Areas of Healdsburg outside city limits subject to county
Sonoma County Animal Services (SCAS) has been busy this summer under the new leadership of Animal Services Director John Skeel, who was hired at the end of July.
Skeel was offered the position by Sonoma County Department of Health Services (DHS) after a national search and community input process.
Serving almost 4,000 animals a year, SCAS provides the Town of Windsor, City of Santa Rosa and the unincorporated areas in Sonoma County with field and animal licensing services. (For information about dogs inside city limits, see sidebar).
Skeel is one in a staff of 39 employees – including two veterinarians and 11 animal control officers – and about 250 active volunteers.
Originally from England, Skeel has 27 years of experience in all areas of administration, planning, budgeting, development, operations, marketing and research in the United States.
He has worked as a director at the administrative level in multiple parks and recreation and community services positions across the country. Skeel’s position at SCAS is the first time his skills will be applied to the area of animal services, and he said he has taken a measured approach while tackling the new field.
“I wanted to get in here and listen to the staff, listen to the community and gather as much information as possible – really trying to understand where we’ve had successes and where our needs are,” Skeel said.
Under his role as director, Skeel is responsible for providing key leadership and oversight of SCAS.
In addition, he is responsible for the budget and achieving program goals and objectives – focusing on community engagement, reducing the number of strays and surrenders, increasing release rates and increasing compliance.
“It’s been really exciting to learn a new business and see how my experiences from other places that I’ve worked over the past 27 years can fit in here,” Skeel said. “I think they do fit; they are transferable. We certainly do have challenges here, but I think we’re winning the battle.”
Skeel said that with a lot of turnover in his position over the last few years, and a variety of approaches from his predecessors, it was important for him to create a shared vision with the staff regarding future plans in order to maintain enthusiasm and high morale.
SCAS Operations Manager Brian Whipple, who Skeel noted is his right-hand man in all operations, explained that a lot of what SCAS is working towards is seeing how their services can grow and how to do so with the partnership and support of the community.
“To me, our overall mission is that we are the people that will help your animals and help you when you’re in need,” Whipple said. “If we can’t do it here, we’ll make sure we give you a resource to contact who can do it. Having John (Skeel) here to be able do that and backing up James (Dress) on the community engagement side, that’s where we’re going. It’s huge for us to get there.”
One of the biggest tests of the SCAS’s functionality in recent years happened during Skeel’s tenure, assisting Lake County during the Valley Fire.
Whipple explained that 11 officers rotated during the period between Sept. 13 and 27 to help the neighboring county with anything related to animal services, including housing animals displaced by the fire.
“That was something out of the box where we had to respond quickly,” Skeel said. “We were able to continue our own operations, keep officers in the field and keep this place running … so I’m really proud of that.”
Skeel’s and Whipple’s long term goals include taking a look at the organizational structure of the staff and the facility and using data-driven information to improve programs and services.
“We’re not the people just picking up a stray dog or writing you a ticket,” Whipple said. “We just want to educate everyone, let them know what we do and how we do it and show the community that there are other opportunities with animal services.”
Skeel also hopes the staff can bring to light a new community outlook on the services that the organization has to offer. “Many people don’t know who we are or what we do, or they have this old perception of what the county kennel, shelter, pound was like,” Skeel said.
“When they come here, we want to give them an experience and show them a different side than they imagined. Even though when you drive up here there’s a chain link fence and (barking), when you get inside you find a very caring, compassionate staff who really understands the needs of animals and the people who take care of them.”
