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.”