New director on horizon at shelter

Ben Godar

The Burbank Animal Shelter, which officials say has lacked direction

for more than year, might finally find its new superintendent among a

group of seven applicants interviewing Tuesday.

The shelter has been without a top administrator since December

2001, when longtime Supt. Fred DeLange resigned to run the Glendale

Humane Society. The Police Department supervises the Burbank shelter,

and in January, Capt. Gordon Bowers was assigned to oversee it after

officials became aware that some administrative tasks were not

getting done.

Since DeLange’s resignation, Humane Society officials have

conducted two rounds of interviews and even selected two candidates,

only to have both eliminated during the background search process.

Officials have since raised the salary from $58,000 to $73,000, and

altered the qualifications to focus more on management experience and

less on a background in an animal-shelter environment.

Of the seven candidates, one is internal, Bowers said. They were

selected from a group of 28 qualified applicants, a pool Bowers said

makes him confident a hire will be made this time around. He declined

to give the names of the candidates.

The candidates will be screened by a four-person committee with

animal and management expertise. The top three scorers will be

invited back as soon as possible to interview with Bowers.

The final selection will then be put through a background check

that should take about 60 days.

Despite being without a superintendent for about 18 months,

Bowers said animal care at the shelter has not suffered.

“The only things that have been behind the eight-ball are the

administrative tasks and the long-term leadership tasks,” he said.

“We need someone to set goals for the next few years.”