The Council spent over an hour Tuesday night discussing the animal care proposals. After much (and sometimes heated) debate, the Council decided –
Lower Fees on Altered Dogs from $27 to $20
The remaining fees remain the same. Council asked staff to prepare a report due before the budget meetings in 2017 to discuss other possible fee adjustments, such as changing some “special situation” fees (e.g., bite investigations) and multi-year licensing.
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I asked, but no one else was interested in proceeding with cat licensing fees.
Fees are to go into effect as soon as possible so that the changes can be announced at the pet day event planned for February.
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Canvassing Effort
Recent data from County indicates that last year they gained 1800 new licenses as a result of the canvassing efforts. This is a change from previous years when they said canvassing didn’t pay for itself. Based on that data, Council decided to go ahead and spend $9,600 to see what extra results we could get.
Reports are to be submitted monthly and reviewed quarterly.
Pet Adoption Center
Council approved funding a pet adoption center that will focus on Lake Forest pets and that will spend efforts to divert pets from entering the County shelter. Particular focus will be on surrendered animals, especially animals surrendered for euthanasia. There were 89 surrendered dogs and cats in 2015 which was nearly 20% of the total who entered the shelter.
Lake Forest will give $15,000 and the County will add $15,000 to this effort.
Hopefully the center will open in time for the February event.
Public Education Officer
Council rejected the idea of spending $40,000 a year to have someone wander our parks looking for stray animals. However, Council asked staff to come up with a better job description and re-submit during budget hearings in 2017.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Dr. Jim Gardner is on the City Council for Lake Forest. You can check him out on LinkedIn and/or Facebook and you can share your thoughts about the City at Lake Forest Town Square on Facebook. His comments are not meant to reflect official City Policy.
Dr. Gardner has office hours every Tuesday from 4 pm to 6 pm at the City Hall. In addition, he holds a Town Hall meeting every quarter. The next meeting will be in January at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.
