TRUMBULL COUNTY Doggedly determined to end the complaints

The 911 director says the center often get calls about dogs after the warden's office closes.
By PEGGY SINKOVICH
VINDICATOR TRUMBULL STAFF
WARREN -- Two of Trumbull County's three commissioners will meet with an employee who may be in the doghouse.
James Tsagaris and Michael J. O'Brien said they plan to meet this week with Robert Campana, the county dog warden, to find out what can be done to reduce the number of complaints about unresponsiveness from his department. Commissioner Joseph Angelo said he doesn't think there's a problem.
"We want to make sure we have an end to the complaints," O'Brien said.
Several residents and law enforcement officers in Warren Township, Newton Falls, Champion, Cortland and Brookfield say they've had problems for years trying to get someone at the dog warden's office to respond to calls during regular work hours.
Most said it's even harder to get someone from the dog warden's office to come out after hours.
"I want to sit down and talk to Bob and find out what is going on and what can be done," Tsagaris said.
Short-staffed: Campana attributes the problem to short staffing. He said there is only himself, two deputy dog wardens and one secretary to man the operation from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Monday through Friday.
The two deputy wardens are responsible for going out on all animal calls. Campana stays put to do "administrative work."
Campana said that when the office closes only one deputy warden is on call and that person responds if a stray dog bites someone or is injured.
"We can't be going out for everything because if we did our guys would be working all the time," Campana said. "We are on call for emergencies. That is what we would get paid for -- emergency calls."
Tim Gladis, director of the county's 911 system, says his department often gets calls about stray dogs after the dog warden's office is closed.
"We know that the dog warden is only going to respond to a stray dog that is injured or a stray dog that bit someone, so we try to call other nonprofit agencies such as the Animal Welfare League when we get complaints," Gladis said.
Campana noted that his office does not handle calls in Warren because the city has its own dog warden, and Niles, McDonald, Girard and Hubbard city and township contract with the Animal Welfare League to handle all animal complaints.
Suggestion: Campana said he thinks that if county commissioners hired another person to work the afternoon shift, there would be fewer complaints.
"I have been here for 30 years and when I first got hired there were six people working and now we have two," Campana said.
"We are also about the only dog warden agency that doesn't have a full-time kennel keeper. The deputy dog wardens have to take care of the kennel and go out on the roads."
James Keating, human resources director, says there is very little overtime paid to the dog warden employees, but each week one deputy gets $100 to go to the pound on the weekends to care for the animals.
Campana noted his that department is busy during the week.
"We are going out on calls and taking care of the kennel here," he said.
Comparison: Reports for October show wardens went out on more than 50 calls and have responded to more than 40 calls in November.
A report submitted to the commissioners last January shows that in 2000 the office received 2,275 calls for service and handled 858 dogs.
By comparison, Carol Markovich, Mahoning County's dog warden, says she has four deputy wardens who go out on calls and one deputy who runs the kennel.
Markovich, who has been the dog warden since 1990 and earns $48,000 annually, says her office handled 348 calls in October. Totals for November are not yet available.
"We handle all of Mahoning County, including Youngstown," Markovich said.
sinkovich@vindy.com