CLEARLAKE, Calif. – After several years of offering its own animal control services, the city of Clearlake is negotiating a new agreement that would have Lake County Animal Care and Control provide the services once more.
At its Thursday night meeting, the Clearlake City Council gave City Manager Joan Phillipe approval to continue negotiations with the county.
Because of the city’s financial situation, in 2009 it ended its contract with Lake County Animal Care and Control, with the annual contract at that point totaling about $200,000.
Since then, animal control services have been offered by city staff supervised by the Clearlake Police Department. Phillipe’s report to the council said that the city and county have had an agreement in effect since 2009 for animal shelter services.
If the city continues to provide animal control, it will need a better facility, and that will cost money the city doesn’t have, Phillipe said.
Continuing to staff and fund the services going forward has been a topic of ongoing discussion for city staff, Phillipe reported. She said the funding request for animal control-related services for the coming year – including the addition of a permanent employee – was more than $160,000, which doesn’t cover shelter improvements.
City staff has considered a number of options, including expanding services to include local veterinarians, contracting with a local organization or kennel owners, or contracting with a neighboring county, according to Phillipe’s report.
She said the option offering the most promise was to return to a contract with Lake County Animal Care and Control, which in preliminary discussions has proposed taking over services for an annual cost of $145,000.
That proposal so far includes having Animal Care and Control provide services that would be available 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday, and would include sheltering, office staff and stray animal medical expenses, but wouldn’t include picking up animals, according to Phillipe.
Fine-tuning still needs to take place to reach a draft contract, which would need to take into account licensing fees, handling of vicious animals and large animals, and a contract term, she reported.
During the Thursday, discussion, Police Chief Craig Clausen said animal control staff does a good job, but it’s nevertheless challenging.
“It’s strictly financial,” he said.
Clausen said he has to backfill animal control staff shortages with unpaid volunteers, adding that police staff is not trained to deal with animals.
Phillipe told the council that she and Clausen have been working on reaching a proposed contract with the county.
Council member Joyce Overton said that when the council canceled the contract with Animal Care and Control in 2009, the intent had always been to renegotiate the costs, and she supported moving forward with talks with the county.
Mayor Jeri Spittler agreed, noting that it was obvious that staff had worked hard on the conceptual proposal.
The council agreed with Phillipe’s concept and gave her support to move forward to bring back a final agreement with the county.
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