The ACC and the City’s Department of Health (whose commissioner (Dr. Thomas Farley) also serves as the ACC Chairman) did their best to prevent people from attending the ACC Board’s annual meeting.  They delayed posting notice of the meeting.  They buried that notice in a secret spot on the ACC’s website.  To top it off, they created new rules limiting who can speak and for how long.

Their strategy had the desired effect.  Only around 60 people were able to attend today’s Board meeting compared to the 150+ who turned up at the June 2011 Board Meeting.

While we waited in line to be allowed upstairs to the meeting, some of us chatted about how — just four days earlier — ACC Executive Director Julie Bank hosted a royal visit by Dr. Farley and some of his fellow ACC Board members to the Manhattan Shelter.  They got the red carpet treatment and found a sparkling clean shelter with no overcrowding.

Of course, this fantasy shelter was achieved on the backs of ACC animals.  ACC employees were paid overtime to clean the shelter the night before the Board’s visit.  The ACC shipped excess animals to the already overcrowded Brooklyn shelter.  Finally, the ACC euthanized several Manhattan animals the morning of the Board’s visit to free up even more cage space.

A perfect “Potemkin Village” (look it up) for the Board’s pleasure.

The Meeting Itself:

Dr. Farley violated New York State’s “Open Meetings Law” at the June ACC board meeting when he turned away away 100 people who couldn’t be squeezed into the tiny room the DOH had reserved for that meeting.  This time Dr. Farley reserved the DOH’s large auditorium.

The DOH and ACC reps gave their usual things-are-grand-and-they’re-only-gonna-get-better presentations, with an emphasis on how they are busy “implementing” changes to the ACC “infrastructure” to be able to accommodate the wonderful new changes that will come with the additional City funding.

The Board voted to amend the ACC By Laws to comply with the new local law that requires, among other things, the DOH to expand the ACC board by adding seats for two “public” directors.

Apparently the DOH and Mayor Bloomberg – who will appoint these new “public” directors  — haven’t come up with the perfect people they can trust to sit on the Board.

Voices from the Public

The highlights of this meeting came, as usual, from the public speakers.  This time, several fresh and affecting voices were heard such as:

• Wall Street Accountant-Comic-Animal Rescuer Harris Bloom who asked the Board to choose him to be one of the new ACC Directors.   He explained why he’d be the perfect candidate: “I’m the right gender [male],”  “I’ll never question Dr. Farley,”  “I’ll never visit an ACC shelter,” etc. Bloom ended with the promise that he would “see no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil.”  View the video: Wall Street Accountant Harris Bloom explains why he would be THE perfect addition to the ACC Board.

• A mom who (along with her husband and children) visited an ACC shelter 3 times last month trying to adopt a dog, only to find roadblocks at every turn.  Why, she asks, do you make it so impossible to adopt from you? View the video: Mom tells the ACC:  “You’re not letting people adopt your dogs.”

• A self-described “Upper East Side working mom” who went to the ACC Manhattan shelter recently hoping to adopt a dog.  But what she saw “blew” her mind.  “We don’t live in a third world country.”  She implored Dr. Farley and his fellow ACC directors that if they really aren’t interested in the animals’ care, then to allow people on the board who do, people with a passion to help. “Let us not be your enemy.  Let us help you help the animals.” View the video  Upper East Side Working Mom finds third world conditions at the ACC

• A rescuer who has pulled over 400 animals from the shelter and whose pockets are now “empty.”  She spends thousands of dollars nursing back to health animals made sick by the ACC.  She described a young dog she had pulled two weeks ago.  He had been healthy when he went into the ACC but left with Parvo.  Despite the efforts of her vet (and a bill of $2,500), the dog died.  She brought the dog’s ashes with her. Last week she spent an additional $600 in vet bills to save an ACC dog from pneumonia that he had caught at the ACC.  It started as the typical ACC cold, but (as she explained) because he had stopped eating and no one at the shelter was ensuring he was taking his oral medicines, it progressed to pneumonia.   She described seeing ACC animals lying in their own feces with no attempt by the ACC to keep the shelter clean.  She wants to see something change.   She decried how the great people in New Hope were fired, people who worked ‘til midnight sending out pleas for animals. View the video: Second Chance Rescue, Jennifer Brooks

• A fulltime attorney whose resume includes being a former JAG officer in the U.S. Army, a Democratic nominee for the NY State Senate, and a Commissioner with the Taxi and Limousine Commission.  She described how inspired she had been by the recent Nathan Winograd No Kill Conference in NYC, and asked why no one from the DOH or the ACC had attended that conference.  She asked the Board to consider her to become one of the two new members of the ACC Board.  Her goal: “to effect change, making New York City the leader in adoptions and the best shelter in the country.”   She told the ACC Board that they have the power to make this happen and to become “heroes.” View the video: Attorney Nora Marino asks to join ACC Board

“Independent” ACC Board Director Patrick Nolan stayed behind after the meeting to speak with various of the public attendees.  He also wanted the contact information for the attorney who asked to be appointed to the ACC Board.  Mr. Nolan genuinely appeared concerned and hurt by the criticism of the Board.

Tomorrow we’ll post a detailed synopsis of the presentations by the DOH and the ACC representatives.  Also, in a day or two we’ll post video highlights from the meeting.