Letter to the Editor: Bloomfield Should Pass Companion Animal Protection Act

Mayor McCarthy, Members of the Town Council and Ted Ehrenburg,

Thank you all for working to bring positive resolution to the animal shelter management controversy. As mentioned previously, I am an unbiased town resident who cares about our town, the animals and our reputation, and I come with over 10 years of professional animal welfare experience on a national and local level. I have no personal interest in which group runs the shelter, and I was not involved with the animal shelter as a volunteer.

I apologize that I have been unable to attend council meetings recently, but I wanted to reach out again to offer my unending support to help with the animal sheltering plans for our town and the towns we serve.  

I would like to recommend for the Companion Animal Protection Act to be voted on by the council to help clearly establish the expectations by our township of any governing body of the animal shelter.   

The contents of the act should be highly attractive to all the animal supporters in our town, no matter what “side” of the volunteer or Memphis controversy they may be or have been. This would be a win-win situation for everyone, and certainly bring positive media to our town and help ensure the directives in the act are always  reflected in the animal shelter management today and in the future.

On another note, I also wanted to share my serious concern over parts of the proposed Ordinance 2632 (Cellphone, Audiotape Recorder and Camera Use During Public Meeting Policy) as the restrictions on the general public using cameras, two-way devices and other tools is unnecessarily prohibitive and does not support the transparency goals of our township and should not be included in the ordinance.   

However, the restriction on town council members does support the transparency goals, as the alleged texting between council members does not reflect the spirit of the open sessions of the meetings, where the public is meant to be privy to the discussions of issues by the council during that time.

Finally, I wanted to share that I’ve been hearing more residents upset over the ever-increasing property taxes who are starting to seriously consider selling their homes due to the high taxes.   I hope a plan can be put in place soon to help curb the increase of taxes and work to decrease taxes in the upcoming years.  

We do have great dedication and “spirit” in our town, and good leadership and management can help channel energy in a positive way.    And one item – I heard that a concern by the town administrator is that there is no staff available in the town admin office for tasks like tracking pet licenses.   I am confident that volunteers would offer to help with these responsibilities if it helps ensure that we will have a well-managed animal shelter with welcoming volunteer and adoptions programs.

Thank you for your time and all you do for our town.

Best wishes,

Beth Cruz

Shelter Showcase