Lisa Helget, a city supervisor candidate in Ward 1, charged Wednesday the Nevada Humane Society began operating the city’s animal shelter without a Carson City business license.
She termed her email on the subject a “complaint to you regarding the failure of the Nevada Humane Society to gain an approved business license from the Carson City Business License division prior to ‘taking over’ animal control services effective Oct. 1, 2014 (today).”
“That’s true,” said City Manager Nick Marano. But he said city government doesn’t shut a business down as long as it has applied, adding it shouldn’t take long to do bureaucratic due diligence given the shelter is the city’s property and has been operated by it until now.
He indicated it likely would be done today or before the weekend.
Helget said the license division confirmed the society only applied for a license on Wednesday and she was told it could take 7-10 days to handle it. She said she also was told it couldn’t be shut down and someone had to run it.
“We did have someone to run it,” Helget said. “Actually, several people to run it.”
That was a reference to the shelter previously being run by city government staff until the Board of Supervisors decided to turn it over to the humane society and approved both a lease and agreement to do so.
Helget also said she would be filing an official complaint with the Nevada Attorney General’s office regarding her contention the pact violates state law because the humane society isn’t trained for animal control, something she promised earlier to do when it was adopted.