08-08-11 Common Council Meeting Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING AUGUST 8, 2011 that will allow the City of South Bend to better serve its 101,168 residents based on the 2010 Census as well as its estimated 25,575 canine residents and estimated 28,853 feline residents not including feral cats. She stated that unfortunately they are euthanizing over 2,500 animals a year and have 19 kennels. She stated that everybody can build a shelter to make money or build a building to try to make money, it’s not always about money, and it’s about bringing down the euthanasia rate. She stated that she wants to become a model city for animal welfare and to balance safety in our neighborhoods they are Animal Care and Control along with the human treatment of animals. To ensure our neighborhoods are safe places to live and play, to ensure pet owners take care of their animals. To make sure that abuse, neglect, fighting and abandonment are not tolerated by us or our residents. She stated that they want to provide a safe haven for all animals. She stated that they want to improve access to low cost spay neuter resources, both public and private. Increase the live transfer rate to other rescue group. Establish a community where pets and all animals are valued and respected and their importance is interwoven into the fabric of our community. She quoted Charles Darwin “The love for all living creatures is the noblest attribute of man.” She reiterated approximately a little over 101,000 resident of the City of South Bend and their per capita rate is $5.00 per person. The Human Society is $6.67 based on their annual report. The cost for handle per animal that comes into the shelter right now is $125.00 per animal. The Human Society’s is $200.00 per animal. She stated that based upon the Crow Horvath Report that was presented tonight, by the Mayor; there are approximately 191,000 differences every year. That will pay off a new facility in ten years and this facility is needed for the residents of the City of South Bend human, canine and feline. She stated that they have proven themselves to provide the level of service that the community expects, it has been 15 years, she stated that the Chamber’s are full of supporters tonight who have sat here for a very long time and the Council is aware of all the e-mail’s, some clearly not from South Bend, but the majority were from South Bend and St. Joseph County in support and worked well with many organizations. She asked for the Council’s favorable support of this Resolution tonight. Mayor Luecke advised that they believe that there is room for two Animal Care and Control facilities but a need for two Animal Care and Control facilities in terms of accessibility, in terms of care for the animals, in terms of improved adoption rates and fewer animals euthanized. He highlighted some points from the Crow Horwath report that is a simple budgetary analysis that shows the current cost of operation and the expected operation cost with the new facility and then compares with the proposal by transporting animals to the Human Society. He stated that Exhibit A shows approximately $63,000 in revenue during the year and that is everything from licenses to pet reclaim fees to pet adoptions and other fees that go into that $63,000 revenue. Budgeted Operating Expenses are approximately $524,000 and noted that the first two lines are the largest expenses and they are salaries and wages and benefits for the employees and have 8 ½ full-time employees for Animal Care and Control. He stated that when you net out the annual cost of operation is approximately $461,000 for the current facility. Exhibit B then looks at operations for the new facility. The base line is approximately $63,000 in revenue and believe that because of the new space there would be the opportunity for more adoption and hold animals longer for more opportunity for reclaims of those animals as well and also more opportunity for donation. So they have estimated a 15 % increase in revenue and can see that under Estimated Revenue Increases and bring the total estimated revenue to approximately $69,000. The show budgeted operating expenses the same for the current facility and that is because now they believe that it is a much more efficient facility that the utility cost would be equal to or less than the current facility and obviously the maintenance cost would be much less with a brand new facility than with the existing structure. So when you net out the revenue from the operating expenses you come to a net cost of about $455,000 per year for the new facility. Then as they looked at the cost of transporting animals to the Human Society and he wanted to clear of the assumptions that he would be making in this that the staff at SBACC and he believes that they would still need to maintain the existing facility for animals in between times when they are able to transport them. So they are not off- loading that expense of the existing facility. He stated that they would still need 7 ½ full time employees to run the operation, and that is the five (5) animal control officers, who receive phone calls, dispatch the care, and send out notices and all the paperwork 27