Well isn't that the point? I've been accused of theft (along with many others) by the current board and their attorney. I've never handled a dime of IMHS money. Not one dime.

So, yeah. It's like deja vu all over again. Only this time I'm not going to wait 3 years before speaking my mind.

And I've been a supporter of IMHS for 20 years both formally and informally. My wife and I have donated cash, services, all kinds of goods and adopted several animals there. We were a foster home for probably a year or two.

IMHS will never see a penny from me as long as the current board is in place and I think my wife feels the same way, though I don't speak for her.

Will that hurt the animals? I don't know. But there are other more worthy organizations that help animals within and without our community that I'm sure will be glad to have our help in what ever form that is.

At any rate, I've said what I felt I needed to say. My advice...look long and hard at what the current board is doing and what some of them have done in the past and make your own decision on whether or not you approve of their ethics.

http://www.hightimbertimes.com/content/ ... -behind-it

you may need to clear cache and cookies to be able to read entire story - or try another browser.


My 2 cents

whatever happened, I am sorry that it did. The animals are the true victims and we all want what is best for them.

I hope that you can get this cleaned up and on the right track moving forward. It must be hard to manage all this when there are a lot of well meaning volunteers and others that want to do the right things, but unfortunately don't understand the importance of paperwork (we all hate paperwork!). I am sure that with the right folks; you can put appropriate processes with checks and balances to catch a mistake before it gets away from now on.

Processes are key to fixing and keeping it fixed. I hope that you are successful in implementing them.

I wish the shelter all the best.

The OFFICIAL PARKCO Investigative Report is at the IMHS,make an appt
by calling Steve Kelsey, Pres. and view the report. You will have a CLEAR
AND CONCISE account of what happened,why it happened and WHO is
responsible for this UNRESOLVED travesty. Your must be a IMHS member
to view the PARKCO report at the Humane Soc. office.

WHO is responsible? That is an easy answer for me with a background in business management and quality. It is management for having lax policies and processes to allow things to go unchecked for so long. It is so easy to just dump this on one person, but in the end, it is up to the people in charge to put processes and checks in place to flag things immediately instead of months or years later. I hope the current board understands this and does something positive about improving their chances on catching errors and mistakes when they occur.

And those people in charge at the OLD board were? President Sharon
Winterrowd....Vice President Cindy Manning....ultimately are NOT ALL the
board responsible for the travesty. I don't know,I'm ASKING.....is the
entire board in charge?

I've been in reviewing the police report myself, 4 hours total so far, and listening to the recorded interviews. My post below contains information that comes straight from the police report which is now officially public knowledge so I will be using the actual names listed in the report. If you wish a copy of the report yourself, please call Rose Avey at the Park County Sheriff's office, her direct line is 719-836-4108. They refuse to allow anyone to copy only portions of the report - it's all or nothing. The report is 3 binders, 881 pages total @ $0.25/page for a total of $220.25 + $50.00 labor for the 2 hours it takes them to copy it. Unfortunately, I do not have the money to get copies yet myself, so my information below will not include the few scans I'd planned on adding as documented evidence, so it's my notes only. You are free to look at the police report yourself at IMHS and decide whom to believe, but that High Timber Times article omitted some very significant details.

My summary is this:

5 employees at IMHS had credit cards: Of those 5 people, the only person who did not pay back what they owed for personal expenses was ***** *****. Reimbursements used to be taken directly from payroll checks, but was switched to taking personal checks from employees about the time that ***** ************* left in 2010. Each individual had a unique numbered credit card so personal purchases are unquestionably tracked to each person. The credit card statements are in the report and show store names where each person used their cards. ***** has purchases at Kohls, Target, Victoria's Secret, ski season pass at Vail, groceries, i-Tunes, Kindle books, Best Buy electronics, concert tickets, windshield, tires, fuel, athletic & sporting equip that have not been reimbursed (this information from the Officer's Notes). It's interesting that the High Timber Times focused on ***** *************'s use of the credit card, and implied that because she did it, it must've been okay. She paid everything back, as did everyone but ***** ******.

There are 117 pet adoptions for which the money cannot be located. The pets are recorded in the shelter software as being surrendered to IMHS, and there are records that they were adopted out (either at the shelter or at offsite Petco/Petsmart locations) and to whom, but the corresponding records of a deposit being made both in QuickBooks and in the bank records is missing. Scanned in below is a copy of the IMHS Adoption Income Review Procedure detailing how they reviewed the records and matched adoptions with payments recorded in the shelter software, QuickBooks, and bank statements.

There is documented cash missing from Thrift Store purchases, as records show money was brought in, supposedly placed in the safe located in the shelter, but no corresponding records of deposits in the bank account. There are also missing gift cards.

There is documented confirmation that the old board did indeed collect reimbursement for personal charges made on the IMHS credit cards, with a handwritten note by ***** ******* indicating that ***** ****** owed $2,368.50 in March of 2011. When the current board members realized that there were missing funds and attempted to locate them, ***** claims that ***** wrote a check for $3,000 - $5,000 on April 6, 2011 (she couldn't remember an exact amount, ***** owed over $5,000 by this point), but that check was never deposited - it's neither in QuickBooks nor in the bank records. The check is missing and no one knows where it is.

My question is: how is it not theft if it's understood that employees were to pay back the personal charges, at least one board member wrote a record of an amount that was due to the shelter that was unpaid, and the current board has documented that the funds were not paid back?

My next question: why did the old board never file a police report about funds, totaling $1,000 that they knew of, that they knew to be missing?


Jan 31, 2012 Officer Shawn Olivet "strongly disagrees with the decision made by the DA's office based on CO revised statute 18-4-401 (1)(a): A person commits theft when he knowingly obtains or exercises control over anything of value of another without authorization, OR by threat OR by deception intends to deprive the other person permanently of the use or benefit of the thing of value A class 4 felony if the value of the thing involved is greater than $1K but less than $20K."

Witnesses have been uncooperative with the investigation due to fears of a civil case, hence witnesses have been collaborating, advising each other of the details of the investigation and protecting each other and it is believed by your affiant ***** ****** was advised of the criminal investigation, therefore left town and will continue to be evasive unless an arrest warrant compels her to come forward.

There's more, but in the interest of keeping this story exclusive for 285Bound.com, and to not violate the Pinecam TOS with any mentions of names, my apologies, but I've edited it to remove the names, and you'll have to read the complete post there. You do not have to sign in to see the information. <a href="http://285bound.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=139&t=18442&start=20">http://285bound.com/Forums/viewtopic.php?f=139&t=18442&start=20</a>

THANK YOU SC.........the truth has FINALLY been brought forward......

season ski tickets? (at Vail????)
concert tickets?
vacations?
victoria's secrets?
athletic/sporting equipment?
i-Tunes?
electronics?


Maybe the Target purchases were for food and toys for the animals?

sad.. sad... all while this wonderful community was donating food, litter, needed supplies and yes, MONEY!!!!

I don't know if I am more angry or more sad?

Science Chic, you did a great job on writing up the info from the report! And for those of you really interested, she has more information in her topic here.

And Science Chic put a link to the Flume article that has much better information than the High Timber Times.


my bold

I strongly disagree with you, Wily Fox aka Angela. Yes, from reading the reports, the board members were indeed lax and are now uncooperative with the investigation. But, the person named in the report who stole via the credit card knew what she was doing and deserves all the criminal and civil lawsuits against her. Other employees had the same oppertunity to steal from IMHS and take advantage of the lax board but did not. Only one person did and she deserves all the blame and public outcry for her own actions.

And I totally agree with some of the comments on the High Timber Times story over at 285Bound. Ms Porter wrote her version of the facts in such a way that Kelsey-Neuman seems to be a suspect in the sorry events and the fact that now she is treasurer is questionable. Read the articles and 285Bound and you will see for yourself just how slanted and inacctuate this reporting is. I am sorely disappointed in the High Timber Times and will always question their reporting from now on.

BTW, if you cannot read the High Timber Times, I made a text copy that I am not willing to post here. If you want a copy, PM me. But please don't post it yourself.

I commend Kelsey, Kelsey-Neuman, and other members of IMHS for being whistleblowers and standing up to the public criticism they have endured. I have been a whistleblower and it is very difficult to follow through when you yourself get condemned for doing what's right. Good job IMHS BoD and current employees.

Scooby... asked:

This question has not been answered.

Did I read that an INTERNAL audit was done? If so, who was it handed to for an outside audit, and NOT the sheriff's office, before going to the sheriff?

How far back do the external audits go, if there were any?

If there weren't any for years, how does anyone know WHEN discrepancies started appearing?

Just questions that, to me, need to be answered.

Why are the names redacted here? This is public record. It's in the damn Flume for crying out loud. Why can't it be on Pinecam to make it easier for public to get public information.

I could understand if it was rumor or inuendo or unsubstantiated information, etc. But that is not the case here.

Pinecam did not remove the names - I think Science Chic stated that she took out the names in her post. It's not against Pinecam's ToS if the names are a matter of public record so it was not Pinecam that did it.

Here it is: