Although the city council decided to request an extension until Dec. 31 at its Oct. 22 meeting, SVACA board members wanted the city's decision earlier.

"We need to know by then—are you in or out," said Saratoga city councilman Stan Bogosian, SVACA chairman, at the board meeting on Oct. 28.

According to Deborah Biggs, general manager of SVACA, the board does not want to take this issue into next year because several new board members will be joining who will not be as familiar with the issue. Some members have worked on this issue from its inception and would like to see closure, she added.

"We'll try our best to have Sunnyvale make that decision at the Dec. 17 city council meeting—our last one this year," Sunnyvale Councilman Tim Risch said at the meeting. "But we can't guarantee that."

Both Sunnyvale Mayor Fred Fowler and Risch—SVACA board members—said that they would take the board's request back to Sunnyvale.

According to Sunnyvale city manager Robert LaSala, the city of Palo Alto's animal shelter plan is an option that Sunnyvale is currently reviewing. However, neither the Humane Society of Santa Clara nor SVACA have been ruled out, he said.

In July 2000, after the Humane Society said it would discontinue animal control services, the cities of Sunnyvale, Cupertino, Santa Clara, Saratoga, Campbell, Monte Sereno and Los Gatos signed a Joint Powers Authority agreement, a legal agreement between two or more jurisdictions to provide specific government services—in this case animal control services.

The SVACA board has seven members—all council members for their respective cities—Stan Bogosian, chairman from Saratoga; Fred Fowler, vice chairman, from Sunnyvale; Tim Risch, from Sunnyvale; Sandy Decker, from Los Gatos; John McLemore and Aldyth Parle, from Santa Clara; and Jane Kennedy, from Campbell.

Although SVACA currently uses the Humane Society's animal services, the board decided to build a 24,588-square-foot animal shelter for the seven member cities to use, and located a 1.72-acre site on 888 Reed St. in Santa Clara.

On Sept. 24, after SVACA informed the member cities that the cost of building the shelter had increased significantly, Sunnyvale requested a month's extension to review other options for animal control services. The estimate for building the shelter had increased from $6.5 million to $8 million, and Sunnyvale's share of the cost consequently increased 23.8 percent, from $2.1 million to $2.6 million.

LaSala said that he and managers from the other cities have been discussing various concerns pertaining to the new shelter.

"We do think the issues raised by Sunnyvale are important ones," Los Gatos Town Manager Debra Figone said at the Oct. 28 board meeting. "We're working to limit confusion by increasing communication among us."

Sunnyvale's concerns prompted the SVACA board to take a closer look at the costs and plans for their new shelter. Since then, peer reviews and technical studies conducted by two independent consultants have validated the increased cost, according to Fowler, who is also vice chairman of the SVACA board.

"The gist of it is that the proposed shelter is adequate—not lavish," Fowler said.

However, as per the board's direction, the technical advisory committee of SVACA will further evaluate the two independent studies for additional validation.

Besides Sunnyvale's extension, board members have other site issues to deal with. The same Reed Street site is under consideration as a test track for a BART expansion into the South Bay. Although that project would be at least a decade or more away, SVACA board members are seeking another site for their new shelter.