09-05-18 Personnel and Finance (#6)

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CITY OF SOUTH BEND I OFFICE OF THE CLERK shadowed areas for them to dump but really they are all over the City. We've plugged them into GIS to see if we could pinpoint an exact area where it might be more clustered than others and it truly is just all over. Committeemember Williams-Preston asked, Where in the budget do we contract with people to help mow lawns? Ms. Johns replied, We don't contract. That is actually through the Parks Department. Jen Goebel, Manger of South Bend Animal Care and Control with offices located at 521 Eclipse Place, stated,Tonight I will be talking about our goals and challenges for 2019. Our primary goals I will be going over consist of a new ordinance, online licensing, and full-time position added to the staff. So our accomplishments for 2018 include many of the staff receiving additional training. Some of the officers have actually gone to some of the specialized training that I went to as far as animal cruelty investigations.Other staff members have attended conferences in which we've been able to learn how to fast-track our animals, increase our adoptions and also treat our animals medically.Adoption numbers have increased by sixty-three(63%)compared to this time last year. I have staff doing an exceptional job moving animals very quickly through the shelter. We have a very small facility. We handle about 1,200 dogs per year and we are run through a 9,000 square foot facility. Compared to the Humane Society,they run about 1,300 dogs through a 32,000 square foot facility. So our staff does a very good job hustling to get animals in and out of the shelter because our space constraints are very tight. She continued, Since adding the fourth (4th) officer, we've also increased our licensing over seventy-four percent (74%) as compared to last year. Officers are out in the field and doing their rechecks and following up on their complaints and issues we are having in our neighborhoods regarding animals. Enforcement with our AWAs and our citations have considerably increased because of this new addition that was put in 2018. We began updating our forms to make it easier for the public to fill out and turn in. We are trying to add those things online so people are able to download those and email them to us. We are trying to convert those forms for our Spanish- speaking residents as well. She went on, We have a higher cost of any animals for adoption. The bottom line is it is a lot more cost-effective to euthanize animals but that is not our goal for the shelter. The cost of vetting the animals is there. So, our challenge is to try and offset those costs. Regarding the staffing changes, we are looking at adding one(1)full-time position and some extra part-time kennel attendants.We have a part-time adoption coordinator who is handling a job that has pretty much doubled by the fact that adoptions have increased by sixty-three percent (63%). Her workload has doubled, so we've had a part-time person doing the job of a full-time person. The other goal we have is the new ordinance. Hopefully with the new ordinance we will close a lot of the loopholes we are experiencing with some of our animal owners in our community and it will give us more enforcement opportunities, all in hope to improve the welfare of many of our community's animals. She continued, Some of our changes and opportunities includes our transition down from one (1) van to a truck. We should be getting the second (2nd) one (1) as well, so, we will cut costs down. A lot of our vans are ten (10) plus years old with Lord knows how many miles on them. Upkeep for that will hopefully be a lot less than what we are pouring into these old vans. We are working EXCELLENCE I ACCOUNTABILITY I INNOVATION I INCLUSION I EMPOWERMENT 455 County-City Building 1227 W.Jefferson Bvld I South Bend,Indiana 466011 p 574.235.92211f 574.235.91731TTD 574.235.55671 www.southbendin.gov 8