Tom Hart, the former Executive Director of the county animal shelter in Jersey City, is still struggling to find out why he was terminated from his position a week ago.
The dismissal came as a shock to the people who viewed Hart’s year-long tenure as a time of rebuilding for the beleaguered facility. Fearing that the shelter would return to its former condition, dozens of residents and animal activists staged a protest outside the facility on Sunday in response to the firing. Hart attended the rally as well. "I went down because I wanted to stress the point that it’s not about me," Hart said.
As the controversy over his firing has caused a public outcry, board members have ducked questions. Hudson County SPCA Board Chairman Mary Avagliano refused to comment last week. Ed Pulver, a 15-year member of the board who resigned after taking the vote on Hart, attributed the decision to remove Hart to "financial reasons."
With board members refusing to comment, the outlying cause for Hart’s dismissal has been the subject of speculation.
Avagliano replaced Pulver as chairman of the board during the summer. Hart, who served with Avagliano on the City Council from 1981-85, said that his dismissal was a result of a "personal vendetta" Avagliano has against him.
According to Hart, the controversy arose after he discussed a financial settlement for $100,000 with the city for the services the shelter provided for the past year. The shelter is an independent entity that is supposed to be reimbursed from other towns who contract with it, like Jersey City, Hoboken, and West New York.
Alex Booth, the city’s corporate counsel, said that he met with Hart recently to negotiate a settlement, but was forced to end the negotiations when he was told that Hart did not have the authority to make such a deal.
Two days after the meeting, Mary Avagliano and Dennis Salerno – one of Hart’s childhood friends – entered the Assisi Center to dismiss the executive director, Hart said.
"She berated me for an hour," Hart said, "asking who am I to go and meet with the mayor."
Mayor Glenn Cunningham, who has visited the Assisi Center twice since he took office, said he saw vast improvements in the conditions since Tom Hart took over. Before Hart’s ascendance, the facility had been cited by the state for health violations. One shelter employee was fired for allegedly beating a dog with a shovel. And then, a report released in December of 2000 by the state’s Commission on Investigations accused a board member’s brother, a volunteer at the shelter, of having taken dog food to sell to a private guard dog company. "The Hudson County SPCA is a loosely run financial operation with no controls, no procedures and no policies," read the SCI report. "The abuses were many and the diversion of money rampant."
Cunningham said that he will ask the board to reconsider Hart’s firing, and would even allow Hart, who works full-time on special projects for the Jersey City Department of Recreation, to use two hours a day of his city-paid time to spend at the shelter. Hart had been volunteering at the shelter in his off-hours.
However, it remains unclear who is actually on the shelter’s board of directors. Pulver refused to comment and Avagliano repeatedly hung up the phone when asked to comment on matters relating to the shelter.
After Hart was dismissed, the board appointed Hector Rosario, an employee of the shelter for 25 years, as the interim director. Unlike Hart, Rosario has been a paid employee of the shelter, but did not receive a raise with the new title.
Hart said he applauds Rosario’s work with animals.
However, the board also fired six other employees after Hart’s dismissal, causing Hart to cry out that the shelter is going back to its "old ways." He fears that this will soon lead to a moratorium on his no-kill policy.
Rosario released a statement Thursday that indicated he would keep that policy intact. He assured that he "will do everything within my power as the Center’s Interim Executive Director to insure the preservation of life and dignity and health of all the animals that become residents of the Assisi Center."
The statement disclosed that the shelter is in financial trouble, however, and is in need of "dog food, cat food, cat litter, blankets, towels, cleaning supplies, paper towels, mops and monetary donations to operate the phone, lights and heat."
Hart become the executive director last summer when the shelter formerly known as the Hudson County SPCA, was in shambles. Marred by reported incidents of animal abuse, unsanitary conditions, and operating without a license, the shelter needed change fast. Hart, an animal lover with 35 years of experience in non-profit organizations, changed the facility’s name to the Assisi Center and instilled the "no-kill" policy. This has remained a controversial issue, as people saw it as a prelude to overcrowding.
Hart said he has proven that that is not the case.
After eliminating the staff he determined inadequate, he began using a web site to increase the amount of pets being adopted. Under his direction, 950 animals were adopted.
The shelter is located at 480 Johnston Ave. in Jersey City and can be reached at 435-3557.