THE game of politics, so patently obvious in Tuesday's refusal by the Lucas County commissioners to fire dog warden Tom Skeldon, often is played out by officeholders who hope the public will soon forget about crucial decisions they made or, in this case, failed to make.
Faced with a mountain of evidence that grows higher with each dog killed at the county animal shelter, commissioners Pete Gerken and Tina Skeldon Wozniak voted no on a motion by Commissioner Ben Konop to dismiss Mr. Skeldon.
We believe the commissioners had plenty of cause to fire Mr. Skeldon. With a horrific 77 percent kill rate at the pound, and the warden's obstinate refusal to cooperate with animal rescue groups on adoptions that would at least slow the slaughter, what more do they need?
But Mr. Gerken and Ms. Wozniak retreated timidly behind the supposed need for more study of the shelter's operation by an advisory panel and what we believe is shaky advice on conflict of interest.
Blood being thicker than almost anything, it is not surprising that Ms. Wozniak was taking care of her family in declining to cast a vote to dismiss cousin Tom from the dog warden's job.
Still, we doubt the public shares the opinion she received from assistant county prosecutor John Borell that her involvement in official matters pertaining to Mr. Skeldon does not constitute an ethical conflict. After all, that advice comes from a man the chairman of the county Republican Party has accused of improprieties involving election documents.Mr. Gerken and Ms. Wozniak won't face re-election until 2012. They're apparently counting on voters to lose track of or grow disinterested in the mess at the animal shelter.
But we're here to remind the commissioners that we won't let them get away with stringing out or sweeping under the rug a solution to the pound's problems.
The commissioners' obdurate attempt to retain Mr. Skeldon only serves to remind everyone how he got the job in the first place: the power of nepotism, coupled with Toledo's longtime comfort with the Skeldon family as protectors of animals.
Mr. Skeldon's grandfather, Frank Skeldon, was the first director of the Toledo Zoo, from 1923 to 1948. His father, Phil, was the zoo's first paid director, serving from 1953 to 1980.
These two outstanding public servants dedicated themselves to protecting animals. We can only speculate what they would be feeling if they knew their progeny was destroying three of every four dogs taken in by the county shelter.
Tom Skeldon no longer deserves the job of dog warden. Failure of his officials bosses to get rid of him only prolongs the agony, not just for the animals on his death row but for the entire community.
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