09-07-16 Personnel and Finance - Laserfiche WebLink

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Mr. Logrande stated that you have to be careful in the alleys because of the low wires and the fencing, so the pole saws (chain saws on a pole) are safer than having another crew come behind the crew to pick up the remaining brush. Mr. Eastman explained the expenditures of Animal Care and Control. They are looking forward to no major changes. There is a small increase due to personnel. Supplies costs are expected to drop, and services will increase due to a change in allocation by the IT Department. Personnel is the vast majority of expenditures of Animal Care and Control. Committeemember Voorde asked what the eighteen percent (18) drop in the cost of supplies is attributed to. Mr. Eastman stated that again, changes in the cost of gasoline account for a lot of the drop. Absolutely flat revenues are expected across the board. A small decrease in miscellaneous is expected. When we changed the ordinance a few years ago, the line item for dangerous dogs went away, but it has reappeared all of a sudden, but I don't expect that the $1,000 will actually materialize. The majority of the revenues come from pet licenses, followed by adoptions. Midyear revenues are pretty much on track to match 2015's revenues, and on track to fall within our expected budget for the year. Pet expenses are reimbursed revenues from the pet owner who is paying us for us having to pay a vet for the service. Councilmember Broden asked what a pet surrender is. Todd Howard, 521 Eclipse Place, Interim Manager /Assistant Manager of Animal Care and Control, stated that a pet surrender is when an owner wants to relinquish their animal because they can no longer care for it, we charge a $20 surrender fee. Mr. Howard continued to explain this year's accomplishments. There was an increase in return rates by promoting their Twitter account and working with local social media groups. We've been working closely with South Bend Lost and Found on Facebook. Also, anytime an animal is brought into our shelter as a stray, we post it on our Twitter page. Through that, we've had a seven percent (7 %) better return rate of animals than last year. We're hoping that the more this program catches on, the more animals that will be returned to their owners. We've reduced the cost of veterinary expenses by processing many of the tests in house. Last year we had significant remodeling of our current treatment room. We brought in different testing apparatuses to help us with different testing. In the past, we would have had to send those to a lab or to other veterinarians. This year we worked with 311 to create an online dispatching system, so we're in the process of getting away from paper and getting into the iPads. We hope we will be able to fully dispatch, track, and have better numbers for all of our calls within the same line creating better response time for the citizens. The number of animals sent to rescue and adoptions had increased significantly, especially the number of cats. 15