The Harford Count Sheriff's Office could soon be responsible for dealing with four-footed lawbreakers, in addition to the two-footed kind, as the county executive is planning to shift animal control responsibilities from his administration to the Sheriff's Office.
An executive order and two companion pieces of legislation slated for introduction at Tuesday night's Harford County Council meeting would accomplish the shift in responsibilities for such activities as enforcing laws about pet vaccinations and dogs running loose, nuisance animals and handling suspected rabies cases. Animal control services are the responsibility of the county's Department of Inspections, Licenses and Permits.
Though the planned change is being seen as another in a series of moves by County Executive Barry Glassman to reorganize county government and shed hundreds of positions from his payroll, moving animal control out of the county administration's sphere of influence is likely to have an added benefit: It will no longer have to deal directly with testy situations such as neighbor-against-neighbor complaints, animal cruelty cases and high profile hoarding incidents, of which there have been several in the county in recent years.
Neither the administration nor the sheriff's office would comment on the planned change.
Cindy Mumby, Glassman's spokesperson, said it would be premature to discuss any legislation that had not been officially introduced, because "things could change" in the interim.
"We are not in position to comment on this at this time," Kyle Andersen, spokesperson for the Sheriff's Office, wrote in an email Friday.
According to county government sources, the executive order Glassman signed April 2 shifting animal control to the sheriff states the change will make animal control more productive and managed more efficiently.
The animal control executive order was one of two on the agenda for introduction at Tuesday's council meeting.
By law, executive orders automatically take effect 60 days after submission to the County Council, unless five of seven council members vote to reject them.
The County Council does not make copies of legislation available to the media prior to their introduction; however, the title of one of the two bills slated for introduction Tuesday, along with the executive order, is "repeal of Animal Control Advisory Commission."
According to the county's fiscal 2015 operating budget, animal control's total budget is $622,522, about 80 percent of which is salaries and benefits for eight employees: a division chief, five animal control officers, an administrative assistant and a clerk typist.
Though Glassman and Sheriff Jeffrey Gahler are both elected officials, Glassman and the County Council ultimately have control over Gahler's agency's budget.
The shift in animal control responsibilities won't be the first change in the relationship between the county and Sheriff's Office since Gahler and Glassman assumed their respective positions last Dec. 1.
Glassman said earlier the county's 14-member security detail was being placed under control of the Sheriff's Office, and the county's IT operations are being moved from the Sheriff's Office headquarters at 45 S. Main St. in downtown Bel Air to the Department of Emergency Services in headquarters in Hickory, which sources say Gahler favored to clear space in his building.
Glassman is also proposing to reorganize the county's risk management office – its self insurance agency – which is currently under the director of administration's office. Details of this executive order could not be learned; however, the security force that is being transferred to the sheriff was formerly part of risk management.
Glassman also has been looking to outsource some county services as a means of saving money by eliminating positions and, in particular, the benefits and retirement cost obligations that go with them.