MICHIGAN -- The Saginaw County controller on Thursday, Dec. 5, suspended Animal Control Director Kevin Wilken, an official says.
The details of the suspension, confirmed by County Undersheriff Robert Karl, are not clear because both Controller Robert Belleman and County Board of Commissioners Chairman Michael Hanley declined comment on the “personnel matter.”
“We don't discuss personnel matters in the press,” said Belleman, who wouldn't confirm the suspension.
Wilken also declined comment.
Karl said Hanley asked for his presence when Hanley and Belleman went to the Saginaw County Animal Care Center at 1312 Gratiot to suspend Wilken, who was hired in October 2012.
“When you do that, you never know how people are going to react,” Karl said.
Both Karl and Lt. Kevin Stevens went to the building along with Belleman and Hanley, Karl said.
The undersheriff said the meeting was “calm and collected” but that Wilken was “distraught” and taken “by surprise” by the suspension. Wilken gave his supervisors his keys to the building, Karl said.
Karl said Belleman appointed a senior animal control officer as interim director. The senior officer has served as interim director in the past, Karl said, and will do so “until their investigation, whatever it is, is over with.”
The undersheriff said county officials asked sheriff's officials “several, several months ago” if the sheriff's department was capable of taking over operation of the facility as many do around the country, and sheriff's officials answered in the affirmative.
“We are capable of running it and running it well,” Karl said. “But we have not been talked to about it since.”
(MLive - Dec 7, 2013)
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