The embattled leader of the Montgomery County Humane society said Monday that he had resigned after more than three years on the job.
J.C. Crist, the former CEO and President of the organization, faced growing criticism from former board members. An article in The Examiner on Monday revealed questions about Crist’s reporting of adoption and euthanasia rates, a 40 percent drop in donations and spending half of the group’s $1.8 million in cash and equivalent assets since he took office in 2005.
Crist says he spent the money to improve care at the facility, building an overflow shelter to house more animals, taking in animals from foreclosed homes, and roughly doubling the amount the shelter spent on medical care. His critics, who include a vice-president of the Humane Society of the United States and two other former board members, said he refused to provide them with detailed financial documents necessary to ensure the shelter’s success.
“It is a difficult position because you’re damned if you do, damned if you don’t,” Crist said. “ I need a break. I haven’t had a day off in 3 and a half years. I have built this infrastructure and I know the current board can make these changes that I have recommended.”
Nick Gilman, president of a consulting company called Humane Logic that works with local humane societies, will be the Montgomery County Humane Society’s interim executive director while board members search to find replacements for Crist.
Gilman said he will push for separate people to be the group’s CEO and president instead of lumping both positions into one as they did with Crist. He said there will be a national search for a CEO who can help the group with “influence, connections and so-on.”
Donations dropped from about $235,000 in 2005 to about $140,000 in 2007, while Crist was at the helm.
Former board member Rob Blizard, who resigned this Spring after clashing with Crist over access to financial documents, said Crist’s departure was a “big step in the right direction.”
Margaret Zanville, an outspoken critic of Crist who was president of the organization for 14 years before him, acknowledged the job is difficult.
“There will always be somebody who could do it better,” Zanville said. “There has never been any more in-fighting in any group, than animal groups. There’s not enough tea in China to get me back in that place.”
