The idea of having the Fayette County attorney review the proposed ordinance dealing with the operation of the Fayette County Animal Shelter was made by Commission Randy Ognio at the July 27 meeting of the Fayette County Commission.
Ognio during commissioner comments followed up on a portion of the July 13 adopted motion that work on a proposed ordinance dealing with operations at the animal shelter be stopped.
Above, Fayette County Commissioner Randy Ognio. Staff photo.
“This is a little different, to have an ordinance drawn up by an outside attorney and presented for our attorney to address. There still hasn’t been a motion to approve the (county’s) attorney to review (the proposed ordinance),” Ognio said. “When we received it, there were emails from three commissioners saying they didn’t want to move forward with it. So I’m not sure why you’d spend money on the attorney when the votes are not there.”
“I don’t think any of us have a problem with some of the (provisions) in the ordinance,” Ognio continued, noting that he was avoiding getting into a discussion on the issue because it was not on the agenda. “But I would like to see somebody make a motion at the next meeting, maybe to approve the attorney to work on something. One commissioner cannot spend money without board approval. That’s just the law. All we’re asking is that there be some approval process.”
Prior to Ognio’s comments, Commissioner Chuck Oddo said his vote on July 13 to stop work on the proposed ordinance was not meant to prevent people from talking about the issue.
Oddo said, “We’re reaching out now and we’ve been reaching out since the last meeting.”
Commissioner Steve Brown followed, saying he believed the July 13 vote did stop the process, adding that, “I believe the motion was pretty clear. We did stop the process.”
Brown said, to the best of his knowledge, there was nothing “we did wrong in the process” of bringing the ordinance forward.
Also at the July 27 meeting, several people spoke in public comments, showing their support for a “No-Kill” animal shelter and asking that the decision to stop work on the ordinance be reversed.
