Cosy Balok is a name many people in the Gallup-McKinley County community associate with animals. For ten years she has served as the animal protection supervisor at Gallup-McKinley County Humane Society. She and her husband Clint founded it in 1988 to help homeless and unwanted animals wandering in the county and the west-central area of the state.
Cosy Balok has decided the time has come to retire. Her decision gave rise to appreciative comments by Gallup Planning and Development Director Clyde Strain, who spoke about her work.
“She did an excellent [job] and put her time in,” Strain said. “She has a tremendous love for animals.
“We’re going to miss her. She was a great asset for the city.”
Strain was also in attendance at the Nov. 3 meeting, the Gallup-McKinley County Animal Control Authority’s first in-person gathering since Jan. 2020, to take action on revisions to the Animal Control Department’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget.
The department requested a personnel budget increase of $9,000 to cover overtime costs for the remainder of FY 2022. The overtime line item was originally budgeted at $18,000 and was reduced by half to cover personnel costs.
A new administrative assistant position was created and resulted in the elimination of an animal control officer position, Strain explained.
“[The position] didn’t work,” he said. “We ended up reinstating the animal control officer and eliminating the administrative assistant [position].”
When the animal control officer position was reinstated for FY 2022, the department used $9,000 from the overtime account to cover the personnel budget shortfall.
“We’re going to need an additional $9,000 which would cover the remainder of the fiscal year [for overtime] and get us back to $18,000 which is where we were initially,” Strain said.
He stressed that the overtime funds are needed because the department conducts on-call services after work hours.
The second budget revision was for a capital outlay budget increase in the amount of $4,000 to cover the funding shortage for a new animal control vehicle.
The department budgeted $70,000 to purchase a half-ton truck, but the box that houses the animals did not fit the specifications of the vehicle. The box required a three-quarter-ton truck, which will cost an additional $4,000.
The requested budget revisions will increase the FY 2022 Animal Control budget to $715,630.
Since the city and county executed a joint powers agreement for the department, Strain explained that the city pays 60 percent of the animal control budget and the county pays 40 percent.
That means the city’s portion will be $429,378 and the county’s portion will be $286,252.
The board approved the requested revision to increase the budget to $715,630 by a vote of 3-0.
The second agenda item was for reporting the quarterly financial transactions from July 2020 to June 2021.
This report was introduced by Planning Specialist Nikki Lee.
“As you know, our Chief Financial Officer Patty Holland recently retired from her position on the board and I [was selected] to present the budget [report],” she said.
The account covered personnel, operations, capital outlay, and expenditures.
The board accepted Lee’s report for FY 2021.
The board also recognized newly-appointed board member Misty Tolson, who stepped into Holland’s former position as CFO.
By Rick Abasta
Sun Correspondent
