Animal shelter director suspended for guns found in van

NEWARK – The director of the Licking County Animal Shelter has been suspended for five days without pay for allowing a van owned by the shelter to be sold with firearms and ammunition inside.

John Silva was issued the discipline earlier this week by the Licking County commissioners and began serving the suspension Wednesday.

The discipline is a result of an investigation that began last month after a December 2013 incident came to light. The animal shelter had sold a van on GovDeals.com, a website used by government agencies to sell surplus materials. When going through the vehicle, the purchaser found two firearms and ammunition inside.

Those employees carry the weapons because of the dangerous situations they can sometimes find themselves in involving vicious or violent animals. Those officers also can assist police in securing animals during a raid.

The owners returned the items to the animal shelter the day they took possession of the vehicle.

The weapons were surplus firearms used by county animal control employees. Commissioner Tim Bubb said there are two employees who carry sidearms and a stun gun as well as a shotgun in their response vehicle.

The county commissioners said the vehicle sold on GovDeals was not adequately inspected before being released to the new owners and the weapons were never inventoried properly.

In a document filed with the Licking County Human Resources Department, the commissioners said Silva's "negligence" could have resulted in a "severe liability for Licking County."

Commissioner Duane Flowers said that, for him, the incident was very serious.

"If that stuff would have fallen into the hands of the wrong individual, it would have been an embarrassment to the elected officials, but to the county as a whole," he said. "We wanted to send a message to anybody who works under us: If you carry a weapon, you better know where it is."

Flowers said the incident has prompted commissioners to look at how firearms are handled and logged at the animal shelter and at other similar agencies throughout the county.

"We want to make sure they're logged in and logged out and make sure everyone knows where they are daily and not just sitting around and end up in vans where nobody knows where they end up," he said.

Bubb said another employee at the animal shelter received a written reprimand for not informing a supervisor when the guns were returned by the purchaser of the vehicle.

"We wouldn't have been caught by surprise by all this if (he had told his supervisor)," Bubb said. "It's a teaching moment to better communicate internally."

This is the third incident since October that has landed Silva and the animal shelter in hot water.

In October, The Advocate reported on security cameras at the shelter, located on Dog Leg Road in Heath, that were not recording on a consistent basis. At the time, one of the shelter's three cameras had been turned off, while the feed from two other cameras, which monitored the front desk, was not being watched.

In March, a Buckeye Lake woman filed a complaint with the Ohio Board of Pharmacy about expired euthanasia drugs being used at the shelter in 2012. Silva admitted to the use of the expired drug, saying it had been a human error and steps had been taken to prevent any future occurrences.

Flowers said the commissioners continue to look into the allegations and said the number of incidents raised recently is concerning.

"Small things add up to big things, and this ended up being a big thing," he said. "We need to look at practices and protocol, not just there but at other county agencies, too."

He said he hoped to see all of the situations resolved in the next few months.

Bubb said he hopes the lessons have been learned and the county and the animal shelter can move beyond this.

"We have to be better," he said. "There's no excuses for any of it, but we have to learn from it and do better next time."

The Advocate attempted to contact Silva on a cellphone previously used by him, but he no longer uses that number. Questions were directed to the commissioners by the employee who answered that phone.

Silva has been director of the shelter since 2010. Before working in Licking County, he spent 19 years as chief dog warden for Cuyahoga County.