San Gabriel City Works To Contain Animal Control Costs

San Gabriel Valley Humane Society (Photo – Cheryl Cabot))

The pandemic, and subsequent revenue shortfalls, have forced cities to review their annual budgets and find ways to use their revenue more effectively and responsibly.

By Chasity Jennings-Nuñez

Even long-standing expenses are being scrutinized. San Gabriel has contracted with the San Gabriel Valley Humane Society (SGVHS) for animal control services since 2012. When their 2020-21 contract increased by 33% to $350,000, after a 36% increase for 2019-20, the City Council decided it was prudent to investigate other options for animal control.

City budgets for animal control vary widely in the San Gabriel Valley. The SGVHS provides animal control services for San Gabriel and Temple City. The proposed contract for 2020-21 for San Gabriel is $350,000, but for Temple City, a city of about the same size, it is $276,205. Alhambra, a city with twice the population, pays LA County $160,979 for full-service animal control and sheltering. Pasadena pays the Pasadena Humane Society $1,625,887. Why is the cost for animal control services so different between cities? It is difficult to compare “apples to apples,” because the cost depends on the services provided and the service provider. In particular, the number of animals sheltered can drive the cost up significantly.

The SGVHS stated that the 33% increase requested was due to increases in minimum wage, insurance and maintenance on an aging facility, but the most significant costs were related to the care of sheltered animals. According to the SGVHS, they took in 909 live stray animals. Alhambra, a city that is twice as big as San Gabriel in area and population, only paid to shelter 478 animals with LA County in 2019, explaining the significant difference in costs between the two cities.

The SGVHS has been a part of San Gabriel for 95 years. As an independent 501(c)3 organization they care for unwanted animals, facilitate pet adoptions, and are a source of education and volunteer experiences. Their revenue comes from donations, clinic services and service contracts. Because they are such long-time institution in the city, any discussion by the city council that involved the possibility of not renewing the contract was met with strong opposition by many residents. Calls to “Save the Humane Society” and warnings to city council members that their decisions would be remembered at the next election, were echoed repeatedly in public comments and on social media. Even though the city council does not have the power to close the humane society, community members took the budget review as an attack on the organization.

San Gabriel Valley Humane Society (SGVHS) (Photo – Cheryl Cabot))

Multiple meetings held

At the June 16th City Council meeting, the annual extension of the SGVHS contract was on the agenda. The review that was usually performed with little discussion, became a 90 minute, often contentious, back and forth between councilmembers and Executive Director Cynthia Rigney. Ultimately, there was a proposal to offer only a 6-month extension, providing city staff an opportunity to research other options.

This proposal was delivered to the SGVHS Board. The SGVHS accepted the 6-month extension, but only if they could retain the dog licensing fees, usually retained by the city, estimated at an additional $40,000 for the 2020-21 year.

With the 2019-20 contract ending on July 1, a special meeting was held on June 30^th to dive deeper into the options for animal control and vote on a six-month contract. This contract passed 4-1 with John Harrington dissenting and recommending the original 1-year extension.

On October 27^th, the City’s staff presented an extensive report outlining the city’s mandated animal control responsibilities, animal control costs in surrounding cities, and an estimate for contracting with LA County or bringing the services in-house. Both options were significantly more expensive than the SGVHS, based on the reported number of animals sheltered in San Gabriel annually. The city council decided to extend the contract with SGVHS until June 30, 2021 for $175,000. For their part, the SGVHS offered to allow San Gabriel to keep the licensing fees for the remaining 6 months and agreed on an audit of services and work performed. Finally, due to the impact of Covid-19 on SGVHS’s ability to provide services, they proposed a contract for $255,000 for 2021-22, a 44% decrease over this year.

Close evaluation

While the final agreement with the SGVHS was essentially the same for 2020-21, the process of close evaluation was necessary and valuable. Questions that should have been asked in previous years were answered, resulting in a better understanding and knowledge of how the money budgeted for animal control in San Gabriel is spent. San Gabriel leaders learned that all of the surrounding cities are struggling with the rising costs of providing animal control services. They are now participating in an effort to develop a regional partnership to serve the city in the next 1-2 years. An audit of services and work performed by the SGVHS, may lead to a better understanding of why San Gabriel needs to shelter so many more animals than surrounding cities. A discussion about a catch, spay/neuter and release program for the significant number of stray cats surrendered was discussed. Finally, the knowledge learned helped the council to proactively evaluate how the pandemic has affected the services provided by the SGVHS for 2020-21, leading to a significantly reduced contract cost for next year.