Skeptical Half Moon Bay Vote Gives Green Light to County Animal Control

Last night's Half Moon Bay City Council 3-1 vote to approve a four-year animal control contract extension with San Mateo County (and, in turn, with the San Mateo-based animal agency Peninsula Humane Society hired as a contractor to do most of the work) belied the council's reluctance to sign on to the agreement.

Because 19 of the 20 cities in the county had already adopted the contract by the time the council sat down to consider it on July 19 — and a "no" vote would have made the contract null and would have required that the county and cities start all over again to negotiate a contract, according to county animal control program manager Pam Machado — Mayor Naomi Patridge, councilmember Marina Fraser and councilmember John Muller described themslves as "in a corner."

The council cited concerns about the 17% escalation in costs over the course of the four-year contract set to sunset on June 30, 2015. They questioned if the amount of services performed in Half Moon Bay would be worth the $165,000 price tag the city will pay in the next year as their over 3 percent share of the contract, along with whether it was appropriate for the Peninsula Humane Society (PHS) to inject surplus money from the cities' payment for services for the first three years to maintain the PHS animal control building in San Mateo rather than redistributing it back to city coffers. (Seventy-five percent of surplus would go back to PHS in year 4).

"It appears to me we’re subsidizing the Peninsula Humane Society by contribute to their maintenance costs," said Half Moon Bay Mayor Naomi Patridge, the only one of four councilmembers (Rick Kowalczyk was absent) to vote no on the proposed contract. "It's difficult to look at because I didn’t get any answers with money...no budget, no revenue and [no information] on how this contract was costed out," she said.

Machado was at the meeting to give some context of the proposed contract amendment, which was the result of an 18-month negotiation period by city managers of the 20 jurisdictions. The negotiations were lead by South San Francisco City Manager Barry Nagel.

"Twenty-seven percent of [a city's] cost is from field services...73 percent of the costs are shelter services," Machado said.

"By talking to my colleagues in other cities, I know city managers have worked very hard on this [contract negotiation]...we’re kind of in a box, as no other entities provide this [animal control service]," said councilmember Marina Fraser.

Councilmembers and Half Moon Bay resident Les Deman also questioned why the contract could not be set for a one-year term, rather than four. "To me, that’s a key problem for a city like ours where revenue can go up or down," said Deman.

Machado replied that the 4-year term had been determined in a dialogue between the county Board of Supervisors and city managers, who acknowledged that developing a contract each year would be too time-consuming to do on an annual basis. Ken White, the president of the Peninsula Humane Society, originally wanted a 10-year contract, she said.

Patridge, Fraser and Deman said it was important to know just how much the animal control service had been used in the past to understand what could be a general cost per service for the $165,000 in fees. 

Machado said that Half Moon Bay, along with the other 19 cities, do receive those reports.

An additional concern cited by Deman was the lack of an external bid from another provider.

"I spent a large part of last year looking into alternatives," said Machado. "Throughout the state of Caifornia I couldn’t find any other county which had a provider willing to come here and willing to do what PHS does," she said.

Machado cited Orange County's animal control service model as an example to look at for the future. The county manages services as a Joint Powers Authority with each one of the cities, she said.

Half Moon Bay City Manager Laura Snideman reported to the council the Peninsula Humane Society's rise in contract fees for services over the last few years.

"The numbers from 2008 – we paid $63,708; in 2009 – $76,212; and in 2010 - $115,000," she said.

Upon hearing the figures, Fraser reacted immediately.

"We are over a barrel," she said. "The public needs to be educated and aware of this too...if this cost was to pay for licensing and to spay and neuter, that could be different," she said. "I don’t know about additional service we’re getting for this."

"We’re not happy with all this escalation and the taking of our surplus funds when the cities are in a dire situation," said Patridge. "They’re not providing us a system they used to...neuteuring, licensing. $165,000 is a lot of money for Half Moon Bay."

Councilmember John Muller emphasized that the cities should have a seat on the Peninsula Humane Society Board with the amount of money the cities are paying to the agency.

"It's ridiculous we have no voice when millions are given to this agency," he said.

But in the end, Muller voted yes on the contract along with peers Allan Alifano and Marina Fraser, who voted yes with reservations.

"I'm not willing to go that far to jeopardize the whole package," Muller said.

Officials from the Peninsula Humane Society were not available to comment at the time of publication.