Get Full Government Meeting Transcripts, Videos, & Alerts Forever!
Get email alerts on the Animal Shelter Mou topic
No spam. Unsubscribe anytime.
Council rejects ratification of animal-shelter MOU after members say agreement bypassed council review
Summary
Councilors declined to ratify a memorandum of understanding with the Town of Sinclair concerning impound and shelter services, citing procedural concerns that fees and terms were not reviewed by the council before signatures were exchanged. The motion failed and staff were asked to return with properly routed documents.
Council considered a memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the City of Rawlins and the Town of Sinclair that would formalize impound and shelter services at the Rollins Animal Shelter. Council Member Steve Sanger moved to ratify the agreement; the motion failed after debate over process and prior signatures.
Council Member Sanger and others said the MOU terms, including shelter fees and billing responsibilities, should have been presented to the council before any signatures were added. City Attorney Pineda Mayberry confirmed that Wyoming statute 16-1-105 (joint agreements) requires that agreements between two or more agencies be approved by the governing body of each participating agency before they are effective, and acknowledged the MOU had not been circulated in the usual way. Mayberry and staff said the fees in the draft were consistent with the city's existing fee schedule; however, several council members said they were not given an opportunity to review changes before other signatures were added.
Council Member Derek Elliott asked whether the agreement had previously been in use; staff said similar documents had been circulated to multiple jurisdictions, but only Sinclair had returned a signed form so far. The council questioned whether the city's mayor should be the signatory on final versions and asked staff to add an explicit signature line for the mayor and return the MOU to council for formal approval. The motion to ratify the version before the council failed on a roll-call vote: three nays, two yeas (Mayor Jacqueline Wells and Council Member Steve Sanger voted to ratify; Council Members Derek Elliott, Winnie Patterson and Tanya Lumen voted no). With the motion defeated, staff were instructed to obtain the proper originals or to reissue revised MOUs to partner agencies and present them to council for approval prior to signature.
Staff also told the council that the shelter currently receives very few animals from Sinclair ("maybe one a year"), and that the financial exposure from declining the MOU at this time would likely be limited. Council asked staff to retrieve earlier MOUs and to resubmit properly routed documents for council consideration.
