That neither Rondi Renaldo nor Andy Smith gave the real reasons for Renaldo’s dismissal is no surprise. I do not even want to speculate what the real reason was. Does one really fire someone “who did a fine job?”

In my experience Renaldo was always the “tool” of Andy Smith who is really the authoritarian power at “his” KHS as he so emphatically demonstrated in the board meeting last October which was attended by six solid dog walker volunteers and where my grievances about being dismissed as a volunteer after being physically attacked by a KHS employee were discussed.

Only one board member, the treasurer, expressed that it was obvious that my incident was mishandled and therefore was let to escalate. This “mishandling” was clearly orchestrated by Andy Smith.

In closing that meeting Andy Smith’s exact comments were: “I am driving this bus in one direction. If you don’t like it, don’t take it.”

I am not alone in my opinion that he and his wife (who is also a board member) are running KHS as their personal fiefdom, and that is the real problem at KHS.

It must again be pointed out that this board of directors is a self-appointed board not answering to anybody. Essentially, nobody gets on the board without the approval of Andy Smith and his wife.

Andy Smith stated that he was on the board for some 25 years. It is time for him to retire and let someone less dictatorial take over.

CECILIA NOLTHENIUS

Coeur d’Alene