HomeMy WebLinkAboutFS 2010-03-16 COMPLETE AGENDA PACKET1. PRESENTATION(S)
2. BUSINESS AGENDA
City of Tukwila
Finance and Safety
Committee
O De'Sean Quinn, Chair
O Allan Ekberg
O Kathy Hougardy
Item
a. Update on Somali Community Meetings;
Don Lincoln, Assistant Chief of Police,
AGENDA
TUESDAY, MARCH 16, 2010
CONFERENCE ROOM #3; 5:00 PM
b. Animal Services Update;
Shawn Hunstock, Finance Director, C.O.W. for briefing.
Next Scheduled Meeting: Tuesday, April 6, 2010
15. The City of Tukwila strives to accommodate individuals with disabilities.
Please contact the City Clerk's Office at 206 433 1800 for assistance.
Distribution: D. Haynes J. Pace
D. Quinn S. Hunstock D. Speck
A. Ekberg M. Hart R. Still
K. Hougardy S. Kerslake D. Tomaso
D. Robertson K. Kertzman M. Villa
Mayor Haggerton T. Kinlow Judge Walden
S. Lancaster K. Matej B. Arthur
C. O'Flaherty M. Miotke C. Parrish
S. Brown G. Labanara K. Narog
J. Ferrer -Santa Ines D. Lincoln S. Kirby
B. Giberson N. Olivas S. Norris
I Action to be Taken Page
a. Information only. Pg.1
b. Forward to 3/22/10 Pg.3
Committee Goals:
Work together in cooperation with nearby cities to address common problems in the Highway 99 corridor and Military
Road.
Ensure a commitment to continued human services funding in relation to the cost of living through consistent review
of regional, state and federal budgets affecting human services progams and services (also assigned to CAP).
Research the viability of sponsoring a City-wide Citizens' Academy (also assigned to CAP).
TO:
FROM:
DATE:
SUBJECT:
Respectfully submitted.
City of Tukwila
Police Department
An Accredited Agency
MEMORANDUM
Finance and Safety
Assistant Chief Don Lincoln t Ns
March 10, 2010
Police /Somali Community Meetings Information Only
Jim Haggerton, Mayor
David W Haynes, Chief of Police
The purpose of this presentation is to inform members of the committee of the processes,
challenges and the way ahead regarding relationship building between the Police Department
and the Somali Community.
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TO:
ISSUE
BACKGROUND
City of Tukwila
INFORMATIONAL MEMORANDUM
Mayor Haggerton
Finance and Safety Committee
Committee of the Whole
FROM: Shawn Hunstock, Finance Director
DATE: March 10, 2010
SUBJECT: Animal Services Update
Jim Haggerton, Mayor
For several years the City of Tukwila has received animal control services through an
interlocal agreement with King County. The City also shares the cost of an animal
control officer with the City of SeaTac for enhanced services. These enhanced services
include a dedicated County animal control officer split between Tukwila and SeaTac.
Due to budgetary constraints and ongoing concerns with operational issues at the King
County animal shelter, King County will fundamentally alter how they provide animal
control services to cities that continue to contract with them. Specifically, the County will
close their animal shelter to cities by June 30, 2010 unless a regional strategy to
provide animal control services can be created, negotiated and implemented. As well, if
Tukwila continues to contract with the County for animal control field and licensing
services after June 30, 2010 as part of a regional strategy, the City's current contract
must be renegotiated so that service costs will be paid for on a "full cost recovery" basis.
Given these upcoming changes in how animal control services may be provided if the
City continues to contract with King County, administration is presenting a variety of
options for how the City could provide this service to the residents of Tukwila, and what
the related costs would be. As part of this analysis, the City is participating with several
other cities and King County in a staff work group looking at a regional animal services
model. The work group's purpose is to develop a policy approach for a regional animal
control system and a system model that identifies service expectations, costs, and cost
allocation. The City is also engaged in a dialogue with other south King County cities on
what a SCORE or ValleyCom model might look like and cost for addressing animal
service needs in the south county area.
For several years the City of Tukwila has received animal control services through an
interlocal agreement with King County. This agreement, which has never been
amended or altered, provides the City with animal care and control services (field
services), sheltering services at the County's animal shelter in Kent, and animal
licensing services. To pay for these services, King County collects all revenue from
INFORMATIONAL MEMO
Page 2
animal licensing fees generated by Tukwila residents. Tukwila is not charged any
additional cost, however, if these licensing fees do not cover the cost of the service
provided. The only additional cost to the City is for the animal control officer we share
with the City of SeaTac, per our agreement with King County. The City currently has
budgeted $38,000 per year for the cost of this "enhanced" service.
Due to budgetary constraints at the County and past concerns with operational issues at
the King County animal shelter, King County has decided to no longer provide this
service to cities under their existing interlocal agreement. The County has been
subsidizing animal control service to all cities in King County that contract with them by
approximately $1.5 million annually from their general fund, which is not sustainable for
the County's operating budget.
To move forward with this change, on November 9, 2009, the King County Council
passed Ordinance 2009 -0594, which stated that by January 31, 2010, the County will
no longer operate an animal shelter and that cities must find another option for the
provision of animal sheltering services. The ordinance also stated that if the County
continues to provide contract animal control field and licensing services to cities, by
June 30, 2010, those services must be fully reimbursed by the cities on a "full cost
recovery" basis. However, through ongoing discussion with King County, cities and the
non profit animal shelter providers in the community have worked with the new King
County Executive to alter this initial County Council mandate.
Thus, the King County Council and Executive have placed the following newer
mandates on cities that want to continue to contract with King County for animal control
services:
By June 30, 2010, a regional strategy to provide animal control service that
includes both the County and a feasible number of cities must be created,
negotiated and implemented.
To utilize the current King County animal shelter, which will most likely continue to
be operated by the County, cities must be a part of the regional strategy.
In addition to the County's existing animal shelter, additional non profit community
shelter capacity, where available, is desired to be a part of the regional strategy.
By June 30, 2010, as part of the regional strategy, animal control field and
licensing services and shelter services must be paid for on a "full cost recovery"
basis.
DISCUSSION
Given these upcoming changes in how animal control services may be provided, the
administration wanted to present various options for providing this service to the
residents of Tukwila, including the County- focused regional strategy, and what the
related costs would be for these service delivery options. Although this analysis is still
ongoing, the administration is interested in having staff provide an update to Council on
this issue so that Council can be briefed on the larger issues related to animal control
and have a chance to ask questions of staff.
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INFORMATIONAL MEMO
Page 3
A brief overview of the services currently being provided by the County follows. These
services fall under three broad categories; animal control field services, sheltering and
licensing.
Animal Control Field Services
The function of animal control field services is to proactively patrol the animal control
service area in King County and respond to animal control calls for service. Animal
Control officers provide service in King County from 7 a.m. to 9 p.m. seven days a
week, with emergency services provided 24 hours a day, seven days a week by on -call
officers. To accomplish this, King County has 15 staff members working in field
services; 12 Animal Control officers and three (3) staff members in the County's call
center receiving calls for service. On occasion however, some of these Animal Control
officers will be pulled into the King County animal shelter to assist with shelter
operations.
Animal Control officers respond to the following types of requests:
Animal cruelty investigations
Response to barking dog
Injured animal rescues complaints and petitions
Response to bite reports
Assist Police Officers when vicious animal complaints requested
Pick -up for stray animals
"Dead -on- arrival" loose livestock, cats and dogs
Leash law violations
Given King County Animal Care and Control's limited resources to manage these
response calls, Animal Control officers prioritize daily field operation responses.
Priorities are identified on a 'higher priority' and `lower priority' basis, with higher
priorities calls relating to public safety and animal welfare. Specifically, higher priority
calls include animal bites, vicious dogs, injured animals, requested police assistance,
and animal cruelty.
In 2008, King County received a total of 346 calls for service from Tukwila residents. 23
of these calls were related to animal cruelty, 19 were related to vicious animals, 7 were
related to animal bites, and 17 were related to an injured animal, with the rest related to
other issues, such as a stray animals or barking dogs. Although staff has asked King
County what the type of response was (call back, send Animal Control officer to scene,
etc.) and what the response rate was (how often a response was provided) for these
346 service calls, the County has been unable to provide this data.
Furthermore, there have been concerns about the response times for calls for service to
King County Animal Control. In 2009, using the County's data, the Seattle Times
analyzed response time information to calls for service in cities that contract with King
County for animal control services over a four and half year period. The following results
show the number of cases and the median response times for animal control responses
for animal cruelty, vicious animal, animal bite, and injured animal incidents (all high
priority calls) from 2005 through May 2009 in Tukwila.
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INFORMATIONAL MEMO
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Animal Animal Injured Vicious
bite cruelty animal animal
Animal response Animal response Injured response Vicious response
bite time cruelty time animal time animal time
cases (hrs) cases (hrs) cases (hrs) cases (hrs)
34 17.3 78 17.8 49 0.8 81 21.0
These response times to Tukwila service calls mirror or exceed similar response times
in other jurisdictions that contract with King County. Although not in violation of the
current interlocal agreement with King County, as no level of service or response time
performance measures are stated in the agreement, these long response times have
been raised as an example of the lack of quality service that King County is currently
providing under the existing interlocal agreement.
Animal Shelter Services
The King County animal shelter is located in the City of Kent, with a smaller satellite
shelter in the City of Bellevue. The animal shelter houses roughly 11,000 animals per
year, with the majority being dogs and cats, although other species of animals are also
sheltered there. In 2009 the King County sheltered 295 animals that were attributable to
the City of Tukwila. These animals were either stray animals picked up and dropped off
by King County Animal Control officers or Tukwila residents, or were "owner surrender"
animals that were dropped off by their owners for various reasons, including moving out
of state, dogs not allowed in a new apartment building, pet no longer wanted, etc.
Shelter intake for the City of Tukwila in 2009 was 295, and for 2008 the number was
346. The decline of almost 15% is primarily due to a decision on the part of the County
to stop accepting owner surrenders during 2009, which dramatically reduced the animal
population at the shelter in the latter part of the year.
The King County animal shelter has also been the target of concerns from members of
the community in the recent past, most notably in 2007. At this time, community
members and animal welfare activists worked with the County to identify deficiencies in
the County's animal shelter system and potential solutions for the deficiencies. Of
greatest concern was the euthanasia rate of dogs and cats at the shelter. This work
resulted in two King County Council mandates about operation of the shelter.
Specifically, euthanasia rates for dogs and cats could not exceed 20% in 2008 and 15%
in 2009, and a framework had to be established for the humane care of animals that
focused on recommendations such as better adoption practices, increases in access to
spay and neuter programs, and better shelter conditions.
Although it is generally understood that these mandates were well intentioned, given
that no additional revenue was put into the system by the County, the unintended
consequence of establishing hard guidelines for euthanasia rates and an increased
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INFORMATIONAL MEMO
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level of shelter care was that additional human resources have been needed at the
shelter to meet these mandates. This resulted in the King County Animal Care and
Control Division pulling Animal Control officers from the field and putting them into the
shelter to meet these operational demands. This of course left fewer officers available
for field services and has driven up response times as noted earlier.
Animal Licensing Services
The King County Records and Licensing Services (RALS) Division (of which Animal
Care and Control is a sub division) provides licensing services to residents in King
County. RALS licensing staff sells both dog and cat licenses, as well as other types of
pet and animal licenses, such as kennel licenses, guard dog and guard dog training
facility licenses, and exotic animal licenses.
King County dog and cat licenses are required for all dogs and cats eight (8) weeks of
age or older. Dog and cat licenses can be purchased by mail, online or in- person, and
are good for one year. In- person licenses can be purchased at various King County
locations or locally at Tukwila City Hall.
In 2008 and 2009, the number of dog and cat licenses issued for Tukwila residents was
1,306 and 1,122, respectively. Of the 2009 amount, 84 licenses were sold at Tukwila
City Hall, with the vast majority of licenses sold online or through the mail. According to
King County estimates, the number of total licenses sold accounts for roughly 20% to
25% of the estimated dog and cat population that exists in the City. The table below
outlines the number of issued licenses in 2008 and the estimates of the percent of
animals licensed:
Est. Est.
Tukwila Tukwila Est.
Dog Cat of Pets
Total Pet of Population Population (Cats Est. of
Licenses Est. City County Est. (0.63 per (0.71 per and Pets
Issued Population Population Households household household) Dogs) Licensed
1,306 18,080 1.54% 7,232 4,571 5,156 9,727 13%
Cost and Revenue of Current Animal Services Program
Cost: It is unknown how much it is specifically costing King County to provide animal
control services to Tukwila residents. Cities have been working with the County to
obtain this data, but the County has not historically tracked these costs on a
jurisdictional basis, and has not tracked overhead costs for administering these
contracts for cities.
According to the County, they have been subsidizing animal control service to all cities
in King County that contract with them by approximately $1.5 million annually from their
general fund. Although it is assumed that much of the subsidy is being provided to other
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jurisdictions that have greater animal control needs than Tukwila, determining what
portion of the subsidy is attributable to Tukwila is challenging.
The only data cities have been provided are very blunt numbers of the total system cost
broken down by the percent of service calls (which are not response calls, only calls
coming in for service; many of which were not officially responded to) and shelter
intakes coming from these communities. Using this methodology, the chart below
outlines what these costs looked like in 2008 for Tukwila:
2008 of Total
Field Field Animal of Animal
Service Service Field Shelter Shelter Shelter Licensing Control
Calls Calls Cost Intake Animals Cost Cost Costs
346 2.97% $64,377 295 2.75% $65,132 $16,441 $145,950
It is important to underscore again, however, that this is not an entirely accurate
accounting of the total cost of service provided to Tukwila for the reasons mentioned
above. These figures have been included in this memo as a starting point only so that
Council may get a sense of the magnitude of the costs. Under any service model, it is
anticipated that Tukwila's cost of providing this service will be greater than these rough
numbers. As the analysis of the animal control service models has not yet been
completed, it is unknown at this time what system costs will realistically look like.
Revenue: In 2008, the amount of license fee revenue collected by King County from
Tukwila residents was $39,180. In 2009, this amount decreased to $29,351, a 25.1%
decrease. The reason for the significant decrease is due to an overall decrease in
licensing participation by residents throughout the County. A few cities, such as
Shoreline, saw a significant increase in the number of licenses issued in 2009 due to a
pilot program by the County to increase licensing participation rates. This program
included County canvassers going door -to -door to speak with pet owners whose license
had expired.
Potential Animal Service Provision Models
As King County first announced their intention to alter how animal control services have
been provided to cities, the administration felt that looking at options for how to provide
this service going forward would provide the Council with the cost and benefit
information necessary to make an informed decision. To begin this analysis, staff began
researching not only how King County currently provides animal control services to
cities, as is outlined in this memo, but also how other jurisdictions provide this service.
In King County, only the cities of Seattle, Renton, Des Moines and Normandy Park have
their own Animal Control officers.
In reviewing how this service is provided around the region, four potential alternatives
were initially determined to be potentially feasible for how the City could provide this
service to our residents:
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Provide the service in -house
Provide the service through a regional King County model
Provide the service through a sub regional consortium model of south King County
cities (Burien, Kent, SeaTac and Tukwila)
Procure the service through an interlocal agreement with a neighboring jurisdiction,
such as Des Moines, SeaTac, Burien or Renton.
After further discussions with the cities of Renton and Des Moines, it was determined
that contracting with these jurisdictions is not the preferred alternative. Although the City
of Renton and the City of Des Moines were both very willing to share information and
provide insight into how their animal control systems operate, working through the
necessary authorizing environments to move a contract forward given the tight time
frame cities are working under did not seem feasible. Also, Des Moines would more
than likely not have the capacity to take on a jurisdiction such as Tukwila which would
nearly double their service area. Regarding the cities of SeaTac and Burien, preliminary
discussions with them are focused on a sub regional consortium for addressing animal
service needs, rather than these cities creating their own capacity internally. For all of
these reasons, as well as limited time to provide a very broad analysis of all five options,
the last option has been dropped from the analysis.
The remaining three options continue to be explored, with cost models built around
each option. The general service models as currently conceived are as follows:
Provide Service In- House:
Hire Tukwila Animal Control officer for field services work; administratively housed
and supported by the Tukwila Police Department
Utilize private sector pet licensing vendor, King County licensing service (if
available as a stand -alone service), or existing internal capacity for issuing pet
licenses
Contract with the King County Animal Shelter, located in Kent, for animal sheltering
services, or develop contracts with veterinarians and kennels in Tukwila to utilize
their facilities for sheltering
Provide Service through Regional King County Model:
Contract with King County for a full cost recovery field services contract, which
would most likely provide two dedicated King County Animal Control officers in a
south county service area including the City of Tukwila
Contract with King County for a full cost recovery animal licensing contract
Contract with King County Animal Shelter for animal sheltering services on a full
cost recovery basis
Provide Service through South King County Sub regional Model:
Hire Animal Control officers to provide service to south King County cities;
determine governance and administrative needs of this consortium model
Utilize private sector pet licensing vendor or King County licensing service (if
available as a stand -alone service) for pet licensing
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Contract with the King County Animal Shelter on a full cost recovery basis, or
develop contracts with veterinarians and kennels in Tukwila and other south
County cities to utilize their facilities
Estimated Estimated Difference (General
Option Revenue Expenses Fund Contribution)
I In -House I $30,000 I $130,000 I $100,000
Regional King
County Model $30,000 $150,000 $120,000
Sub regional
Model $30,000 $85,000 $55,000
The amounts above do not include the $38,000 per year the City of Tukwila currently
budgets for enhanced animal services with King County. All the amounts are very
preliminary at this time, and could change significantly between now and the end of
April, which is when a new model for regional services provided by King County will be
presented to the County Council and City Councils that choose to participate in the
County service.
RECOMMENDATION
No recommendation, information only at this time. Updated options, costs and a
recommendation will be coming from administration to Council in April.
A briefing regarding this item is scheduled for the March 16, 2010 Finance and Safety
Committee meeting, and the March 22 Committee of the Whole meeting.
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