KELSEYVILLE, Calif. – Executive director of the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals of Clear Lake is not a position that Dr. Glenn Benjamin originally sought.
Through a series of inexplicable events, things just turned out that way.
The operation of the facility just south of Kelseyville was in chaos when Benjamin, who also serves as head veterinarian, inherited responsibility for it.
Even for an animal medicine practitioner of 52 years’ experience – whose estimable career has brought him from Cayuga Lake (high above Cornell University in New York state) to Clear Lake – it was by no means an ordinary move.
An offer had been made to give the SPCA facility to the city of Clearlake by recent past operators. It was not a solid offer because the people operating the SPCA at the time didn’t own it. It is a 501(c)3 nonprofit.
And it hadn’t been voted on by the board of directors, partly because no one seemed quite sure there was a board of directors until a meeting May 21 of this year when four people – including then-president Gary Lewis, who served the original board for 14 years – resigned as the organization’s board members, according to Benjamin.
“It took me about three years to find out there wasn’t really a board of directors. There was just one person signing checks,” Benjamin told a Lake County News reporter during an interview at the SPCA facility. “She wanted to leave and her way of leaving was to disband the organization and give the building to the city of Clearlake.
“The city of Clearlake found this rather odd,” Benjamin added. “They couldn’t believe this was happening because the property is worth about $700,000 and there is an endowment of another $68,000 tied in, and they were going to donate it all to the city of Clearlake.”
The peculiarities of the offer have triggered an investigation by SPCA Board member Brenda Crandall, a retired police officer and investigator, and the nonprofit’s new public information officer.
“My understanding is that at one point an offer was made to release the property to the city,” she confirmed. “It is (also) my understanding in reviewing the bylaws that as a corporation that came into being in 1982 it cannot be dissolved into anything but a nonprofit corporation.”
Crandall said she had no knowledge of what was going on with the SPCA until she became a board member.
And what did she discover then, she was asked?
“Way more than I thought I would,” she said.
However, Crandall declined to offer anything specific.
“Not at this time,” she added. “I still have followup work to do before making any allegations.”
Lewis, the SPCA's former board president, said he had been asked to join the board back when he was still a member of the county Lake County Board of Supervisors. Getting interested board members always was a struggle, he said.
Finally, they got a board together. “Out of default, I got elected president,” Lewis said.
He said he and other board members heavily relied on then-Executive Director Kathey Crothers, who had been with the organization for many years.
“To tell you the truth, our board just did the minimum,” said Lewis, noting that all of the members were busy with jobs and other commitments. He said it was Crothers who kept the SPCA together while being paid very little to do it.
Lewis said that after Crothers had begun negotiating the transfer of the property, Benjamin approached him twice with the offer to run the SPCA along with a new board.
He said it was Benjamin who convinced him during the second discussion that keeping the SPCA running was a good thing.
Lewis said he talked to his fellow board members and told them he felt turning it over to a new group of board members – with new energy – was in the best interests of the SPCA.
Lewis said it was the right decision.
“They have new blood, new energy, and God bless them, they’re doing a great job,” Lewis said.
He credited Benjamin with revitalizing the SPCA. “I’m really glad about it.”
Moving forward with new leadership
After putting Benjamin in charge, a second development that brought order to the SPCA was the creation of a new board, presided over by Dana DiRicco, Benjamin's wife.
The new board made calling a halt to any talk about making a gift of the SPCA facility its first order of business.
“The proposal was that they (the former board) would transfer their assets including their building over to the city and the city would operate (out of SPCA’s present office),” said Clearlake City Manager Joan Phillipe.
“We were interested,” Phillipe added. “We had been contracting with the SPCA for them to provide certain services, which they had been doing. Part of the contract with them was for them to come back in April with a proposal for basically a full-service contract.
“We had not gotten the proposal by the first deadline in April,” Phillipe said. “During that time frame is when the offer came forward for us to take over the (SPCA facility). So we would have operated out of there.”
Phillipe said she went so far as to present the SPCA offer to the Clearlake City Council. But at that point protocol became an issue.
The executive director with whom Phillipe had conducted all communications – Crothers – would need to have authorization from the SPCA Board of Directors and a letter from legal counsel indicating that SPCA had verbiage in its incorporation documents permitting it to make a transfer to the city of Clearlake.
“In the meantime my understanding was that the former board resigned,” Phillipe said.
The new board wants to maintain an agreement with the city of Clearlake, but only as it was before discussions of turning the operation of SPCA over to Clearlake.
So, Phillipe added, “The whole concept of the city taking over that operation is off the table.”
Any question about where matters stand on the issue of transferring operation of SPCA of Clear Lake to the city of Clearlake becomes abundantly clear in a statement by DiRicco that reads as follows: “I was involved in writing a letter to the City of Clearlake informing them that the SPCA of Clear Lake is a non-profit 501(c)3 and must remain so, as that is how the corporation was set up. This was done when I heard the previous board of directors and executive director was trying to give the SPCA to the city of Clearlake.”
Crandall said the SPCA's new leadership also is working to address issues such as the “delinquent” corporate registration status with the California Attorney General’s Office for both the SPCA and its endowment fund.
In a September 2010 letter, the SPCA had been warned that the registration allowing it to do business in California would be suspended or revoked if it did not file the required Form 990 tax paperwork, according to Attorney General’s Office records.
Attorney General’s Office online registration information shows that on July 9 the state accepted from the group a new registration renewal fee report for the period from Jan. 1, 2013, to Dec. 31, 2013. For that period of time, the organization’s gross revenue was reported as $211,337, with total assets of $790,745.
Asked about the delinquent filings, Lewis said he didn’t know about them or the reason why they were late.
“We were so naive on the board, and I don’t mind you saying that,” he said.
Lewis said he hadn’t seen the organization’s bylaws until Benjamin and DiRicco showed them to him. He acknowledged that those rules and regulations hadn’t been followed by the SPCA's previous board and leadership.
Although 501(c)3 status requires close regulation, including minutes for some meetings, DiRicco said she has knowledge that there are no records of any past board meetings at SPCA by a previous board.
“I know that because I asked for them,” she said.
Seeking the community's help
Moving forward, attention also is being given to some much-needed fundraising to help it find homes for the many dogs and cats that come through its doors.
On July 20 an open house was held at SPCA that served as a launch for a brick program and a membership drive.
For $40 individuals, families or companies can adopt a brightly hand-painted brick with a personal message on the office walls of the facility.
For $20 individuals, families and companies can become members of the SPCA of Clear Lake.
“I’d like to see an open-door program for animal services where we can offer assistance to them for whatever they need,” DiRicco said. “I think that some of these facilities don’t have the resources to hold dogs and cats, so they have to put them down before they can find homes for them.”
Among the objectives of the new board is to develop outreach with other local animal rescue groups to ensure spay and neuter laws are adhered to.
DiRicco said she was happy to report that the SPCA facility has steadied itself financially under the new board.
July 22 “marked the start of our board’s second month and our treasurer-secretary says we are making money,” she said.
Another aspect of the newly revitalized SPCA is a more consistent and proactive community outreach effort.
The group now regularly sends out press releases, publishes new information – including galleries of available dogs and cats – on its Web site at http://spcaofclearlake.org/ and posts frequent updates on its Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/SPCA-of-Clear-Lake/408416852586913 .
DiRicco also is working to develop an involved board of directors which she believes is key to avoiding future problems.
“Basically, there wasn’t a lot of interest in the community to step up to the plate and serve on the board,” she said. “The community really let the SPCA down.”
She believes that in the new board there is a nucleus of animal lovers.
“It is a strong board,” she said. “They’re very active and I’m very thankful they’re here.”
In addition to Crandall and DiRicco, new board members are Buz Dereniuk, Kim Gross, Carole Mascherini, Wayne Shaffer and Fawn Williams.
Two more volunteers, which would bring the number of directors to nine, are being sought.
The SPCA also needs foster homes for animals.
Anyone interested in serving on the SPCA Board of Directors should call DiRicco at 707-275-3500 or the SPCA at 707-279-1400.
Individuals desiring to purchase bricks, donate to the shelter or foster animals should call 707-279-1400.
SPCA of Clear Lake is located at 8025 Highway 29, south of Kelseyville.
Email John Lindblom at
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