There was heated discussion at the Myrtle Beach city council meeting Tuesday, with the Grand Strand Humane Society.
Officials with the Humane Society wanted more than a $100,000 than they normally get through the city budget.
Several Myrtle Beach City Council members are worried about the future of the Grand Strand Humane Society. They say there are financial issues which need to be addressed by the organization. Their also worried about the organization's issues with personnel.
Susan Means, who is a city council member said, "My general concerns are that I do not see a business plan in place or a cash flow projection and I have concerns as to how they are going to operate the facility between now and when another fundraiser comes into place.”
The next major fundraiser for the Humane Society is scheduled this September. They're working on setting up others between now and then. For now they're already $90,000 in debt.
Peter Bine, Executive director of the Grand Strand Humane Society said, "75 of that $90,000 is for a building that's just recently completed. We have thousands in the bank to pay the contractor for the two buildings… Other then that we have two outstanding short term loans for $23,000 with the bank."
One of the two newly built buildings Bine talked about is for animals in quarantine. The second new building holds animals also and is attached to the room where surgeries are performed.
The Humane Society has asked for $250,000 compared to the little more than $100,000 they usually get from the city every year, to help with additional expenses.
“What happened really is the Humane Society was getting the same amount of money for the last eight years. Kind of limping along with it. What happened was our earnings or fund balance kept declining to the point where we don’t have any more…The $250,000 everything is going up in cost. We're operating on the same economy everybody else is,” Bine said.
City officials said if they don't see improvements, they may find someone else to operate the Humane Society.
"We would hope they wouldn't do that because we think we have experienced people who care for the animals and know how to do what need to be done. If they wish to do that, obviously they have the authority to do that,” Bine said.
The Humane Society plans to bring an outside facilitator to help solve some individual issues on their board, to try to reunify the organization.
Furing Myrtle Beach City Council’s afternoon meeting, they approved $175,000 for the Humane Society. However, members say they’ll only allocate only part of the budgeted funds to the Grand Strand Humane Society on a quarterly basis.
The Humane Society would then have to come back to the city for approval of remaining funds for the second quarter.
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