.
"Because these types of things require large capital campaigns," she said.
Customer service
Konetski said the board had told her earlier to work on her customer service and to enroll in management training because members weren't happy with her management skills.
"They talked to me in October, gave me a list of a number of things to work on," she said.
On Monday, Mills and another board member told Konetski she hadn't worked on the things as asked and because "we've had increasing complaints from adopters, board members and staff we are terminating you effective immediately," Konetski said.
When contacted by The Janesville Gazette, Mills declined to say if Konetski's personality or management style had anything to do with her being let go. She said it was "multifactorial, generally performance related" and "multiple considerations went into the decision, not one single issue."
Konetski admits to personality conflicts with board members, especially after the board a number of years ago paid for a man to explain the differing roles of the executive director and the board.
"We have not seen eye-to-eye since. It was always my understanding the board made policy and raised money to run the shelter. I think a lot of board members are interested in running the shelter," Konetski said.
Mills said there had been "multiple" complaints about Konetski, but would not provide specifics.
Mills also wouldn't say if Konetski rejected guidance from the board, but she said there were "no misdeeds." Konetski worked hard and was outspoken, which "factored into the end result," Mills said.
Not unanimous
Not all 11 members of the board agreed that Konetski should be let go.
Board member Merle Storck learned of Konetski's firing on the radio Monday and said he "completely disagreed with the decision."
Storck said he was not at the Nov. 26 board meeting because of surgery and believes Konetski's firing was intentionally brought up then "because they knew I was not going there."
Storck said the board a year earlier discussed firing Konetski after some board members voiced concerns about her leadership capabilities.
"They claimed she wasn't doing a good enough job with employees and the relationship with the people that came with animals. When you're in a position like that (executive director) it's pretty tough to satisfy everybody every minute every time," Storck said.
Storck said the discussion a year ago was dropped after other board members agreed with him not to let Konetski go.
But Storck was overruled this year.
Board member David Thill, a friend of Konetski's and somebody whom she recruited to be on the board, said it was a unanimous among the approximately 10 board members at the meeting.
"After listening to all of the conversations, it kind of seemed that was the best route to go," he said. "I basically felt it was time to do something different and to make a change after reviewing and hearing the various comments made at the board meeting. I hadn't seen a whole lot of change from a year ago to the current meeting," Thill said.
Former board member Joanne O. Anderson, who was part of the committee that hired Konetski in 1993, wrote in a letter to the Gazette that the current board "was clumsy in its action and ungrateful toward Chris' undoubted dedication and accomplishments.
"When she first came, the shelter was unbelievably shabby, the animals were crowded and board members met on folding chairs in the lobby … Thanks to Chris, the board and a generous membership, the shelter was expanded and much improved in space, comfort and care."
Her dream
Konetski said her dream for the humane society was to lower the number of abused and neglected animals.
"It was a labor of the heart," she said.
"I have taken great pride in being able to be part of their efforts to help with the stray animals of Rock County. I think Rock County has many loving and wonderful people, and it has been an honor and pleasure to work with them and the animals," Konetski said.
She said she has 21 days from the day she was fired to consider a severance package offer.
"I have no idea if it's fair. I've never been offered that before. This was never a job where I was going to seek my fortune. That was never the point of my job. Whatever they offer me, I'm grateful for," she said.
Humane Society is bursting with animals
A poster at the front desk of the Rock County Humane Society features a basket of five cute kittens with this caption: "Pick one and say goodbye to the rest."
"This the daily reality of a shelter worker. It's a heart-breaking business, which they have no control over," said Debra Mills, board president.
"We would love to place every animal that comes through our door, but the reality is that it is up to the public to solve the problem. They need to have their animals spayed and neutered and adopt from the shelter," Mills said.
The humane society is a nonprofit organization that receives income from donations, estates, bequests, memberships, fundraising, grants, adoption fees and service contracts with 27 municipalities for picking up and holding stray animals.
Budgeted operating expenses for 2008-09 total $660,000.
"Unlike some shelters, we are fairly financially sound, thanks to our generous supporters," Mills said.
Each month, between 200 and 300 cats and kittens come to the shelter, and in October the number hit a record of 571 cats, Mills said.
"Employees have given up their break room to make way for cages, the employee bathroom is often stacked three-high with mama cats and kittens, as is the executive director's office," she said.
The society has a kennel in the back of its South Arch Street building full of stray dogs and cats that are on hold for the required seven-day period for owners to reclaim their animals, plus a sick bay that usually is full.
"Many of the animals euthanized are ones that we treated with multiple rounds of antibiotics and failed to improve after a month or more, or have serious medical conditions beyond our financial resources to fix. Many of the rest were due to biting, aggressiveness or were feral (wild) cats," Mills said.
"It's not uncommon," she said, "to have people leave aggressive animals on our doorstep because they did not want to take the animal to the vet and pay for a euthanasia fee. We work with dogs as much as possible to give them some basic training and manners, which they often lack, but don't have the resources or time to do this as much as we'd like."