Council delays decision on future of Rocky

BY BROOKS TAYLOR

Mt. Pleasant News

A sometimes-contentious meeting may have been the final regular meeting ever by the Mt. Pleasant City Council in the soon-to-be-vacated building at 220 West Monroe Street.

The council approved a contract later in the meeting to sign with Sullivan Auctions to sell the building by auction. The council agreed to pay Sullivan Auctions a marketing fee of $2,500 for its services in auctioning city hall. The firm said it would not charge a commission, instead donating that work as a community service.

The auction is tentatively planned for late October, according to City Administrator Brent Schleisman. City staff will be moving next week to its new quarters in the city-owned civic center/library building on East Monroe Street.

City offices will be located on the second floor of the structure, formerly the central office of the Mt. Pleasant Community School District.

An appeal of a dog removal by the Mt. Pleasant Police Department grabbed center stage at Wednesday?s council meeting, taking over 50 minutes of the 70-minute meeting.

After hearing testimony from both parties and the attorneys representing the parties, the council tabled action on the matter and will meet in closed session Monday, Sept. 19, at noon in city hall. City Attorney Pat Brau said the council is meeting in closed session under provisions of Iowa Code Chapter 21, section F, which reads, ?(A governmental body may hold) a closed session to discuss the decision to be rendered in a contested case??

In the past, the council has made its decision on appeals in open session after hearing testimony for both parties. However, when asked the reason for the departure from past practice, Mayor Steve Brimhall said that city officials recently discovered they had that option. The city has three days following the closed session to render its ruling in writing.

?All information wasn?t given to the council until tonight,? Brimhall said. ?We did not realize we could proceed this way until we checked with the city attorney.?

On July 27, Richard Sartorius filed an appeal after he received an order from the Mt. Pleasant Police Department to remove the animal two days prior.

The order to remove the dog stemmed from an incident on May 8, 2016, when the dog attacked Sandy Christner, a neighbor of Sartorius.

Past city councils have steadfastly enforced a ?one bite and you?re out? rule regarding similar cases, meaning if the dog bites a resident in Mt. Pleasant, it must be removed from the city.

There were plenty of discrepancies and a few heated exchanges during testimony regarding the hearing.

The most significant area of differing testimony was whether the dog bit Christner. Sartorius said he didn?t think that his boxer named Rocky bit Christner. ?I was standing right there,? he began. ?I asked her if she was bitten and she said she didn?t think so?I am confident that Rocky didn?t bite her. He has never bitten anyone. If this was a vicious attack I would not be standing here tonight.?

Sartorius said that he and his son, Brady, and Rocky were returning from an outing. When the vehicle?s door was opened, the dog jumped out and bolted into the street where Christner was passing. Sartorius said his dog is a friendly animal and has never been allowed to run unattended in the neighborhood.

Christner and her attorney, Tom Rebeling of Des Moines, a former Mt. Pleasant city attorney, had a different version of the incident.

?There are some serious discrepancies between the dog owner and the person who was bitten,? Rebeling noted. ?This is not a scratch on the arm. There is no excuse for this type of attack.?

Rebeling said Christner was walking down the middle of the street, did not have any food in hand and was not attempting to interact with the dog. ?She was minding her own business. The owner (of the dog) had to come to get the dog off her. The owner repeatedly told her not to go to the hospital. Part of the muscle was coming out of her arm. She had to go to the hospital.?

Christner said she sustained her injuries when she put her arm up to protect her face from the dog. ?His eyes and teeth were right at my face, and I put my arm up. Rick said he wouldn?t bite me and I told him he was already biting me.? She said she received two stitches at the hospital to close the wound.

Christner?s husband, Gene, arrived soon at the scene and said he was taking his wife to the hospital. He said that Sartorius said he didn?t think the victim needed to go to the hospital.

Henry County Health Center protocol states that if they treat a patient that they believe was bitten by a dog that the police need to be contacted.

Mt. Pleasant Police Officer Elijah Gnann was called to the hospital to investigate. He said S. Christner had arm and leg injuries. ?I asked her if she wanted to press charges and she said no.?

?Was it your understanding that the Christners did not want to take further action or press charges?? City Attorney Brau asked Gnann and Gnann replied that was his understanding.

Steven Ort, attorney from the Sartorius family, said the family is willing to work with the council to ensure the community?s safety. ?Sometimes overfriendly dogs don?t realize everybody doesn?t like dogs. We are not here to dispute whether the incident occurred but that Rocky is a dangerous animal.?

Sartorius also presented to the council a written opinion from Dustin R. Roth, a veterinarian with the Keokuk County Veterinary Clinic, P.C. Roth said he examined a series of photographs taken after the incident. Roth said in his professional opinion, he did not believe the injuries were caused by a bite, but rather by trauma from toenails coming in abrupt contact with skin. ?I only received limited, second-hand information on the incident, therefore the caveat should remain that my professional assessment of the photographs is limited by what I was able to ascertain from the photographs.? He also said he is related through marriage to the owners of the dog.

The council was also presented a petition signed by approximately 40 people in the neighborhood asking that the dog be removed.

Ort said the incident does not meet the specific language of the ordinance. ?If a dog bites just once, does this make his dog a dangerous animal if he doesn?t meet the other language of the ordinance??

Rebeling saw it differently. ?The ordinance is clear, the dog bit her and the ordinance says the dog has to be removed.?

In other agenda items, Jared Walker, a graduate of Mt. Pleasant High School, was hired as the new community service officer for the Mt. Pleasant Police Department. He will receive a beginning annual salary of $33,238.40.

Council members meet again in regular session Wednesday, Sept. 28, at 5:30 p.m.