{"id":883,"date":"2010-01-28T13:38:51","date_gmt":"2010-01-28T21:38:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/spiken.wpengine.com\/news\/king-county-cities-begin-plans-for-regional-animal-shelter-system\/"},"modified":"2016-10-21T21:30:45","modified_gmt":"2016-10-22T04:30:45","slug":"king-county-cities-begin-plans-for-regional-animal-shelter-system","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/news\/king-county-cities-begin-plans-for-regional-animal-shelter-system\/","title":{"rendered":"King County, cities, begin plans for regional animal shelter system"},"content":{"rendered":"

Planning has started between King County<\/a> and city officials throughout the county to develop a new regional model for animal control and sheltering.<\/p>\n

Staff from as many as seven cities, including Kent,<\/a> met as part of a small work group Jan. 27 with Carrie Cihak, strategic initiatives director for County Executive Dow Constantine\u2019s office, to come up with ideas for a regional animal care and control program run mainly by the cities rather than the county.<\/p>\n

The county, citing a variety of issues, is pulling out of the animal control and sheltering business, with a deadline of June 30. It operates two shelters – one out of Kent, and another out of Bellevue.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working very hard with the cities on the process to develop and agree on a common approach for a regional model and will do whatever it takes to get there,\u201d said Frank Abe, spokesman for Constantine, in a phone interview Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The County Council adopted an ordinance Monday submitted by Constantine to extend the deadline for closing the Kent and Bellevue shelters to June 30 from Jan. 31.<\/p>\n

Constantine wants more time to work out a regional model with the 32 cities, including Kent, that contract with the county to run the shelters, animal-control services and the pet-licensing program.<\/p>\n

It should take at least a couple of months before a specific plan goes for approval to the Metropolitan King County Council as well as city councils across the county.<\/p>\n

The County Council in November directed the county executive to end the sheltering services by Jan. 31. The Council also wanted the cities to take over animal-control field services by June 30, unless new agreements allow the county to recover from the cities the full cost of those services.<\/p>\n

County officials say revenues from pet licenses and other supporting fees have fallen about $2 million short per year of the $5 million cost of providing animal care and control. With a projected budget shortfall of $56 million in 2010, the county wants out of the animal business to focus on its other services and programs.<\/p>\n

County staff estimated the additional five months of sheltering animals will cost the county about $1.075 million. Abe said staff has not yet determined what other county services might have to be cut in order to fund the shelters.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re working to identify the source,\u201d Abe said.<\/p>\n

John Hodgson, chief administrative officer for the city of Kent, said Jan. 27 that the small work group of county and city staff is the right path to take.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a partnership to figure out a regional plan to present to our policy makers,\u201d Hodgson said. \u201cThey will meet regularly for a plan for (animal) control services and funding, shelters and funding and find ways to increase pet-license revenues. The plan is to come forward in the next couple of months with a plan.\u201d<\/p>\n

Hodgson and Jeff Watling, city parks, recreation and community services director, will brief the Kent City Council about the future of animal care and sheltering at a workshop at 5:30 p.m. Feb. 2 at City Hall. Watling is part of the city-county small work group that met Jan. 27.<\/p>\n

Hodgson does have concerns about how cities can fund animal care and control because the cities also face budget shortfalls.<\/p>\n

\u201cEveryone is trying to work hard to create a regional solution and take the financial pressure off of King County,\u201d Hodgson said. \u201cBut I don\u2019t know if the cities are ready financially. None of us, that I know of, have budgeted extra money for animal control.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to meetings with city officials, county executive staff continues to meet with community agencies (such as the Seattle Humane Society) that might play a role in sheltering, as well as animal-care and control employees for their ideas about a regional model.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe groundwork is time-consuming but it\u2019s important to lay the groundwork to get to a final outcome that works for everyone,\u201d Abe said.<\/p>\n

The county executive\u2019s office (under then-County Executive Ron Sims) and the County Council started to battle nearly three years ago about animal care after a September 2007 citizens committee report called shelter conditions in Kent \u201cdeplorable.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Council claims it wants the county out of the sheltering business not only to save money, but also to improve treatment of the animals through a new regional model.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Planning has started between King County and city officials throughout the county to develop a new regional model for animal control and sheltering.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":212,"featured_media":884,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-883","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/212"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=883"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/883\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/884"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=883"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=883"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=883"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kentreporter.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=883"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}