The URL can be used to link to this page

Home My WebLink AboutASAB minutes 082008Animal Services Advisory Board (ASAB) Approved Minutes for August 20, 2008 Meeting Present ASAB Members: Daniel Textoris, Ross Oglesbee, Jean Austin, Dewana Anderson, Tracy Carroll, Kris Bergstrand and Rachel Beckham Absent ASAB Members: Susan Elmore, Moses Carey, Bonnie Norwood, Suzanne Roy and Pat Sanford. Others in Attendance: Animal Services Director Bob Marotto, Animal Shelter Manager Jessica Allison, and Administrative Assistants Paula Ragan. Public Members Present: Ted Dorsi Welcome and Opening Comments—ASAB Chair, Ross Oglesbee, called the meeting to order. Motion was made by Daniel Textoris and seconded by Tracy Carroll to approve the Agenda dated June 18, 2008. VOTE: Unanimous. Motion was made by Jean Austin and seconded by Kristine Bergstrand to approve the minutes dated July 16, 2008, with the removal of the last sentence under General Public Comments and adding “since the licensing fees have recently been increased this issue was referred to the Spay Neuter committee and if not this year in subsequent years another fee adjustment may be requested”. There were also a couple of typographical errors and under the Placement Partner update section the incomplete sentence was removed. VOTE: Unanimous General Public Comment—Mr. Ted Dorsi addressed the Animal Services Advisory Board about concerns he has after being a recent victim of a dog attack. The Orange County Potentially Dangerous Dog Committee upheld the declaration of Potentially Dangerous Dog to the dog that bit him. One of Mr. Dorsi’s concerns regards notification to citizens about potentially dangerous dogs. He suggested that public safety would be enhanced if there were an educational process such as flyers on doors or information accessed through the internet available to citizens so that people know where dangerous dogs reside. Another of his concerns is the amount of fines, and the release of an animal from the County’s shelter before the owner has paid civil penalties in full. He asked the ASAB to exercise its authority to address these concerns. A brief discussion ensued and Chair Oglesbee asked Mr. Dorsi if he would provide a written version of his statement and asked staff to provide more information about these concerns at a future ASAB meeting. Unfinished Business— Tethering Ordinance Update— Bob Marotto said he expects to know within the next week whether the item of Tethering will be scheduled for the Board of County Commissioners meeting scheduled for September 2, 2008. He noted that it is possible that the item will be rescheduled for a work session to give the Commissioners the opportunity to discuss the proposed tethering ordinance amongst themselves. As soon as information is available a public notification will be provided. Also, it was decided that since the ASAB Liaison, Moses Carey, had already discussed the process and next steps for reviewing this item, there was no need to contact him for further discussion. July Statistical Summary—Ms. Jess Allison gave an overview of the July, 2008, statistical summary. She reported that there continues to be an increase in intake compared to last month and last year’s statistics. There were 545 animals taken in this month compared to last year’s 397. She expressed that this is typical for this time of the year and that it is hard to really determine how much this is a result of the economic bad times but that it is reasonable to say that there is some relationship. Animal Services Advisory Board August 20, 2008 Meeting Page 2 ASAB Committees— Potentially Dangerous Dog Committee— It was reported that a hearing was held in the month of August in which a declaration was upheld. There was a general discussion of this case. Of note, the animal owner was new to Orange County. The Board discussed the process of ordinance enforcement and quarantine, among other aspects of the case. Placement Partner Update—The ASAB discussed the agreement and contract. With several agreed upon revisions, the board agreed to finalize the contract and bring it back to the September meeting. Between now and that time staff will solicit feedback from various rescue groups. Spay/Neuter Committee— Mr. Marotto reported that a meeting was held in August and there was a feral cat discussion with caretakers and that the topic will be discussed with Animal Control staff in the near future. He also reported that a contract between Orange County and Animal Kind is currently being drafted. A motion was made by Jean Austin and seconded by Kris Bergstrand to leave the amount of the possible Spay/Neuter contract to the discretion of staff who would make a report to the ASAB in six months. VOTE: Unanimous New Business— Proposed Change in Shelter Hours— Ms. Allison provided a handout comparing the current business hours to a proposal to change these hours. The proposal is attached and incorporated herein by reference. The changes would not decrease the number of hours the Shelter is open to the public, and they would allow for better utilization of available staffing throughout the week as well as a more sustainable staffing complement. A definite date to change Shelter business hours has not been set but staff expects it will be done on a trial basis of two or more months. There was general agreement by the Animal Services Advisory Board that this proposal made sense. Rabies Clinic Flyers—Mr. Marotto asked that everyone help to distribute flyers listing the 2008 Rabies Clinics with dates, times and locations. Vaccines are only $5.00 and the next one is being held Wednesday, August 27th at Paws and Claws in Rougemont. Motion was made by Jean Austin and seconded by Kris Bergstrand to adjourn the meeting at 8:10 p.m. VOTE: Unanimous. Next ASAB Meeting: Wednesday, September 17, 2008, at 6:30 p.m. in the Government Services Conference Room, 200 S. Cameron Street, Hillsborough. Changes in Shelter Business Hours August 27th, 2008 Purpose: To adjust the Animal Shelter’s business hours by closing to the public on Sunday and open on Wednesday, offering full services. Part of this change will include adjusting the time the shelter opens from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm on weekdays and extending the hours the shelter is open on Saturday from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm and on Tuesday from 6pm to 7:30pm. While this change would not affect the number of hours the shelter provides full services to the public, it allows for better utilization of available staffing throughout the week. Additionally, adjusting the time the shelter opens from 11:00 am to 12:00 pm offers advantages of allowing additional time to be devoted to animal care functions and customer service, while lightening the load for staff responsible for these duties. This change will be done on a three month trial basis given that budget conditions result in a need to adapt business hours to facilitate continued effective service to the public within limits of available resources. Benefits and Challenges of a change in shelter hours may include: • Greater flexibility with staff scheduling • Opening one hour later, at noon on weekdays allows adequate time for staff to perform animal care and cleaning duties, staff meetings and other operational functions prior to opening to the public, resulting in increased number of staff devoted to customer service during business hours. • Adds an additional hour on Saturday afternoon and additional one and one-half hours Tuesday afternoon. • Ensures a manager is on duty during each business day. • Results in a change in the number of business hours the shelter is open to the public. This has been thirty-six and one-half (36.5) hours, but would increase to 38 hours. • Re-aligns business hours to include an additional week- day, when live releases typically are greater than they are on Sundays. • Provides better flexibility for adoption scheduling. Some animals currently adopted on Sunday must wait to leave the shelter until after it is sterilized, which can be several days as sterilization services are not available on Sunday. • Most shelter services would no longer be available on Sundays which could affect animal placements, although they could be redistributed from Sunday to Wednesday and other days of the week. • Rabies clinics currently performed at the shelter by a CRV on Wednesday would be conducted during business hours. • Intakes that occur on Sunday would be through the night deposit boxes only. • Animal pick- up on Sundays would need to be pre- arranged, or redistributed to other days of the week for Placement Partner transfers and owner recoveries. Live Releases: Comparison of Select weekdays for FY 2007-2008 Sun Tue Wed* Adoption 201272 127 RTO 4781 36 Transfer 3756 33 Total LR 285 409 196 Currently the shelter is closed this day* New Business Hours: Monday, Wednesday and Friday: 12:00- 6:00 Tuesday, Thursday: 12:00- 7:30 Saturday: 12:00-5:00 Sunday: Closed Current Shelter Business Hours: Monday, Tuesday and Friday: 11:00 am- 6:00 pm Wednesday: Closed Thursday: 11:00 am -7:30 pm Saturday: 12:00 pm- 4:00 pm Sunday: 1:00 pm- 4:00 pm