By JIM FAILE

DARLINGTON – A standing-room-only crowd packed Darlington County Council chambers Monday, many of them there on behalf of the Darlington County Humane Society to support its request for nearly $42,000 in additional funding from the county in the coming budget year.

But a motion by Councilman Wesley Blackwell to take the money from the county’s capital fund failed for want of a second after Councilman Le Flowers and County Attorney Jim Cox pointed out that state law prohibits using capital funds for operating expenses.

But council held out the possibility of trying to find the funding later in the next budget year from any unused funds from the current budget or from budget transfers in the new budget.

The humane society asked for a funding increase of $41,900 for the coming fiscal year, which starts July 1, in addition to the $57,270 included in the new $24.7 million general fund budget. Council approved the general fund budget on third and final reading without opposition during Monday’s meeting.

Kathy McDonald, a humane society board member and chairman of the contract committee for the shelter, said the additional money would be used to pay for salaries for the shelter’s part-time staff and to cover water and sewer costs.

County funding for the shelter has not increased since the county first entered a contract with the humane society to operate the shelter in 1997 except for the current budget year when an additional one-time appropriation of $25,000 was added to the budget for the shelter.

According to McDonald, county funding for the shelter has actually decreased by about $3,000 over the years, while operating costs and the county budget have continued to rise.

In its original budget request to the county for the upcoming year the humane society asked for a total of $169,770.

McDonald asked council to explain what happened at a work session on May 10 when council met to discuss the $42,000 request. Despite the absence of a quorum, members present at that session went ahead with a discussion.

During Monday’s meeting, Nancy Nickles presented a petition she said included about 250 signatures from county residents supporting the request. “Darlington County has one of the best humane societies anywhere around,” she said.

Michelle Hoffman of Hartsville asked council to find the $42,000 elsewhere in the budget. She said the hours she spends as a volunteer working at the shelter are unpaid hours.

“All we are asking you to do is fund the people we have employed,” she said. “The Darlington County Humane Society is a picture of Darlington County.”

She asked council to consider reducing funding for council member’s travel and conference expenses to come up with some of the funding. She said corporations are finding themselves forced to do that in the current economy.

“We’re asking you to look really deep into this,” she said.

She also asked council to consider in the future upgrading the 13-year-old contract between the county and the humane society to keep up with rising costs.

“The humane society is very deserving of the money,” said Betsy Stanton. “We’d appreciate it if you’d give us some consideration.”

Council Chairman Billy Baldwin said the budget has already been cut significantly. Those cuts included eliminating council’s $100,000 discretionary fund, he said.

“We’ve cut this budget about everywhere we can cut it,” Baldwin said. “We’re just at the bottom of the bucket.”

“I’ve given this much thought,” said Councilwoman Anne Warr of Lamar. “I have animals. I love animals. All of you are as good as gold.”

But Warr, while she praised the efforts of the humane society volunteers, said she could not support taking the money out of capital funds.

She said the county is required by law to keep the fund at its present level.

Warr said she would like to see the request deferred and allow voters to decide in a referendum in the next election on whether to raise property taxes to fund the shelter.

“Goodness gracious, this is a hard thing to work with this far into the budget,” she said.

Warr even said she would be willing to give up her salary as a council member and cut travel expenses to help find the funding, a comment which drew applause from humane society supporters.

Councilwoman Wilhelmina Johnson of Darlington said neither the humane society nor the county have followed the terms of the contract. She said it was unfair of the humane society to “come in and try to force something upon council” at this stage of the budget process.

She also said the humane society is not an agency of county government and reminded council that several years ago council agreed to eliminate funding for agencies that were not a part of county government. “You are not a part of Darlington County,” she said.

Councilwoman Mozella “Pennie” Nicholson of Hartsville echoed that the humane society is not a county governmental agency. Nicholson also questioned the fairness of funding the humane society’s request when council opted last year not to fund a request from the Darlington County Community Action Agency (DCCAA), which she said the county is required by state law to fund.

“How fair is it when we have a 501 (c) (3) organization and we’ve been providing funds for the humane society? How can we with a conscience not provide any money for that agency?” she asked.
She said other human service agencies like

Darlington County Mental Health are also not getting the funding they need from the county.

“We have to prioritize the needs of this county,” Nicholson said.

Nicholson, too, commended the work of the humane society and said she supports its efforts. She said she owns 13 cats and three dogs herself.

“We’ve got poor folk in this county. I get calls from people asking us to find money for this agency (DCCAA), and we have not given them a dime,” she said.

“With the economy the way it is, people are going to do what they have to do to eat and sleep,” Nicholson said. “But we can find $40,000 for the dogs and cats.”

She asked the humane society supporters to give council another year and come back at the beginning of the next budget process with its request.

“We just don’t have the money,” Councilman Dannie Douglas of Society Hill said. “The state wouldn’t let us raise taxes. We’ve got employees who can’t get raises.”

He, too, said the humane society does a good job. But Douglas said he would rather see the issue put to voters in a referendum.

“We do have an agreement with them to run the shelter,” Blackwell said. He noted that the humane society got its budget request in at the beginning of the budget process. He addressed questions raised by Johnson and Nicholson, including questions about how much private funding the society has raised. Blackwell said a document provided by the humane society to county officials showed the society raised $267,208 in private funding in 2009 which together with a state appropriation produced nearly $319,000 in non-county revenue. And he repeated that the society has raised about $4 to every $1 provided by the county.

“I think we have to look as a county at our responsibility with our animals,” Blackwell said.

He said that out of a $24 million budget, $42,000 seemed a small amount.

But Blackwell’s motion failed when Councilman Alex “Buz” Shaw of Hartsville withdrew his second after Flowers and Cox pointed out that capital funds cannot be used for operating expenses. “He (Blackwell) knows that. He’s just trying to get reelected,” Flowers said to Shaw and several others.

Cox also said that state law prohibits council from raising taxes to provide the funding in the coming budget year even if voters did approve it in a referendum.

“What has been asked of council is something that is not available in state law,” he said.

Shaw said he would like to see council wait until after the new budget year starts on July 1 and begin looking for funding in the new budget possibly through budget transfers or see if sufficient funding may be available in the general fund balance at the end of the current budget year. But that information won’t be known for some months until after the county’s annual financial audit is complete, officials said.