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Read Our Letters below

January 22, 2013 Update

Mayor and Town Council,

Thank you for your time during the public comment section of today’s council meeting. It is abundantly clear, yet again, that people in our town and surrounding areas really care about the animals and the shelter.

To avoid future controversies and to ensure quality shelter management and care for the animals, I respectfully request the RFP to clearly state the requirements expected of the agency providing shelter management. Some requirements should include a welcoming and well-managed volunteer program, a foster program, the transfer of animals to rescue whenever possible, investigation of acts of cruelty and other misconduct, keeping Petfinder and similar type listings up to date, treating employees fairly, providing timely veterinary care, working cooperatively with other local shelters to save live, and continued “no-kill” status with less than 2% “euthanasia” rate. Key performance indicators (KPI) should be defined for all required services.

I also ask the Township to clarify in advance how the outsourced service provider will be overseen by the town and how complaints will be handled. The agency should provide reports with clear metrics to the Township. There must also be a process to escalate complaints to the Township and follow up with the service provider when needed. These management tools of reporting and problem resolution are critical to ensure the requirements listed in the RFP are indeed being provided to the town, and issues can be resolved quickly without long-term controversy.

I have previously listed numerous issues in the past year related to the BOH’s oversight of the shelter’s management and refusals to comply with the Town Council’s requests. Please consider appointing fresh faces to the BOH and/or changing the BOH from autonomous to elected.

Thank you,

Beth Mersten Cruz
Shelter Showcase

January 17, 2013

Subject: RFP requirements and oversight of the outsourced services

Mayor, Council, Board of Health and Media,

There is much discussion lately on the future of the management of the Bloomfield shelter.   

Should the township continue to run the shelter as is?   It seems this isn’t palatable to any of the players involved due to the many controversies and allegations of mismanagement, wrongful termination of employees and volunteers and much more. 

The Board of Health seems to be seriously interested in turning the shelter over to the Neighbor to Neighbor Network (NTNN), even without properly putting out an RFP for bid.   The Mayor rightfully seems to have concerns about the NTNN running the shelter, as it seems he doesn’t want the charity’s reputation tarnished by controversy over the shelter.   This is a valid concern since conflicts of   interest have already caused the charity to enter into contracts with the Board of Health that were clearly unbalanced and potentially mismanagement of assets, breach of fiduciary duties and self-dealing.   

Other viable options include putting out an RFP for shelter management, or keeping the shelter managed by the Township but moving it out of the hands of the Board of Health.  It is possible to manage the shelter without major controversy.  Shelter management may never be without disagreement, but intense controversy and disasters can be avoided.   

The standards requested by residents and other concerned individuals are relatively simple and include the following policies:   a welcoming and well-managed volunteer program including a foster program, transfer of animals to rescue whenever possible, investigation of acts of cruelty and other misconduct, keeping Petfinder and similar type listings up to date, treating employees fairly, providing timely veterinary care and working cooperatively with other local shelters to save lives.  

Our township can have a model shelter program serving our town if the Mayor and Town Council support the above mentioned policies and ensure the opportunity for effective shelter management to implement best practices with respect and kindness to our citizens and animals.    Please let me know if and when I can help you in any way.

Best wishes,
Beth Mersten Cruz, President and Founder
Shelter Showcase

December, 23 2012

While Shelter Showcase has been working to help Memphis the dog finally get home to the people who love him, it seems disturbing issues may have been uncovered including reports of animal abuse at the Bloomfield Animal Shelter which were not investigated, conflicts of interest and firing of whistle blowers.

You can help ask the Township of Bloomfield to investigate these alleged abuses of power and mismanagement by the Bloomfield Board of Health. This Board of Health oversees the Bloomfield Animal Shelter, serving the animals of Bloomfield, Glen Ridge and Caldwell NJ. 

To learn more, please read this petition and sign and share if you want these allegations to be reviewed.

Latest update: The Board of Health has spurred further controversy and potentially overstepped their boundaries by again ignoring a decision by the Mayor and Council. Discussion of transferring shelter management was supposed to be postponed until next year when the new town administrator could be involved. Instead, the Board of Health passed a resolution to transfer shelter management to the Neighbor to Neighbor Network (NTNN), without any RFP process. The NTNN has already been involved in seemingly unbalanced agreements with the Board of Health in the past, which some have seen as a breach of fiduciary duties, self-dealing and a conflict of interest. With concerns over mismanagement and lack of transparency at the shelter, transferring shelter management to a non-profit with unsettling ties to the Board of Health may result in even less transparency in the future, as the Open Records Act does not apply to non-profit organizations.

Beth Mersten Cruz, President and Founder
Shelter Showcase

November 16, 2012

To the Media, Mayor McCarthy, Town Council, Board of Health and concerned citizens,

The Bloomfield Board of Health has been involved in a number of controversial situations while overseeing our animal shelter wrought with mismanagement and lack of transparency.

At the latest Board of Health meeting on November 15, the public demanded updates on the beloved dog named Memphis stuck in the middle of all this political drama. The public also asked for information related to the dog’s transfer to the secret location in South Dakota via the locally based Bloomfield Neighbor to Neighbor Network. The Board of Health has yet to share any information.

The Board of Health says they moved Memphis out of the area to follow recommendations made by Jim Crosby, the internationally recognized expert on dog aggression expert who evaluated Memphis in August. However, Jim clearly stated in the Ask Sue Radio Show that an urban or rural environment has no bearing on the safety of a dog’s containment.

Jim’s recommendations have been gravely misconstrued and/or intentionally misrepresented multiple times by the Board of Health. Most notably, Jim’s written evaluation report recommended the following:

“At the time of the test, due to the above described issues, Memphis was NOT appropriate for adoption into a regular pet home. With retraining and continuance of positive behavior reinforcement I believe that Memphis has a very good prognosis for eventual adoption and placement. My recommendation for a permanent home would be to a physically capable owner who is experienced with bigger dogs and who is committed to continuing to
reinforce Memphis’ good responses with regular training.”

Somehow, the Board of Health continually used Jim’s evaluation to support their poor decision that Jeff couldn’t adopt Memphis. Jeff Coltenback is not a “regular pet home”. Jeff is an experienced trainer and rescuer who has already helped with Memphis’ rehabilitation and fell in love with the dog. Jeff is committed to positive behavior reinforcement. Jeff is a physically capable owner experienced with bigger dogs. Therefore, Jim’s recommendation should have been used to support Jeff’s adoption request, not deny it.

The Board of Health has represented Memphis as aggressive and unpredictable while Jim Crosby states Memphis is “very predictable”. Jim rated Memphis a “5” on a scale of 1 to 10, where the average owned dog is a 4 or 5. He also stated that with continued training, Memphis could become a 1 or 2, which is a perfect or nearly perfect dog.

Mike Fitzpatrick stated the administration strongly believed that Memphis came from a drug den and trained to be aggressive. In reality, Jim Crosby states there is no evidence of trained aggression, “there was no indication that human focused aggressive display has been reinforced or trained.” The town has repeatedly said there is no breed bias against Memphis. However, as one “Free Memphis” supporter person stated in a Town Council meeting, if this was a golden retriever found in the same area of Bloomfield, would the shelter administration still make this assumption?

Jim Crosby has shared that Memphis’ recovery time has consistently and significantly improved between his first and second evaluation by Pia Silvani, and even more so in Jim’s evaluation. Jim expects by this time, if Memphis has indeed been in a good environment receiving continuing positive training, then his behavior should be even better now.

The Board of Health should stop using Jim Crosby’s evaluation and recommendations as reasons for their actions, as Jim Crosby’s findings and recommendations are exactly contrary to the Board of Health’s actions.

Michael Fitzpatrick challenged Jeff to take all the dogs currently in the shelter but would not allow Memphis to be one of these dogs, while the shelter has labeled four of these dogs as not good with children. Clearly, there is bias here against Jeff taking Memphis. It’s also sadly very likely these dogs have been mislabeled, just like Memphis has been.

Fitzpatrick stated that one of the reasons Jeff is not a suitable home for Memphis is because he loves the dog too much. Most of us would say this is a reason Jeff should adopt the dog, not a reason to deny the adoption.

Another reason given by Fitzpatrick is that Jeff didn’t apologize appropriately to the Board of Health when photos of Memphis were posted on Facebook by a family who met Memphis. However, the letter from Jeff to Karen Lore and our town attorney clearly shows an ample and respectful apology, and Jeff further offered to sign and abide by any new limitations set forth if a new contract between him and the town was offered.

The Board of Health should have adopted Memphis to Jeff Coltenback after Jim Crosby evaluated Memphis, or simply transferred the dog to Jeff’s Pitty Rescue non-profit group, as the town should have been done from the start. Instead, the Board of Health transferred custody of Memphis to the Neighbor to Neighbor Network which brings further questions and poor judgment to light.

According to the contract signed between the Neighbor to Neighbor Network and Bloomfield Board of Health, the charity took all the risk and expense, with no decision making power on the dog. For any non-profit to sign such a contract is unbalanced at best, and can be viewed as mismanagement of assets, breach of fiduciary duties, self- dealing and a conflict of interest. The conflict of interest seems obvious when you learn that Karen Lore is not only the Director of Health and Human Services for the Board of Health, but also the President of the charity.
Clearly, Karen did not have the charity’s best interest in mind when she signed the contract, and this seems to be a possible breach of duty of an officer.

So now, Karen Lore has opened the charity to be sued, and the individual directors and officers of the charity. In addition, the Board of Health has already been opened to several lawsuits due to allegations of age discrimination, wrongful firing of an employee for speaking the truth about Memphis, and other disturbing situations.

What is outrageous about this whole story from a personal perspective is that I met Karen Lore after we spoke on the phone and Karen was excited for my help with all the bad publicity, and yet, this administration seems to turn every opportunity into bad publicity when it could be winning our support.

It is not too late to right a wrong, and to recognize the mistakes involved. The township should adopt Memphis to Jeff Coltenback or transfer him to Pitty Rescue. And of course, the town should support a strong volunteer program at the shelter. An investigation into the firing of the animal control officer who was fired for revealing some of the lies publicly stated by the Board of Health should also happen immediately, to avoid a lawsuit and correct another wrong.

And most importantly, lessons learned from this situation should be noted so our town is not yet again embarrassed and put at risk of a lawsuit by poor management decisions. Our town’s shelter should have good leaders, strong community support and an amazing volunteer program. The whole reason the volunteers were fired in mass was clearly and undeniably a result of poor management.

One more note, prior to publishing this letter, I asked Jim Crosby to review it to ensure that I was representing his words correctly. Jim approved this letter.

Thank you for your time.

Best wishes,

Beth Cruz
Shelter Showcase, President and Founder

September 14, 2012

To: Mayor and Council, and Board of Health:

I am writing today to address a few key points, and to resend a letter sent to the Board of Health members (Mr. James McLaughlin, Ms. Kathleen DeMarino, Ms. Stephanie M. Smith, Mr. Joel Elkins, and Ms. Martha Felix) on August 20. The enclosed letter was emailed to the Health Department’s generic email address (addressed to all the Board members), and also sent and addressed individually via postal mail to each Board member to One Municipal Plaza. I do not know if the letter was ever properly forwarded to the Board of Health members.

I have been following the Memphis developments since June when Karen Lore first introduced me to the Memphis situation, during a private meeting with Karen Lore, which included your shelter supervisor and animal control officer. My background includes 7 years with Best Friends Animal Society, the organization that took 22 of the Michael Vick dogs, and I served as the No More Homeless Pets manager, consulted with shelters and rescue groups across the country on best practices and developing new programs, and other outreach projects. I am also the founder of Shelter Showcase, a second term Board member of the Animal Welfare Federation of New Jersey, and previously served as the Marketing and Development Director for Mt. Pleasant Animal Shelter, East Hanover, NJ.

I would like to propose a simple solution to the Memphis situation and controversy. The Township of Bloomfield can transfer the dog to Pitty Rescue, a 501c3 nonprofit organization where the dog will be fostered and trained by Jeff Coltenback. The dog would be transferred for rehabilitation and/or lifetime care, with the agreement that Memphis would need to pass a temperament test prior to adoption to the public. This approach would perfectly mirror what the US Government chose to do with the Michael Vick dogs.

I have attached the extensive Hold Harmless and Indemnity Agreement signed by Bad Rap and the US Government for your review. Please note the Michael Vick dogs transferred to Bad Rap were all kept in foster homes. A sanctuary or shelter facility is not needed to safely rehabilitate or train a dog.

Dogs can react very differently in a shelter environment than outside the shelter. Training and evaluating a dog outside a shelter environment can be a great advantage and more accurate in predicting future behavior. It is clear to me from talking with Jeff Coltenback, a highly experienced trainer and rehabilitator, and one experienced with rescue overall and bully breeds in general, that the public was not put at risk while Memphis was in his care. Memphis thrived and learned quickly with positive redirection, as Jim Crosby predicted.
Memphis did not pose a danger to children, because all interactions were under Jeff’s direct supervision, and close contact with children was only with Jeff handling Memphis, and no slack in the leash.

As a mother myself, after reading the letter from the mother of the children in the photo, I’m even more impressed in the progress of Memphis’ training with Jeff, and his behavior outside the shelter environment. Memphis did not react to a barking dog, and was quiet and well behaved in the store. He interacted perfectly with adults and children alike, and his interactions were properly limited.

Please consider the rational and positive solution of simply transferring the dog to Pitty Rescue, which will end the controversy over Memphis, and allow Bloomfield to “save face”, save money by eliminating the law suit, and limit liability with a transfer agreement to a rescue group, rather than adoption agreement.Thank you for your time and consideration. Please feel free to contact me anytime to discuss or if you have any questions. My cell phone is 973 819 3693 and my email address is beth@sheltershowcase.com

Best wishes,

Beth Cruz
Shelter Showcase, President and Founder

August 21, 2012

To: Mr. James McLaughlin, President, Ms. Kathleen DeMarino, Vice President, Ms. Stephanie M. Smith, Member, Mr. Joel Elkins, Member, Ms. Martha Felix, Member

Board of Health
One Municipal Plaza, Room 111
Bloomfield, NJ 07003

Dear Members of the Board of Health:

The enclosed letter was emailed to you via the health@bloomfieldtwpnj.com email address on August 20, but I also requested Jeff Coltenback to include a copy of this in his postal mailing to each of you personally to ensure your receipt.

Memphis was initially evaluated in late February. Two months after the dog’s initial evaluation, during a meeting with Karen Lore, Michael Fitzpatrick, and shelter supervisor Kathleen Georgevich, and me, the shelter supervisor stated she wanted to see Memphis go to a dog trainer for rehabilitation, as she believed the dog did not need a sanctuary. Ms. Georgevich also clarified that she spent a great deal of time with Memphis in the shelter, including regularly in her office, and she is a certified and experienced dog trainer.

Based on this information, and the information shared in the attached letter, I strongly recommend transferring Memphis to Jeff Coltenback or Pittie Rescue Inc.

Thank you for your time.

Best wishes,

Beth Cruz
Shelter Showcase, President and Founder

August 20, 2012

To: Mr. James McLaughlin, President, Ms. Kathleen DeMarino, Vice President, Ms. Stephanie M. Smith, Member, Mr. Joel Elkins, Member, Ms. Martha Felix, Member

Board of Health
One Municipal Plaza, Room 111
Bloomfield, NJ 07003

Dear Members of the Board of Health:

During my few minutes of speaking during the public comment section in last week’s Board of Health meeting, you respectfully asked my professional opinion about the safety level of Jeff Coltenback’s ability to rehabilitate without a sanctuary facility. I responded unequivocally yes, that I am 100% comfortable with the fact that no facility is needed for safe rehabilitation. I would like to provide some additional information to explain why.

In the Michael Vick case, the dogs were initially deemed unadoptable and not to be rehabilitated by the Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). This organization recommended destroying all the dogs, who were victims themselves, and this was common practice when seizing dogs trained to fight. Thanks to the high profile nature of the case, the resources available to help these dogs and the wisdom of the government officials involved, the dogs were transferred to Bad Rap and Best Friends Animal Society. These dogs have flourished, including a few becoming therapy dogs, several dogs adopted into loving homes, most others enjoying play time with other dogs, and some are beloved office dogs, who interact with familiar and unfamiliar people daily.

A sanctuary is not needed to safely rehabilitate a dog. Bad Rap placed their Michael Vick dogs in foster homes, not in a facility. Best Friends transferred their dogs into foster homes before finalizing any adoptions.

Another similar example is the Best Friends Training Partners Program. This was started after Hurricane Katrina, when more skilled trainers were needed to prepare dogs for adoption, including those with behavior issues. To put this simply, Best Friends intentionally chose to place dogs with individual trainers with appropriate experience for each dog’s issues to rehabilitate them in home environments rather than at the Best Friends sanctuary. Jeff Coltenback has these qualifications in regards to Memphis.

The Board also discussed reviewing the legal agreement signed by Jeff Coltenback and the township. I have reviewed this agreement, and I believe Jeff Coltenback’s work with Memphis did not violate the agreement in any way. Jeff Coltenback, the trainer chosen to work with Memphis based on his experience, certifications and high recommendations, closely supervised all interactions with people and animals during his time with Memphis. All socialization work was performed under controlled circumstances, and the children in the
photograph were never put in harm’s way.

The Board requested recommendations for new possible dog evaluators. James Crosby is an expert from Florida in dog aggression, consultant on training, and expert witness in dog bite and attack cases, and his services were already offered to Karen Lore and Mike Fitzpatrick. Sherry Woodard from Best Friends Animal Society would also be an ideal choice.

As mentioned during last week’s Board meeting, temperament evaluations are meant to try to predict future behavior in real life settings. A trained professional evaluating a dog for 5 days in a real life setting is much likely to be more accurate than a short evaluation in a shelter setting.

Another approach to re-evaluating the dog yet again prior to rehabilitation is one that can be a true “win-win” for everyone. The township could simply transfer Memphis to a rescue group for rehabilitation and/or lifelong care, with the agreement that Memphis would need to pass a temperament test prior to adoption to the public. This approach would perfectly mirror what the US Government chose to do with the Michael Vick dogs. I have attached the extensive Hold Harmless and Indemnity Agreement signed by Bad Rap and the US Government for your review, if you would consider this approach.

Jeff Coltenback is the founder of Pittie Rescue, Inc, a 501c3 non-profit organization. I recommend the Board of Health seriously considering transferring Memphis to this rescue group with a Hold Harmless and Indemnity Agreement, modeled after the Michael Vick dog situation used with Bad Rap. This would be a responsible action to take and represent your top priority of public safety, as well as Township liability, and representing the public
as elected officials.

Before I close, I would like to bring one more concern to your attention. It has been reported that our township has chosen not once, but twice to employ our police department as a means to communicate with Jeff Coltenback the day after the Board of Health meeting. This can be interpreted as an intimidation tactic. The first visit was asking Jeff Coltenback’s help to request supporters not to make any threatening remarks, which is certainly an important message but could have been relayed by phone. The second visit instructed Jeff
Coltenback to tell his supporters to stop contacting public officials with their concerns about Memphis, which is completely inappropriate to request at all, and certainly not a message to be delivered by our police department.

Thank you for your time.

Best wishes,

Beth Cruz
Shelter Showcase, President and Founder