MOULTRIE – Humane Society Co-Director Courtney Azar defended the organization’s financial reports to Colquitt County Commission at a meeting in early April.

During the course of the meeting, Commissioner Mike Boyd asked if the board controlled the Humane Society’s budget.

“The board, they go over the budget. The budget that I gave you, the 2023, the numbers that are on there, that’s the numbers that they approved for that year. We haven’t had enough board members this year to approve a new budget or to discuss anything,” replied Azar.

Boyd said that, in September, Azar gave the CPA budgets to go over that showed the organization was in distress, but two months before that, all of the employees got raises.

Azar denied that all of the employees got raises at that time and said that two of his employees received raises at the first of this year and he gave reasons why.

“But you got a raise,” said Boyd with Azar responding, “I didn’t get a raise. I’ve actually taken a pay-cut.”

Boyd said that the financials showed that he had gotten a raise and, once again, Azar strongly denied it.

Boyd said he was just going on what the financials showed him.

“I understand. When I got the job, I was offered $60,000 a year. At this time, right now, I split that pay with Dawn Blanton,” he explained and said that they split the duties of the executive director position.

Boyd said that he just didn’t understand why the Humane Society was giving raises out when they were in financial distress and asked Azar if he had looked at the financials.

Azar said that he had looked at them and Boyd told him to look, specifically, at the June and July reports to which he responded that he would.

“Probably what you’re talking about, that’s when the new animal control officer came and I asked for the money, at the time, for an animal control officer,” said Azar.

“You need to look at the deposits, where they’re going,” said Boyd and Azar said that he would.

Commission Chair Denver Braswell said that every time there was a major expenditure, Azar came to them.

“So, it almost gets to the point where the Board of Commissioners is trying to operate a Humane Society. That’s not what we’re tasked to do,” he said.

Azar said that he understood completely and that he was trying his best to do what he could.

“I’ll get the board or what’s left of the board and let them decide on a plan for you and we’ll just leave it at that,” he also said.

Cannon said that they had been giving the Humane Society an extra $5,000 per month and that the commissioners had cut if off. He asked Azar if that was something that they still needed.

Azar said that he did still need the money because donations were down and they had gone from a deficit of $10,000 a month to only being $11,000 or $12,000 in the positive, right now.

Earlier, Azar had told the commission that out of the $5,000 that the County gives, they pay for an extra animal control officer and he only has two animal control officers within the whole county.

“That’s 557 square miles that these guys have to cover. That’s like Rod having two sheriff’s deputies out there,” he had also said.

“Every one of us appreciates what the Humane Society does. You’ve got a job that I think any of us wouldn’t want to have. But what I’m getting at is that we’ve got people coming in saying that they’re not getting any service and they’re spending our money,” Boyd said.

He also said that he does think that the Humane Society is at a disadvantage but he still thinks that Azar should go back and look at the financials that he gave the commissioners.

Cannon said that the commissioners needed to answer the question about the extra $5,000 per month and if not, they needed to seriously get back together about a plan.

Azar said that he’d be glad to send the financials to Melissa Lawson, the county clerk, every month so that she could send them out to the commissioners.

Cannon told Azar that he would get with him after getting some input that might help and go from there.

“I don’t want to waste resources if we don’t have to,” Cannon said.

“I understand, I mean, if we’ve got to, it’s the perfect time to lock the front door and be done with it,” said Azar.

Commissioner Marc DeMott wanted to know if there was anyone that outsourced animal control and Cannon replied not locally.

Braswell said that he wished that the Humane Society board would be a little more proactive.

“You talk about us looking at the financials and this, that and the other. I mean, we don’t do that with other contractors. We contract for a service. Really, we shouldn’t. … I mean, there’s no reason for you to send financials to Melissa every month. You’re not a department of the County,” he said and added that the Humane Society was paid to do a service for the County.

“Unfortunately, y’all are an entity on your own but if something happens and y’all can’t provide the service, we’re the one that always get the calls,” said Braswell.

After Azar left, the discussion continued about the Humane Society’s financial state and some members of the board wanted to know whether the County had slots open on the organization’s board that needed appointing.

“Their board should be providing some leadership and planning. These guys are stuck in the middle,” said Commissioner Paul Nagy.

Nagy asked who was the chairman of the Humane Society board and was told that it was possibly Rich Gallagher, who’s the executive director of the Moultrie YMCA. The commissioners weren’t sure, though.

Lawson told the commissioners that out of the board members, maybe one or two of them might show-up for the meetings and that has been an ongoing problem. They don’t have enough members there to even have a quorum for voting or having a discussion about the Humane Society’s problems.