New Officer Approved for Animal Control Position in Westbrook, Connecticut

WESTBROOK - The filling of the town's Animal Control Officer Position will not mean an unfamiliar face for residents.

First Selectman Noel Bishop announced at the Mar. 27 Board of Selectmen meeting that Old Saybrook resident Sandy Bannon-Rankin, the current interim animal control officer, was selected among four applicants to fill the vacant position.

The vacant position was created after Tanya Marocco resigned Feb. 1, weeks after being arrested on one count of cruelty to animals after a warrant was executed by the Connecticut Department of Agriculture.

While the warrant was regarding actions in her role as manager of the Valley Shore Animal Welfare League in Westbrook, Bishop suspended Marocco with pay and had hired Bannon-Rankin as an interim animal control officer on Jan. 3.

On Feb. 11, Bishop said the animal control officer position was posted and while four people applied for the job, one candidate withdrew.

The remaining three were interviewed by Bishop and Westbrook Resident State Trooper Robert Hart.

Hart agreed with Bishop that Bannon-Rankin was the most qualified of the three and has already improved animal control issues in the town.

"Before that we had a problem because we had dogs in the cruiser and we were trying to find the owner," Hart said, adding that Marocco did not always come out to pick up dogs at night.

Hart said sometimes a driver is pulled over, arrested and has a dog in the car.

This happens on town roads and on the Interstate and in both situations, Hart said Bannon-Rankin is called and she comes out to pick up the dog in her car to be brought to the town's dog pound, even if it is at 3 a.m.

Hart also complimented Assistant Animal Control Officer Phil Einsmann, Jr. who was reappointed during the meeting for a term that will expire April 4, 2009.
Selectmen, at that point, could reappoint Einsmann for another term.

"Phil is willing to step up when Sandy has to take care of her kids," Hart said.

Additionally, Bishop discovered that for an entire year, Marocco failed to submit required paperwork to the state regarding incidents that she responded to.
Hart said that when Bannon-Rankin took over, she worked on her own time in submitting paperwork to the state.

Bishop said that Bannon-Rankin's union salary position will have an annual salary of $15,702 and that she will receive a four percent pay increase on July 1st changing her annual salary to $16,330.80.

Her term as animal control officer will expire on April 4, 2009 but she can be reappointed for additional terms.

"I feel it's a modest salary for the expectations of the job," Bishop said.

In an interview after the meeting, Bishop admitted that after Marocco was suspended, it was discovered that she had been driving on a suspended license since March 2007.

Both driving on a suspended license and failure to file required paperwork to the state, could, in themselves, be grounds for her to be suspended, Bishop said.
Bannon-Rankin's resume shows that she brings much experience to the position of animal control officer.

Between March 2002 and Aug. 2003, she worked as an animal technician at the Yale School of Medicine where she provided husbandry and care of laboratory animals.

She served as the Assistant Animal Control Officer for the Town of Old Lyme between October 1999 and Sept. 2007.

She successfully completed requirements for the National Animal Control Association Training Academy and was awarded a certificate in June 2006.

She has previously been awarded certificates for Bite Stick Training, Investigation of Horse Abuse, Pepper Spray Training, and Report Writing and Review.