AGENDA ITEM NO. 10 CITY OF HAWTHORNE CITY COUNCIL AGENDA BILL

Transcription

1 AGENDA ITEM NO. 10 CITY OF HAWTHORNE CITY COUNCIL AGENDA BILL For the meeting of: July 22, 2014 Originating Department: Police Department City Manager: Michael Goodson Chief of Police: Robert Fager SUBJECT Agreement between City of Hawthorne and the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals Los Angeles (SPCALA). RECOMMENDED MOTION Approve Agreement between City of Hawthorne & SPCALA. NOTICING PROCEDURES A notice was not required to be posted or published FISCAL IMPACT $5,800 per month, plus $16.50 per day / per animal, held in excess of the legal holding period at the City s Request. However, concomitant savings to City on cost of fuel and personnel time in transporting animal to former facility in the City of Carson. ATTACHMENTS 1. Staff Report 2. Agreement between City of Hawthorne & SPCALA. Page 1 of 1

2 STAFF REPORT City of Hawthorne To: Through: From: HONORABLE MAYOR & CITY COUNCILMEMBERS Michael Goodson, City Manager Robert Fager, Chief of Police Date: July 22, 2014 Subject: Contract Approval SPCALA RECOMMENDED MOTION City Council approve the City to enter into a contract with SPCALA. SUMMARY REPORT The Hawthorne Police Department currently contract with the County of Los Angeles Department of Animal Care and Control (DACC) to house any animals collected within the boundaries of our City. Collected animals includes animals that are impounded, lost & found, or deceased, whether or not they were brought to the housing facility by City of Hawthorne Animal Control Officers (HACO) or by private citizens. The housing facility we currently use is the Carson Shelter, which maintains a physical address at 216 W. Victoria St. Gardena, CA The City of Hawthorne s current contract with DACC is on a pay by animal fee. Our monthly invoice changes each month depending on the number of animals that are taken to the facility, the length of stay of each animal, and the number of times that a DACC s Animal Control Officer (DACC ACO) was called out after hours to assist us. Although there is a contract in place, this contract discusses the business relationship with DACC and is not a binding contract that locks us into using their facility until the contract expires. In fact, this contract can be modified at any time to accommodate our new business practices. Currently, our HACOs don t have a location in the City to house impounded animals, strays, lost & found animals, or dispose of the deceased animals; therefore our HACOs transport any collected animals to the Carson Shelter (located in Gardena) which generally takes them 20 minutes each way. When they arrive at the shelter, they have to wait in line to process the animals and they have to book the animals into the shelter. Booking procedures include Page 1 of 4

3 feeding, watering, photography, housing, and entering the animals information into the computer. Typically, this will take minutes per animal. Our HACOs respond to this location at least once per day. The HACO s collect the animals throughout their workday and then unload at the county facility toward the end of their day. However, whenever aggressive, critical care animals or other exigent circumstances present themselves, the HACOs may have to make several trips to the county shelter throughout their day. Each trip takes about 1 ½ hours more if they are dropping off more than one animal or if there is a wait line for the booking process. SPCALA facility advantages: Location SPCALA is local which saves driving to and from the Carson Shelter, which is approximately minutes each way, depending on traffic. Booking The booking process at SPCALA takes only about 5 minutes to complete, whereas the booking process at the Carson Shelter takes about 20 minutes. Recovery Citizens who are attempting to locate their lost animal currently have to drive down to the Carson Shelter to recover the animal since this is the location that all animals are housed. If we were to use SPCALA, our citizens could pick up their animals within our City limits. Strays Citizens who find strays in our City generally respond to SPCALA to drop off the animal. They are turned away from the shelter and told to respond to the Carson Shelter approximately 20 minutes away. The citizen who was not prepared to commit their afternoon to dropping off the stray will either let the animal loose, lie and say it was found in Lawndale, or tie it up somewhere in the City of Hawthorne. Each of these options has consequences that we can avoid by transitioning over to the SPCALA shelter. By letting the animal loose, the animal could run in traffic and sustain injury or death, cause a collision, or become a public nuisance by attacking a passerby. If the citizen lies about the recovery location, the SPCALA will collect the animal, but then the owner will not know to look for it at SPCALA. The owner will be directed to the Carson Shelter while the animal waits possibly indefinitely, to be picked up. Additionally, this causes the City of Lawndale to pay for an animal that is actually the City of Hawthorne s responsibility. Lastly, if the person ties up the dog, we will have to dispatch one of our HACOs to pick up the animal once someone discovers it and reports it to us. If this discovery takes a significant amount of time, the animal could become malnourished and dehydrated. Our HACO will spend the next 1 ½ hours dropping off a stray, that could have been dropped off by the citizen at the SPCALA shelter. Holding Period the Carson Shelter has a holding period of 5 days before the animal is subject to be destroyed. They can hold the animal longer, but generally, the 5 day rule will apply. SPCALA s average shelter stay is 21 days and has extended as long as a year while they attempt to find the animals a suitable home. Page 2 of 4

4 One thing that we had to consider was our ability to use DACC ACOs for animal control when our HACOs were unavailable. We feared that if we amended our contract with DACC, we would not be able to use their services anymore. I spoke with Whitney Duong at DACC and she assured me that we would still have access to their services. We would be billed for their use, just as we do now; the only difference is that the responding DACC ACO would bring any collected animals to SPCALA instead of their Carson Shelter. In other words, we would no longer be housing any animals at their facility, whether we collected them or if they were collected by DACC ACO or even by private citizen all animals would end up at SPCALA. I also learned that the Cities of Manhattan Beach, Lawndale, Culver City, El Segundo, and West Hollywood all use the same SPCALA location here in Hawthorne. We are hoping to establish a working relationship with City of Manhattan Beach and the City of El Segundo so that we can share our resources during our off hours. After realizing that this appears to be a logical choice for us with no disadvantages to speak of, the next course of action was to consider cost. Page 3 of 4

5 I utilized the prior three fiscal years (2010, 2011 & 2012) while preparing this comparison cost analysis. Los Angeles County Animal Control Carson Shelter FY FY FY Jul 10 $ 16, Jul 11 $ 5, Jul 12 $ 4, Aug 10 $ 7, Aug 11 $ 10, Aug 12 $ 6, Sep 10 $ 4, Sep 11 $ 6, Sep 12 $ 3, Oct 10 $ 5, Oct 11 $ 3, Oct 12 $ 6, Nov 10 $ 6, Nov 11 $ 4, Nov 12 $ 5, Dec 10 $ 6, Dec 11 $ 5, Dec 12 $ 3, Jan 11 $ 4, Jan 12 $ 4, Jan 13 $ 3, Feb 11 $ 2, Feb 12 $ 2, Feb 13 $ 2, Mar 11 $ 5, Mar 12 $ 4, Mar 13 $ 2, Apr 11 $ 3, Apr 12 $ 5, Apr 13 $ 4, May 11 $ 4, May 12 $ 5, May 13 $ 4, Jun 11 $ 3, Jun 12 $ 13, Jun 13 $ 5, Fiscal Year LAC Monthly Average SPCA Monthly Cost SPCA Advantage FY $ 5, $ 5, $ FY $ 5, $ 5, $ FY $ 4, $ 5, $ (1,561.07) 3 yr. Average $ 5, $ 5, $ (415.72) FY Comparison Fiscal Year LAC per year SPCA per Year LAC vs. SPCA FY $ 71, $ 69, $ 1, FY $ 71, $ 69, $ 2, FY $ 50, $ 69, $(18,732.85) 3 yr. Total $ 193, $ 208, $(14,966.07) If we were to use the SPCALA facility, we would drop our animals off as soon as we get them rather than store them in the truck or kennel until the end of the day. Assuming the same figures above, there are 940 animal incidents per year. An average of 5 minutes per incident multiplied by the HACO s wage is approximately $2,462 per year. This equates to a savings of $9,012 dollars per year for processing of the animals, or a monthly savings of $751. Subtracting this figure from the average monthly housing costs reveals an average savings of $335 per month if we were to switch to SPCALA. Page 4 of 4

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