11.
City Council Work Session
- Meeting Date:
- 03/10/2020
- From:
- Walt Miller, Deputy Chief
TITLE
Discuss consideration of additional funding for High Country Humane for animal shelter services.
STAFF RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Provide staff direction for funding of High Country Humane (HCH).
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Animal shelter service provider High Country Humane (HCH) has approached the City of Flagstaff and Coconino County requesting additional funding to their existing contract. After a joint City/County RFP process HCH was awarded a five (5) year contract for animal shelter services. In October of 2018 an IGA was signed between the City of Flagstaff, Coconino County and Paw Placement DBA High County Humane. The IGA will expire at the end of June 2024.
INFORMATION:
High Country Humane is located in a state-of-the-art facility located at 11665 N. Highway 89. This is the former facility of Second Chance Center for Animals, which was built in 2005 and was designed specifically for animal care. In October of 2018 an IGA was signed with Coconino County and HCH opened their door to the public on January 2, 2019. Under the IGA High Country provides a variety of services some of which include adoption, sheltering, spaying, and neutering, licensing, vaccinations, veterinarian care, euthanasia and community outreach.
Acting Executive Director Elizabeth Bohlkee has been in contact with City and County staff informing us that HCH is experiencing a structural deficit as they underestimated startup costs, equipment repairs, cost and number of medical cases and most notably their veterinarian costs. As these expenses continued to rise HCH began to use their reserves for day to day operations. After further analysis it has been determined by HCH that they could continue their operations with an additional $145,000 per year and would need $48,332 for the remainder of this year so they may bring their reserves back up. The City’s portion of this amount would be $79,200 per year and $26, 583 for the remainder of this year.
Currently the annual fee for services to the City with High Country Humane is $280,500 plus the additional amount of $12,390 for facility maintenance, for a total amount of $292,890 annually.
Acting Executive Director Elizabeth Bohlkee has been in contact with City and County staff informing us that HCH is experiencing a structural deficit as they underestimated startup costs, equipment repairs, cost and number of medical cases and most notably their veterinarian costs. As these expenses continued to rise HCH began to use their reserves for day to day operations. After further analysis it has been determined by HCH that they could continue their operations with an additional $145,000 per year and would need $48,332 for the remainder of this year so they may bring their reserves back up. The City’s portion of this amount would be $79,200 per year and $26, 583 for the remainder of this year.
Currently the annual fee for services to the City with High Country Humane is $280,500 plus the additional amount of $12,390 for facility maintenance, for a total amount of $292,890 annually.