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News & Events

BARC consultant to work for free till contract OK'd
09-02-2009

A “turnaround artist” selected by Mayor Bill White's administration to improve Houston's troubled animal pound — whose performance on behalf of the shelter has won praise from many animal advocates — will work without pay for nearly two weeks after a vote on his contract was delayed Wednesday by Councilwoman Jolanda Jones.

Jones tagged the contract using a parliamentary procedure to delay consideration of an item until the next council meeting, in this case two weeks.

The tag delayed a vote on a $135,000 contract for Gerry Fusco, who was hired last month under a $49,500 purchase order to bring significant changes to the city's Bureau of Animal Regulation and Care. The agency has been beset in the past year with revelations about animal abuse and mismanagement.

The purchase order expires Friday, meaning Fusco will not continue to get paid for the work he is doing until the City Council can vote on the remainder of his contract.

Fusco, who briefly resigned Tuesday after a contentious City Council committee hearing before being persuaded to return by White, sent an e-mail to supporters and the media indicating he would stay at BARC despite the lack of a contract. The city legal department is working to determine whether and how he can be paid during the period there is not a contract, mayoral spokesman Frank Michel said.

“I trust the city will effectively deal with its parliamentary procedures and solve the Contract issue,” Fusco said in the e-mail. “In the meantime, we have animals to care for.”

At the council meeting Wednesday, White urged council members to override Jones' tag. “We ought to treat with respect those people who we go out and recruit,” he said. “We want this reorganization to occur as quickly as possible. … I also think we run a significant risk of not being able to recruit others to do this work.”

Jones said she delayed the vote — a move council members make regularly — because questions she had about the contract had not been answered. She read an e-mail she wrote to the mayor Aug. 21 asking about Fusco's operations and what “penalties” the contract included for non-performance.

Elena Marks, the mayor's director of health and environmental policy, was allowed to explain that Fusco is working alone in his consulting capacity and that the contract requires him to bill by invoice, showing how his work is contributing to progress at BARC.

Jones declined to remove the tag, saying she thought the council meeting was not the appropriate venue to deal with her questions. She also expressed some opposition to the contract. “We're having problems with our budget,” she said. “I think this is irresponsible spending.”

Councilwoman Anne Clutterbuck proposed that the tag be overridden, but that failed to capture the required 10 votes, with several council members stating they did not want to create a precedent for overriding tags.

By BRADLEY OLSON

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