Iowa City to Ask Other Municipalities to Pay Fair Share for Animal Services

The new Iowa City Animal Shelter could be a small city-based center, or a larger county-wide endeavor.

The size of the shelter will depend on whether surrounding municipalities are willing to pay their proportional costs for operations and chip in on uncovered expenses for constructing a new building, an Iowa City official said during a City Council meeting on Tuesday evening.

"My concern is that we pay our proportional share, and we do not provide services that are not paid for equitably by outsiders," Iowa City Manager Tom Markus said.

Markus said there is a disparity of funding versus use, and it should not continue.

The on Tuesday night heard a report on the current state of the Iowa City animal shelter. The report found that Iowa City paid for 68 percent of the shelter's expenses through property taxes in fiscal 2010 and accounted for two-thirds of the donations to the shelter, but accounted for only 56 percent of the animals.

The report comes as the city tries to determine the size of a new shelter to replace the old city animal shelter, which was damaged by flooding in 2008. With $1.4 million in Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) funding already potentially available for a proposed 7,000-square-foot building, and a potential location on Napoleon Lane selected, one of the main questions that remains is how large to make the facility.

Markus said that without the assurance of cost sharing from other communities that use the facility, he would be reluctant to support a facility plan that would be expected to help those communities.

In essence, as other cities such as North Liberty and Coralville have grown, it has become more important for those cities to pay their fair share for animal services.

"We're still the biggest entity and others weren't using our services as much as they are today," Markus said. "I think it is now creating an inequity that is causing a burden on Iowa City taxpayers."

Markus said the city will be approaching other municipalities in Johnson County as well as the county itself about the project, but noted that they may opt to seek alternatives when they see the true costs.

They are welcome to do so, he said.

Coralville and Solon already have agreements with Iowa City helping to pay for the animal services. The shelter is currently operating at capacity in its current temorary location at 4852 Sand Road SE.

Misha Goodman, the Iowa City director of animal services, said the other municipalities could have only a small expense of the final building cost depending on FEMA money and the success of the fundraising campaign by Friends of the Iowa City Animal Shelter.

"That's actually very generous because after the capitol campaign I'm not sure how much there will be left (to pay). Maybe nothing," Goodman said.

Iowa City Mayor Matt Hayek said the upcoming debate over proportional city costs of the animal shelter could provide a hint of things to come as Iowa City examines its identity as the largest city in the county.

He said that as other cities begin to grow, Iowa City may seek a more equitable split of costs for services with other local governments, such as senior services.

"We are entering into a long and sustained period of tough times, when it comes to our budget capacity, and I don't think we can avoid looking at these things," Hayek said.

There was no vote made on the policy change by the council, and Markus said that the discussion Tuesday night was primarily intended to keep council members up to speed on the progress on the facility and to begin a long-term discussion about the model for its use once the new shelter opens.