By Jeanne Sager
ROCK HILL — January 24, 2006 – It’s just too much of a coincidence, said Bonnie Swack.
A developer approaches the Sullivan County SPCA with an offer to buy the shelter off of Route 17 in Rock Hill.
Weeks later – last Thursday to be exact – the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department launches an investigation into what’s said to be years of mismanagement at the non-profit.
Swack, the SPCA’s president, said she smells a smear campaign.
Among the individuals she’s fingered is Town of Thompson Supervisor Tony Cellini, who set up a meeting between SPCA officials and Orange County developer Jonah Mandelbaum to discuss the sale of the property in exchange for a state-of-the-art shelter built somewhere else.
“The best way to drive down a price is to make it look bad,” she said. “It’s to the point where people think the place is awful . . . it’s not, the animals are healthy, they are taken care of.”
Parvo outbreaks, like the one that closed the shelter in December, are a fact of the shelter industry, she said.
The virus came in with an abandoned dog. The dogs were all inoculated. They were treated, and the dogs too sick to be saved were euthanized.
The shelter was quarantined, Swack said. They followed the proper procedures.
But the Town of Thompson has severed ties with the shelter because of the outbreak, she said.
Last week the board voted to stop using the Rock Hill shelter to harbor its stray dogs.
A $300-a-month contract was cancelled, and Swack said she was never notified.
“The courtesy could have been extended to us to meet with us,” she said.
Cellini said the town board’s decision was unanimous. From now on, they’ll be kenneling their dogs at Glen Wild Animal Rescue up the road.
“We have to have a place where we can take our animals,” he noted. “And the parvo keeps cropping up ... that place needs to be cleaned.”
Cellini said he served only as the conduit between Mandelbaum and Swack. He said there were no numbers bandied about at the meeting, and he hasn’t met with Mandelbaum since.
Mandelbaum, who is behind the Regency Estates senior housing project on Sturgis Road in Monticello, said he merely looked at the property.
“There’s nothing on the table,” he noted.
As for smearing the SPCA, Cellini said he’s been a supporter of the shelter since the days of the Board of Supervisors.
But he didn’t hide his disgust with Swack’s leadership.
“The only thing I’ve ever said is they oughta clean up that mess,” he said. “I think it’s a necessity in this community, but I think under her leadership it’s a mess.”
The Sullivan County Legislature’s meeting on Thursday was apparently unrelated.
But Swack said it’s just more “smearing.”
“We had no knowledge of this meeting to defend ourselves,” she said.
Swack said she received a phone call from a reporter asking questions about the meeting 15 minutes before it was scheduled to begin.
“I live in Callicoon,” she said. “By the time I got there, it would have been over.”
Because she didn’t make it to the meeting, Swack said she’s working with secondhand information.
“They said they requested information, and we’ve never gotten such requests . . . financial information, membership information,” she said.
“We have nothing to hide, and we’re willing to give,” she noted.
Another contention coming from the meeting was a lack of staff necessary to run the shelter.
There are three full-timers, Swack said, plus part-timers and volunteers.
“Give us the money, and we’ll hire someone,” said Vice President Rosa Lee. “The more I see, the more astonished I am that we handle so much.”
Lee said she got involved with the SPCA three years ago when she went to a meeting of the non-profit’s membership and was greeted by screaming and infighting.
She said things have changed in the last three years.
“All of the negative things I’ve heard, the backbiting and the viciousness that’s been going on . . . contrary to the viciousness, I’ve found this is a dedicated staff,” Lee said. “I’m astonished by how few people can handle so many animals.”
Swack has been working with the SPCA for eight years. She’s been president before, and she’s worked with different boards before.
Never before have things clicked as well as they do now, she maintained.
“All those accusations of mismanagement and infighting . . . there’s no current infighting,” she said.
Those who are still fighting, including former volunteers who she said are constantly putting up lawsuits against the SPCA (volunteers Swack wouldn’t name on record), are outside forces stirring up trouble, she continued.
The people on the board and volunteering at the shelter are dedicated to the animals, Swack said.
“We shell the money out of our own pocket to keep it going,” Lee said. “And what do we get in return? False accusations.”
Swack said it takes $150,000 to keep the shelter running each year.
“That’s running it the way we have to: the basics with no luxuries,” Swack said.
Moving the shelter, as suggested, would mean losing at least $20,000 a year earned for the non-profit by the sale of billboard advertising on its Route 17 property.
Swack contends that the aesthetics of the shelter are what’s causing the problem.
“The property across the way was bought up by developers, and they’re putting in half-million-dollar homes,” she explained.
Swack admitted the shelter would probably be considered an eyesore for someone looking to sell that kind of home.
But that’s no reason to run them out, she remarked.
“Let us stay here, help us build a new shelter, and we’ll rip this one down,” she said.
“It ain’t pretty,” Lee admitted. “But we don’t have the money.”
The women said it all comes down to money – the shelter is a non-profit serving the entire county, and they don’t get much in terms of funding.
As for the allegations of mismanaged funds, Swack said the only time there has been real trouble was when a former treasurer (whom she would not name on record) was taking funds from the SPCA.
But, she said, the complaints never cease.
“Nobody’s ever happy, but they’re not the ones who put in day after day . . . even when I’m not here, I’m at home on the phone,” she said. “It’s a full-time job with no pay, except the love.
“And the love makes it well worth it.”

By Nathan Mayberg
ROCK HILL — January 24, 2006 – The Sullivan County SPCA is currently under investigation by the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department following allegations about funds being misappropriated, missing materials and questionable business practices.
According to Sullivan County Commissioner of Public Safety Richard Martinkovic, he and Sullivan County Legislature Chairman Chris Cunningham said that individuals formerly involved with the SPCA made the charges and questioned them on what the county could do about the alleged criminal misconduct.
The Legislature has no authority over the organization, although it has a $15,000-a-year contract with them which expired this month. The sides are currently negotiating a new contract, but the county is hesitant after this latest controversy involving the group. Both Martinkovic and Cunningham said the county is re-evaluating its contract with the SPCA.
The county utilizes the shelter to house animals involved in county cases where individuals are arrested, evicted or otherwise are unable to take care of their animals.
Cunningham described the charges as “serious” and said he would be meeting with SPCA President Bonnie Swack and members of its board.
The county has already notified the District Attorney’s office as well as the Sullivan County Sheriff’s Department about the latest charges. The Sheriff’s Department is currently in the midst of its investigation and will turn over its findings to the DA’s office once completed. Martinkovic said a resolution could come as early as this week.
Martinkovic said the county has put a new contract on hold with the SPCA because “we don’t want to be criticized for doing business with a contractor that may be operating under conditions that may be embarrassing.”