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AND COASTAL HWY. 410-289-2020 WWW.PITANDPUB.COM WEST OCEAN CITY – With the clock ticking on the formal date of her resignation on Nov. 30, Worcester County Humane Society Director Kenille Davies this week shed more light on the events that led to her alleged forced departure after leading the facility for the last 37 years. Two weeks ago, Davies announced at an annual fundraising dinner that she was stepping down as director of the Worcester County Humane Society after founding the organization in 1977 and serving as its director ever since. She made it clear she was being forced out by select members of the organization’s 11-member Board of Directors. Up until Wednesday’s interview, Davies has provided little in the way of details of the events leading up to her retirement, preferring instead to wait until after it became official on Nov. 30. However, with information and allegations swirling in the court of public opinion, Davies told The Dispatch she was not resigning of her own volition, but rather was stepping down in an attempt to shield some members of the Board of Directors, many of whom have been long-time friends and volunteers at the shelter, from a protracted and expensive legal battle. “They wanted me to stand up and say I was just retiring,” she said. “Well, I’m not retiring. I am being forced out. The reason I am being forced out is because I didn’t want to see all of the people involved hurt be threats of lawsuits and intimidation and court orders and losing money.” While a majority of the board voted to accept Davies’ resignation, the long-time director said this week a handful of board members, maybe as few as three of the 11-member board, had orchestrated her forced resignation. While the lines of communication between Davies and her supporters and the some of the board members had started disintegrating as early as last spring, the issue came to a head with a meeting in July and a subsequent request for her resignation. Davies said the effort to get her to step down after 37 years on the job was couched at first as a friendly attempt to get her to ease back and enjoy life and her family, but quickly turned to intimidation and aggression in the form of a threatening letter. “On July 10, I was told, not asked, to come up front,” she said. “That’s how they were treating me by then, like I was told to go to the principal’s office.” According to Davies, the conversation with one of the board members opened with a discussion about how long Davies had been with the Humane Society and if she was ready to take some time off, maybe step back and spend some time with her family. “I looked at her and wondered why she was saying that,” said Davies. “She went on and on about it and I said if I want to do something, I’ll do it. I’m so used to working that it’s part of my life. She then said, ‘well, I’ll get to the point. I’d like you to resign.’ I was so shocked. I thought a second and then said I’m not resigning. She said, ‘well then, I have a letter to give you and it’s going to be a hard read.’ I’ll never forget that.” Davies said she took the sealed letter in a blank envelope and didn’t open it immediately. She told the board member she would take it home and read it later. She never asked who it was from or where it came from. “I sat down and I didn’t know what I was going to look at or what was going to hap- KENILLE DAVIES pen, but I read it and it was very disturbing,” she said. “There was not one nice thing in the seven pages. I didn’t know what to do. There was no heading on it and no signature, no letterhead, nothing. I just assumed it came from those three board members.” Davies said the letter outlined an alleged long pattern of mismanagement, hints of fiscal malfeasance and even itemized lists of incidents involving animals. “The content was just malicious,” she said. “You did this, or you didn’t do that. It was full of petty stuff. There were charges of me being cruel to animals, which anyone who knows me knows I’m not. It said I wasn’t a good manager and that I just took the money and spent it really quick.” Ironically, Davies said around the same time the Worcester County Humane Society was in the middle of a regularly planned audit and the organization’s financials appeared to be in order. “We were in the middle of being audited and everything was going well,” she said. “The auditor said everything looked good. The only thing he said was we had to replace the money that was taken from the restricted fund.” The restricted fund mentioned by the auditor was part of a trust dedicated to the Worcester County Humane Society by a private donor several years ago. The principal was restricted, but the endowment generated as much as $50,000 a year in interest when the economy was going strong. The interest revenue was used by the Humane Society for wide variety of operating funds from food and supplies to vet bills. When the recession hit and the economy slowed, that source of income from the interest on the enSEE NEXT PAGE