Three Cities Voting to Leave the County Shelter

Tonight two cities will vote on whether or not to stay with the Orange County shelter, and tomorrow night a third will vote.

Laguna Hills will vote whether or not to contract with the City of Mission Viejo. If they do so, LH will have to pay 14% to 15% more per year, but this cost differential is due to the fact that MV charges less than the County, so revenues for LH will decrease if they join MV. Had LH be allowed to keep their current fee schedule, the differences would be minimal.

LH staff, which has historically been opposed to anything but the OC Shelter, have changed their minds, and now recommend going with MV. They say “It is staff’s opinion that Mission Viejo is in a better position to control costs over the long run.”

This also saves LH from the $222,122 fee that the County proposes to charge LH (and all other cities) for building the new shelter.

LH isn’t the only city proposing to go with MV. RSM will vote tomorrow night.

Also tonight the Garden Grove Council will vote to sever relations with the County. In 2014, Garden Grove had 3172 animals, 5354 field services, and licensed 13,777 dogs. They propose to contract with Orange County Humane Society (OCHS) for shelter services and bring field services and licensing in house by City employees. The total costs are estimated at about $1,000,000 per year, compared to the $1,350,000 they are paying now. In addition, their capital contribution to OCHS will be $25,000 compared to the $4,142,755 which the County demands from them for their share of the building costs of the new shelter.

There are some common themes here among the three cities.

· Improved care

· Improved costs

· Local control

At the Lake Forest City Council meeting last week, Councilmen Robinson and Hamilton argued very strongly against using City employees for animal control and licensing. Yet all three cities will adopt this model. The advantages these three cities see is local control and the ability to better control costs.

Lake Forest is still exploring the issues. Mayor Pro Tem Scott Voigts and I are working on developing RFPs to be approved at the April 19 meeting. Councilman Nick has been a staunch supporter of using an alternative to the OC Shelter, and with the recent movement by these 3 cities we can be cautiously optimistic that Council members Robinson and Hamilton will put away their biases and do what’s right for the residents and their pets.

Council member Robinson argued that adding city employees for animal control and licensing will produce pension obligations, but this is no different from the normal pension obligations the City takes on. Moreover, allowing the County to provide animal control and licensing means that the County’s pension obligations must be paid for through the county’s charges to the City, and with an enormous unfunded pension liability already impacting the County, the simple truth is that having city employees will be more cost effective than using the county. This is how Garden Grove will save $350,000 a year by bringing animal control and licensing in-house and by using OCHS.

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 on April 2 at 2 pm at the Foothill Ranch Public Library.

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