Investments and stray animals: county commissioners hold special meeting

ROCKINGHAM — On the eve of a new fiscal year, Richmond County Board of Commissioners held a special meeting to hammer out some last minute budget details.

In previous meetings, Director of Finance Cary Garner has been lauded for his investment efforts on behalf of the county. In years past, it was not uncommon for the county to receive 0% returns on investments, but recently, Garner’s aggressive but fiscally responsible investment strategy has paid dividends, according to comments by County Manager Bryan Land.

Garner spoke before the commission regarding a new investment platform for county monies.

Until now the county has utilized two vehicles for the investment of county dollars. The North Carolina Capital Management trust and North Carolina Investment Pool both serve local governments across the state as short term investment funds for idle dollars.

According to Garner, county money can only be invested in risk free platforms. When making investment decisions Garner employs the S.L.Y acronym – safety, liquidity, and yield in an effort to maximize returns while minimizing risk.

Currently, NC Capital Management trust is paying out at 5.1%, and NC Investment Pool at 5.21%. Garner introduced the commissioners to the North Carolina Cooperative Liquid Assets Securities System, or NC CLASS.

Like the other two, NC CLASS is a AAA rated, risk free fund for short term investments, however, NC CLASS is currently offering returns at 5.32%. Garner said, “It’s incrementally better than NCIP and it’s a good bit better than Capital Management, but they are young — their ability of what they purport, is that they have so many states to spread their overhead.”

The Cooperative Liquid Assets Securities System is employed in upwards of 18 different states and is sponsored by five counties in North Carolina.

“What has to happen for us, for the county, to start a new banking or investment relationship, we have to have board approval of said institution,” Garner said. “What we are asking for, is not to make an investment, but the ability to do so if we choose to do so,” he continued.

The board of commissioners unanimously approved NC CLASS as an available investment platform for the county.

Animal Shelter

Vice Chairman Justin Dawkins outlined the ongoing issue with stray animals and the overburdened animal shelter. “What things are we doing that’s proactive towards the animal shelter — spay/neuter, et cetera, we talked about this a year or two ago, having some programs that reduce the animals that we have incoming?” he asked.

Bryan Land highlighted the county’s current spay and neuter program, wherein the county gives out vouchers to citizens adopting pets.

“There is still a concern that a lot of folks aren’t bringing those animals to the vet even though we’ve got the voucher and it’s being paid for, and that was something that commissioner Grooms brought up when we had discussions with K2 (animal shelter),” Land said.

Land suggested requiring a deposit for those adopting pets or even initiating a 90 day moratorium on owner-surrenders to alleviate the current stress at the animal shelter.

According to Land, in just one day last month, the shelter had 37 owner-surrenders.

Land articulated how serious the problem currently is in Richmond County. “It’s a different game now guys and it’s gotten that way in the last five to ten years. Less than ten years ago we essentially had one animal control officer in the entire Richmond County, today, fast forward and we’ve got eight animal control officers. Eight, think of that, in three different organizations,” Land said.

Commissioner Dawkins was adamant to not let another meeting go by without a plan for a proactive solution.

“I know over the last three years that we have seen costs go up over 100%. The shelter and animal control, to your comment Bryan, it’s been exponential over the last five to eight years, so we should expect that. I guess what I’m looking for is for us to make a decision, are we going to do a proactive program or not?” Dawkins asked.

Commissioner Andy Grooms suggested a cooperative program with surrounding counties. “I think the one thing, of all my research in this that makes sense to me, is that we need to partner with one or two other counties and have a full time vet. We can pay for spay or neuter program, but these vets are slammed. That’s the reason we are having to send them out now without being fixed,” Grooms said.

In the next month, Garner plans on crunching the numbers and developing a proposal to combat the stray and surrender animal problem. Commissioners Grooms and Dawkins will spearhead the effort, following Garner’s suggestions.