After a year of turmoil, Jasper Co. wants millions from SC for new animal shelter

The state legislature is taking steps to give millions to help Jasper County fund a new multi-million dollar animal rescue facility even as the nonprofit group’s leadership has undergone widespread turnover and dysfunction for nearly a year.

As the 2024 session of the General Assembly wraps up this month, Jasper County’s legislators are considering whether — and how — to include money in the state budget for the shelter. Money also would come from the county and other sources.

Few, if anyone, disagree that the dilapidated Jasper County-owned building suffers from issues such as overcrowding, a backed up sewer system, rat infestation, and natural wear and tear. In November, a representative from a Florida nonprofit animal group inspected the Jasper Animal Rescue Mission shelter and offered several suggestions for improvements.

One solution proposed by county officials is construction of an $8 million facility that would be an expansion to the Beaufort County Animal Campus in Okatie. Officials want the state to pay $6.4 million; Jasper County taxpayers would put up the remaining 20%.

The county’s push for a new shelter came as the animal rescue board’s vice president, president, and at least five other members resigned during the last year. At one point, the board had just one member. Also, the former board president, who resigned earlier this year, said in an email that the agency’s director was about to be put on probation, but later recanted that claim.

The director said she was never put on probation.

Currently, the shelter’s board is reorganizing. The shelter staff are getting more training. They say these are steps in a positive direction, with the hopes of leaving behind months of dysfunction and miscommunication.

Changing board dynamics

The mass board resignations began last year when former board vice president Robin Artz left. In a July 30 email, Artz said she was “tired of listening, making excuses and no actions being taken while I was on the board.”

“Why would we or should we hide the reality and make it all seem like it is perfect and shiny?” Artz wrote. “It’s a 3rd world country up at the shelter, with the staff just trying to survive. No longer can we make excuses for the shelter and the lack of the county being held accountable.”

This week, Artz reiterated that her resignation was largely caused by the former board not taking action or making changes as it related to the shelter’s betterment and the animals’ welfare.

“Nobody wanted to work together,” Artz said Monday. “Nobody wanted to reach out. There was no fundraising... Really, just nothing was happening.”

Between August and September, the board had six new members. By the first week of October, five of the six new board members had resigned.

After a February meeting this year, three of the then-four board members resigned, including its president, Cindy Abernathy.

Abernathy, who was at the helm for six years, said she resigned because she felt “attacked” by several former board members who attended the Feb. 16 meeting unannounced.

“I’m not gonna sit there and have people attacking me when the only thing I tried to do was help,” Abernathy told The Island Packet through tears.

She said she left the meeting after former board member Keith Hughes “yelled” at her, but Abernathy said she couldn’t recall what he said. According to Abernathy, the controversy that night was over her six-year tenure as the board president.

“I’m going to emphatically say that I did not yell at Cindy,” Keith Hughes said. “It just didn’t happen that way.”

Abernathy said she acknowledged she’d been on the board “too long,” but it’s because the president has to stay on until somebody takes the position. But she said “the way they were coming at me (during the meeting), they basically wanted (positions) on the board.”

Michelle Hughes, now-interim board chair who attended the Feb. 16 meeting, said her husband “was speaking loudly but he wasn’t yelling” at Abernathy.

About 45 minutes into the meeting, Michelle Hughes asked how Abernathy was going to handle the annual board member elections in June. Abernathy said she planned to change the board’s bylaws to require that a board member train for a board officer position for a year before being elected to one of those positions, according to Michelle Hughes. Disagreement followed about whether it was possible to change the nearly 20-year-old bylaws.

“It was over in a blip,” Michelle Hughes said. “The only loudness was when she started speaking over me. And then that’s when I said, ‘Well, if you want to get louder, you want to talk over me, I can get louder.’”

Michelle Hughes said Abernathy then got up, packed up her things and said she resigned. Keith Hughes asked when her resignation was effective. Abernathy said immediately.

“Nobody said anything to her. Nobody said stop, don’t do that, wait,” Michelle Hughes said. “She may have felt attacked, but she was not attacked.”

Keith Hughes said after Abernathy left, everyone was sitting in awe because they didn’t expect Abernathy to resign during the meeting. Following her departure that evening, the meeting then turned into a discussion of “what are we going to do now?” Keith Hughes said.

The two other board members who left, Judy Cromer and Theresa Wall, did not respond to The Island Packet’s requests for comment. Abernathy did not respond to follow-up requests for comment in response to the Hughes’ comments.

Resignation and rebuilding

On Feb. 20, four days after the meeting, Abernathy penned an email of meeting minutes to several people active with the animal rescue. Michelle Hughes forwarded the email to the county administrator to notify him of Abernathy’s resignation.

A paragraph of Abernathy’s initial email said that during an executive session, members would present the rescue mission’s executive director, Caitlyn Schake, with a “final written warning” and put her on a “90-day probationary period.” Abernathy told The Island Packet that the action would have been taken because Schake was not working the number of hours required under state law.

The Island Packet obtained a copy of the email through the state’s Freedom of Information Act.

But Abernathy now says the executive session was never held. In her email, Abernathy did not clarify that she left in the middle of the meeting. She said the email with the meeting minutes also contained the meeting agenda, which was not delineated from the minutes. The executive session had been scheduled for the end of the meeting.

Schake said she’s never been given a verbal or written warning by the board, which, under its bylaws, has authority over the executive director position. She said her work days last between 12 and 14 hours.

“I may not be here bright and early in the morning, but I come later and work later at night, because I need the peace and quiet (to get work done),” Schake said. “(I work) way more than 40 hours a week. And my employees can vouch for that. My family can vouch for that. Anybody can vouch for that.”

On April 9, Schake and shelter employees attended a three-day training with a national organization called Best Friends Animal Society. It gave the rescue’s staff updated training and guidance on how to improve adoption policies.

Michelle Hughes said nine new board members were sworn in during an April 25 board meeting, giving the board 11 members. Under its bylaws, it should have at least seven members and no more than 15. Board members are chosen by incumbent members, who receive applications and interview potential candidates.

“I only want to go in a good direction and move in the right direction,” Michelle Hughes said. “There’s so many good rescues and shelters that are running successfully that all we have to do is look at them and follow their lead. And there’s no reason we shouldn’t be successful.”

During Thursday’s meeting, standing committees were also formed. Currently, raising money through events and grants is top priority of the board.

“We’ve got so much to do,” Keith Hughes said. “But we’ve got a group of people that seem to be passionate about making changes out there. I think if you look back a year from now, it’s going to be a total and completely different organization than what it is now.”

Plans for a new facility

As the rescue’s board rebuilds and shelter staff retrain, the county is seeking funding for a new shelter.

The shelter is bursting at the seams, at times housing over 300 animals. The county, which leases the building to the nonprofit for $1 annually, is pushing to find outside funding to construct a new shelter.

Securing funding and completing construction of a new facility will take at least three to four years, said Rose Dobson-Elliot, the county’s director of engineering services.

The county’s request to the state Senate for financing proposes designing and constructing a Regional Animal Services Complex with Beaufort County. It would also include a Wildlife Resource Center and a sheriff’s department K-9 housing unit.

Due to Jasper and Beaufort counties’ rapidly growing population, wildlife habitats are shrinking and more animals are displaced, the document said.

“(The facility) was satisfactory ten years ago,” the document said. But it’s “too small and has gotten into an extremely poor physical condition.”

“The current occupancy of animals is higher than available space. The site has poor drainage and there is limited space for outdoor needs.”

The proposed facility would be an expansion to the Beaufort County Animal Campus in Okatie. The two counties are exploring ways to “work cooperatively,” but Beaufort County will not be taking over Jasper County services, Dobson-Elliot said April 8.

The project proposal is “available for public knowledge,” Dobson-Elliot said, but that doesn’t mean the details are ironed out or it’s a “done deal.”

Where the budget request stands

On April 10, the Senate Finance Committee appropriated $1.5 million for Jasper County’s facility. But when the full Senate approved the budget last week, the $1.5 million wasn’t included, according to Senate documents. But the House may try to add the money next week when state representatives consider the budget again, said state Sen. Margie Bright Matthews, D-Colleton, whose district includes Jasper County.

State Sen. Tom Davis, R-Beaufort, said three factors are considered when prioritizing requests for funding local efforts. The money must be related to a core function of government; the project must have a significant local appropriation; and local and county governments need to show how they would work together.

“Another factor to consider is the competency of the governing entity at the local level,” Davis said. “The General Assembly wants to see and have confidence that the local entity that will be handling the appropriation is a functioning entity, or is a functioning board.”

Despite recent upheavals of the animal rescue mission’s board, Davis said money is being considered for the new facility because the need is greater.

Still, it’s not certain the Jasper County project would get any state funding this year, especially because it’s competing with many other infrastructure projects with funding request.

If the money is allocated, safeguards for the expenditure would be put in place by the new state Department of Public Health, Davis said.