JPS to eye amending animal control law

After much debate and discussion, revision and amending, the fate of a revised county animal control ordinance now rests in the hands of the Garland County Quorum Court.

The court will consider amending the ordinance to add breed- specific portions and to make licensing mandatory for all dogs when it meets at 6 p. m. today in the county courtroom at the Garland County Court House.

The court will take public comments on the ordinance, although Division 2 District Judge Ralph Ohm, the county attorney, said he thinks members of the quorum court have pretty much made their decisions on the proposal.

“It’s very unusual to get quorum court members who aren’t on the committee to sit in on these individual meetings,” Ohm said. “They’re all interested in this issue, which is great.”

Ohm and Justice of the Peace Larry Griffin, District 11, both said they believe the ordinance will pass.

“Of course, it’s easy to pass laws and make people feel good about it,” said Griffin, who is also chairman of the Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee. “But if we can’t enforce

the laws, that’s where the real problem lies. We’ve got good laws on the books, we just need to enforce them.”

The proposal was finalized during the regular Public Health, Welfare and Safety Committee meeting on July 1.

“If this is passed on Monday ( today), the ordinance in its entirety has to be published in the paper,” Ohm said.

“However, it does not go into effect until 30 days after it’s published to give people the chance to read it, understand it or challenge it if they want.”

County Judge Rick Davis, who will be presiding over the meeting, also said he thinks this is a good piece of legislation.

“It doesn’t punish the responsible owners and it gives the ability to punish those who are irresponsible,” Davis said. “But I think in Monday’s meeting, we need to focus on finally getting everything together so we can put all of this to rest.”

Davis said he feels the ordinance will help the district court to better handle future cases.

“And of course if we see any problems in the system, we can make amendments to the ordinance,” he said.

There will be quite a bit for the court to cover on today’s agenda, but Davis and Ohm both said the court should get to the animal control proposal fairly quickly.

“Our meetings go a lot quicker,” Ohm said. “All of the appropriation ordinances will probably go by title only and we should get to this ordinance, I would think, within 30 minutes of the meeting starting.”

However, Ohm said this issue will take up more time based on the number of public comments.

“It’s been debated for a long time and has been very controversial, so we’re expecting people to have a lot to say,” he said.

“But, after the first reading of the full ordinance, there could be a motion to suspend the rules and it could very well be voted on after reading by title only the following two times.

“It’s all just a part of our regular business meeting at this point,” Ohm said.