Safety panel session invites pit bull owners' comments

• Councilman Alex Rolletta%3A %22It will be a meeting to listen to citizens%27 concerns. There%27s no agenda.%22
• Pit bull owners want Newark to lift automatic vicious label from their pets%2C following state%27s lead.

NEWARK – City Councilman Alex Rolletta, D-4th Ward, said he has no agenda going into tonight's Safety Committee meeting other than to listen to residents' concerns over legislation they say unfairly targets their pit bulls as vicious.

However, Rolletta said he will not allow residents to publicly air complaints against Newark Animal Control Officer Toby Wills during the session, but will instead encourage them to formally file such complaints through the Safety Department. Forms will be available at tonight's meeting, he said.

"That's really an administrative function," Rolletta said. "City Council really isn't the venue for complaints against a city employee."

Rolletta, who leads the Safety Committee, said he has not seen the formal complaints some residents already have submitted about Wills.

Rolletta scheduled today's session after residents visited the Newark City Council on Dec. 15 and said they have difficulty communicating with Wills and feel they are treated like criminals because they own pit bulls.

Safety Director Bill Spurgeon said the Newark Division of Police is processing four complaints, which are being handled by the department. Spurgeon said he does not review complaints before police have completed their investigations and officials have reached their determinations.

"When a complainant is dissatisfied with the process, that's when I become involved," he said.

Rolletta said he has invited Spurgeon to attend tonight's Safety Committee meeting, which is scheduled to follow Finance, Service and Personnel sessions in Council Chambers, City Hall, 40 W. Main St. Those meetings are slated to start at 5:30 p.m.

"Just like any council or committee meeting, people on both sides of the issue are welcome," Rolletta said.

Spurgeon said he plans to attend, but he will be there only to listen.

"I do not intend on speaking," he said. "I'm unaware of any legislation being debated. I don't know why my opinion would be needed."

Rolletta confirmed he is not working on any new pit bull legislation.

"I'm currently researching the issue," he said, "and I can say I'm going into the meeting with an open mind. That's all I can say at this point."

City law still lists pit bulls as vicious dogs, even if they have never harmed anyone.

That designation requires owners to buy special insurance and expensive dog tags for their pets, microchip them, muzzle them while walking in public and restrain them by chain-link tether, fence or enclosure, according to Newark Law Director Doug Sassen. Further, Newark limits residents to owning only one pit bull, he said.

In 2012, state legislators dropped pit bulls from being labeled as vicious dogs based on breed, but instead defined vicious to mean any dog that has attacked or killed a human or other animal.

Since then, local pit bull owners have lobbied the city to take that same step.

In December 2013, the council compromised by agreeing to remove pit bulls from automatic vicious status if they undergo formal training and annually pass a good citizenship test. Under that exemption, which took effect in January 2014, trained pit bulls must demonstrate they can tolerate strangers and other dogs, walk on a leash under control, sit and stay on command, among other requirements.

So far, three residents have used that "good-citizen exemption," Spurgeon said.

jwilliams6@newarkadvocate.com

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