Animal control job issue must be resolved

Lorain police Chief Cel Rivera this week penned a two-page memo stating Jan. 1, Officer Richard “Doc” Broz will no longer work animal control calls as part of his regular crime fighting duties.

This comes after a grievance filed by the United Steel Workers Local 6621, which represents the city’s municipal workers, saying the Police Department stray dog patrol wrongly gave a city job to an officer. Maybe we’re missing something here. Why all of a sudden is Local 6621 concerned about Broz helping to keep our streets safe by working animal control?

Jack Critelli, president of USW Local 6621, filed the grievance Dec. 1 saying the city administration gave one of its municipal union jobs to the police. Critelli wants the city to stop removing job classifications from the municipal union and return the dog warden job to Local 6621 and fill the post.

The city’s position of animal control officer has been vacant since 2005 and since then, the Police Department has assumed most of those duties for the safety of police and the community.

In assigning Broz to the animal control duties, police did not consult the municipal workers union “because they had not been a factor in providing this service for nine years,” Rivera said.

An upset Rivera said he did not intend to violate any union contracts. He also said police are “not going to argue the obvious or waste any energy defending the actions that we took recently to alleviate a dire and dangerous situation that we have had to deal with for the past nine years.”

“Officers have gone way beyond the call in order to protect and serve our community, without ever making the argument that ‘it is not their job,’” Rivera wrote.

And Rivera actually is saving tax payers money and using fiscal restraint by having an officer work animal control.

The chief also has Mayor Chase Ritenauer’s support, who says police will not have to change the way its animal control officer responds to reports of loose or vicious dogs.

We get it when the union says it wants to protect its workers. But what Local 6621 has to understand is the animal control officer is protecting all of us from loose and vicious dogs.

Broz took to Facebook to prove his point. In a recent posting, he estimated in the last two years, he has helped get 200 dogs, some appearing “vicious,” from Lorain’s streets. Isn’t that enough for him to keep his job?

“We have also reduced dogs shot by cops from over a dozen or more each year to, I believe, maybe one, if any at all in 2014,” Broz wrote. “In the first three weeks of my new duties, I saved nearly 40 dogs lost on the streets of the city.” What else needs to be said? This was a smart move by the Police Department. This officer is protecting our streets in his expanded role

Lorain Fraternal Order of Police President Kyle Gelenius got into the fray and he supports Broz and his work.

People understandably get upset when officers are forced to shoot dogs that appear out of control in city neighborhoods, Gelenius said. With Broz’ current job assignment, the animals are treated humanely and residents and officers are safer on the streets, he said. We agree.

Residents also started an online petition to keep Broz in his job, and apparently plan a Dec. 26 rally. The online petition is posted at change.org and is available at: http://chn.ge/1wG8Zrr

Police will respond to animal control calls and the administration will deal with the grievance, the mayor said.

“Ultimately, I don’t think it’s responsible to tell law enforcement, they’re not able to go out and enforce the law and they’re not able to use the officer who is one of the best, if not the best, suited to do that,” Ritenauer said. “I just don’t think that a grievance should dictate that. We’ll continue to look into the grievance and try to resolve it the best we can.”

While Local 6621 is within its rights to protect jobs, we hope it will be more realistic and consider the greater community. We’re scratching our heads at the timing of the grievance. As the International City is moving forward in areas such as revitalizing downtown and insuring the safety of residents, we don’t need negative attention on who is going to control the loose or vicious animals roaming our streets. We’re urging the parties to solve this issue, soon. There are eyes on us.