Cities to bring councils JPA contract for animal services

Contract with Humane Society lasts till July 2001

By Kara Chalmers

Seven cities, which today contract with the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley for animal services, agreed on June 7 to submit their own plan to their respective city councils.

They will create a Joint Powers Authority, an organization that will serve the cities of Campbell, Cupertino, Los Gatos, Sunnyvale, Santa Clara, Monte Sereno and Saratoga when the Humane Society changes from an "open door" facility to a "no-kill" one over the next few years.

The Humane Society now picks up stray, injured or dead animals from streets; holds animals to be reclaimed; and enforces bark and leash laws for these cities and for San Jose and Milpitas. The change will mean that the cities will perform these functions, although the Humane Society will still provide adoptions, spay and neuter operations, education and humane investigations.

Luckily for the cities, their contracts with the Humane Society do not run out until July 2001. The Society also has promised to shelter animals until the cities find a new shelter.

"We'll support the other cities until they have a shelter in place, even if it takes longer than a year," said Humane Society executive director Christine Arnold.

Starting July 1, a state law will mandate longer stays for animals in shelters. Arnold is opposed to the law, saying that if shelters are forced to hold unadoptable animals longer, they may have to kill adoptable animals due to lack of room.

"Our goal is not to euthanize any adoptable animals, so I don't know if we can fully comply with the law," she said. "We're very concerned about overcrowding. We need more space and we have no capability of increasing our space."

For the past year, the Humane Society has searched for a five-acre location to which the organization can relocate.

"We don't have any leads right now and it's really difficult finding property in this valley," she said.

Since the Humane Society will move its operations, the seven cities would like to purchase the current Humane Society facility in Santa Clara, according to Ron Garratt, the assistant city manager of Santa Clara. Garratt is coordinating the initial efforts for the cities. When the Authority comes before the councils, each city will be asked to contribute money to hire a consultant to "steer the ship" of the JPA, and also to enable it to make a good-faith offer to the Humane Society.

"In a few weeks, we hope to enter into serious discussions with the Humane Society to purchase it [the facility]," Garratt said. "We don't have the money yet to get appraisals or expert advice."

Garratt estimates that the cities will need $551,000, of which $300,000 would be used for the purchase of the Humane Society facility. According to the JPA cost structure, Los Gatos would be asked to contribute just over 8 percent of the total, Garratt said.

The city of Santa Clara spent some $13,000 for a remodeling estimate, which determined that the building is usable but would require about $1 million for renovations.

Garratt said he has no idea how much the site would cost, but said it could be in the $2 million range. With the renovations, the project would total around $3 million.

A second, less attractive option for the cities would be to build a brand-new facility. Garratt said that such a project at a site in Santa Clara, not far from the current Humane Society, could cost $6 million to 8 million.

Garratt noted it could take the Humane Society months or years to find a new location, so one option might be for the organization to buy the facility and lease a portion of it back to the Humane Society.

Once the JPA is formed and passed by the member cities, formal talks with Arnold about buying the facility can start, Garratt said.

Arnold said she absolutely would be open to selling the space to the cities if the Humane Society moves. It would make sense since people already know where to find the shelter, she said, and there would be more than enough room for animals collected by the JPA, because San Jose is building its own facility. San Jose accounts for 70 percent of the Humane Society's current animal volume.

Los Gatos town manager Dave Knapp said approval of the JPA is scheduled for the July 10 council meeting. If approved by all councils, the JPA would be a public entity with a director and an appointed board. The coalition would enable cities to share equipment, personnel and resources.

The agreement will define the cost and the voting structure for each city, based on each city's animal activity. These structures would be locked in place for the next two years, according to Garratt.

When the Humane Society announced two years ago that it wanted to implement a no-kill shelter concept, it made sense that all nine cities would join together and look for a solution, Garratt said.

The original JPA proposal included San Jose and Milpitas with a new shelter in San Jose at a cost of $16 million to $20 million. San Jose would have paid for three-quarters of the cost. But seven of the cities felt that they would be contracting with San Jose, which would have the majority vote. The cities--except for Milpitas, which will still contract with San Jose for services--separated from San Jose about six months ago.

The voting structure in the new JPA will apportion Santa Clara two votes, the West Valley cities three votes, and Sunnyvale two votes, so no one city can carry an issue by itself, Garratt said.

The cost structure approximately breaks down to Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and the West Valley cities group each paying a third. Garratt said the seven cities are not really planning to contract with San Jose, but will consider it as a fallback option.