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Cities finalize plans to create JPA for new animal shelter
Seven cities will share shelter operating cost
By Kara Chalmers
Seven cities that contract with the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley for its services agreed June 7 on a plan to start their own shelter, which now goes to the respective city councils. The contract will be presented to the Campbell City Council at its July 5 meeting.
Campbell is working with the cities of Cupertino, Los Gatos, Monte Sereno, Santa Clara, Saratoga and Sunnyvale to create a new animal shelter run by a Joint Powers Authority.
"This JPA is to provide equitable participation from all jurisdictions involved," said Campbell city manager Bernie Strojny.
The new shelter is necessary because the Humane Society is in the process of switching from an "open door" to a "no-kill" facility, thanks to a change in state law.
The Humane Society now picks up stray, injured or dead animals from streets, holds animals for reclamation and enforces bark-and leash-laws for most of the cities in the South Bay.
The change means that the cities will have to perform these functions, but the Humane Society plans to continue providing adoptions, spay and neuter operations, education and humane investigations.
Luckily for the cities, their contracts with the Humane Society do not run out until July 2001. Additionally, the Humane Society has promised to shelter animals until the cities find a new one.
"We'll support the other cities until they have a shelter in place, even if it takes longer than a year," said Humane Society executive director Christine Arnold.
The Humane Society changed its policy because of a change in state law mandating longer stays for animals in shelters that takes effect July 1.
Arnold says she opposes the law because it means shelters may have to kill adoptable animals to make room for other stray, wild or owner-surrendered animals that are ultimately unadoptable.
"Our goal is not to euthanize any adoptable animals, so I don't know if we can fully comply with the law," she said.
Arnold said she is worried about the July 1 start date for the law.
"We're very concerned about overcrowding," she said. "We need more space and we have no capability of increasing our space."
For the past year, the Humane Society has searched for a five-acre location to which the organization can relocate. Its 1.3-acre site is not large enough to accommodate the future growth that officials are planning.
"Our plan is to build a community center for animals," Arnold said. She said such a center would include a community dog park, training classes, a community-education center, a state-of-the-art adoption center, boarding kennels, a grooming center, a pet store, a veterinary hospital and a spay and neuter clinic.
"We don't have any leads right now and it's really difficult finding property in this valley," she said.
Since the Humane Society will move its operations, the seven cities would like to purchase the current Humane Society facility in Santa Clara, according to Ron Garratt, the assistant city manager of Santa Clara. Garratt has been coordinating the initial activities for the cities. That is the reason why, when the JPA comes before the councils, each city will be asked to contribute money to hire a consultant to "steer the ship" of the organization and also to enable the JPA make a good-faith offer to the Humane Society.
"In a few weeks, we hope to enter into serious discussions with the Humane Society to purchase [the facility]," Garratt said. "We don't have the money yet to get appraisals or expert advice."
Garratt estimates that the cities will need $551,000, of which $300,000 will go toward the purchase of the Humane Society facility.
The city of Santa Clara spent about $13,000 for a remodeling estimate, which determined that the building is usable and that it would need about $1 million worth of renovations.
Garratt said he has no idea how much the site would cost, but said it could be in the $2 million range. With the renovations, the project would total around $3 million.
Another option would be to build a brand new facility for the cities. Garratt said that such a project at a site in Santa Clara, not far from the current Humane Society, could cost $6 million to $8 million. But Garratt said that the first choice would be for the JPA to buy the current site, since it would be less expensive.
Garratt noted it could take the Humane Society months or years to find a new location, so one option might be for the JPA to buy the facility and lease a portion of it back to the Humane Society.
Once the JPA is formed, hopefully within the month if all seven councils pass it, the cities can start formal talks with Arnold concerning the purchase of the facility, Garratt said.
Arnold said she absolutely would be open to selling the space to the cities if the Humane Society does move. She said it would make sense because the facility is a working animal shelter and people already know where to find it. She also said there would be more than enough room for animals the JPA will be responsible for since San Jose is building its own facility to serve its needs.
Two years from now, San Jose intends to have a new shelter. Today, it accounts for 70 percent of the number of animals at the Humane Society, according to Arnold.
If approved by all councils, the JPA will be a public entity with a director and an appointed board so the cities can share equipment, personnel, and resources. The JPA agreement will define the cost and the voting structures for each city, based on animal activity in each city. These structures would be locked in for the next two years, according to Garratt. Then, each city's percentages would be reevaluated, he said.
The original proposal was to form a JPA that included San Jose and Milpitas and build a shelter somewhere in San Jose. That would have cost between $16 million and $20 million, of which San Jose would fund about three-quarters of the total.
But seven of the cities felt that they would be contracting with San Jose, which would have the majority vote. So the cities, except for Milpitas, separated from San Jose about six months ago. Milpitas will contract with San Jose.
Under the voting structure of the new JPA, Santa Clara has two votes, the West Valley cities have three votes and Sunnyvale has two votes, so no one city can carry an issue by itself, Garratt said.
"That was the problem with San Jose," he said. With San Jose out of the picture, each of the remaining cities can work together more efficiently and intimately.
"We have a lot of flexibility," Strojny said.
The breakdown of the proposed cost structure has Sunnyvale, Santa Clara and the West Valley cities each paying roughly one-third. Garratt said the seven cities are also thinking about contracting with San Jose, but only as a fallback option.
Genevieve Roja contributed to this report.
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Campbell, California
