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Photo by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Seven valley communities, including Sunnyvale and Cupertino, are combining their resources for animal control services. As of next July, the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley will no longer provide animal control shelter services.
Animal shelter plan coming together
Sunnyvale will play a large role in finance and operations
By Daniel Hindin
Starting July 1, 2001, the Humane Society of Santa Clara Valley will no longer provide animal control services in Sunnyvale or any other part of the valley. The city of Sunnyvale has decided that the best way to fill the vacuum of animal control in the area is to join the Joint Powers Authority (JPA) along with the cities of Campbell, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Saratoga, Monte Sereno and the town of Los Gatos.
"The Humane Society said that they wanted to end their services for many reasons," says Pete Gonda, administrative assistant of police services. "The key reason was the longer holding period that the state now requires. The state is mandating that you hold strays for six business days instead of three."
Gonda says that the JPA is exploring the purchase of the Humane Society's facilities. But he says, "It's going to take two or three years before they will move out of their current building. They are planning on moving into more of an educational role in animal protection. It will take them a long time to raise enough money to move to their new site. This will probably entail the JPA buying the building from the Humane Society and leasing some of the space back to them."
The cost of being part of the JPA will be different for each city involved. The percentage of total cost for each city was determined by three factors: total population, number of licensed animals and total days that animals spend in the shelter. According to these numbers, Sunnyvale must shoulder the most responsibility of any city--33.42 percent of the total cost. Shelter and administrative services will cost Sunnyvale $384,000 a year. The total cost of purchasing and renovating the existing Humane Society facility will cost the city $1.4 million.
One way that the city could save money is by keeping its own field services in tact. Sunnyvale authorities believe that the city's level of field services is better than what the JPA will provide. The city has elected to continue its own program.
The only other alternative to joining the JPA would be to enter into a contract with San Jose and their existing animal service. Originally, Milpitas considered participating in the JPA, but they have since opted to sign on with San Jose.
"We considered a contract with San Jose," says Gonda. "It's a matter of preference. The benefit would be that we wouldn't have to deal with start-up fees. But the unknowns were too overwhelming. San Jose couldn't give us an estimate of any capital costs that would be involved. And they couldn't commit to any space allocations. We also wouldn't have much control or say about what goes on."
Within the JPA, Sunnyvale will have a lot of say. The benefit of paying such a large percentage of costs is that the city will also have a lot of decision-making power. A seven-member board will run the JPA. Sunnyvale and Santa Clara will each have two permanent members on the board. The other five cities will share the other three positions by rotating in and out of the board. Board members must be chosen from the legislative bodies of each city. Sunnyvale's board members will be Councilmen Tim Risch and Fred Fowler.
When asked whether the new animal protection plan with the JPA is better or worse for the city than the old one with the Humane Society, Gonda said, "It won't be worse. I can't see the shelter being adversely impacted. We may see some growing pains, but we will improve the level of overall service."
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Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
