As soon as Ms.

Barley comes back in, we'll get started.

I'd love to wait to start the record until she's back.

Exactly.

We're a little bit late getting started.

We're here for a work session to discuss AL2026-26.

An ordinance amending anchorage municipal code, chapter 8.55 to clarify conduct that qualifies animal neglect.

And when officers may intervene on behalf of a neglected animal and to establish a new class, a misdemeanor based upon repeat violations of Title 17, animals, amending Title 17 by updating definitions and adding a new section, making it unlawful to leave an animal unattended inside a vehicle for eight consecutive hours or more, adding a new section to Title 17, establishing cost of care bonds for animals taken into protective custody and providing for forfeiture of ownership interests in such animals upon failure to post the cost of care bond and amending section 17.70.020 civil penalties for animal care and control violations.

We'll start with introductions, Ms.

Baldwin Day.

Aaron Baldwin Day.

Zach Johnson.

Anna Brawley.

Mr.

Myers is with us.

Christopher Constant here on the phone, Ms.

Silvers.

Here.

Thank you, Ms.

Martinez.

Present.

Thank you.

Thank you, Ms.

Kirker.

Yes, thank you.

President.

All right, thank you.

That's everybody.

And we're also joined by staff from the health department and animal care and control.

You want to go ahead and take us off, Ms.

Rush?

Yes, Kimberly Rash, Anchorage Health Department.

Hi, I'm Tamaya Lieber Spock.

I am the administration manager at the Anchorage Health Department.

In that role, I oversee Anchorage Animal Care and Control, which is run by a contractor for the municipality.

So I'm going to be going through an overview of the draft changes.

And I'm also joined at the table by Pam and Sam from the Animal Control Advisory Board.

And then I believe we also have some board members on the phone.

And so they'll be here to help answer questions as well.

Next slide, please.

So as a summary of what I'm going to go over, I'm going to talk a little bit about the background that led to these changes.

I'll go through the a summary of the changes under chapter 8.55, which is in the penal code, and that's animal neglect.

Talk about the changes under chapter 17, which is animals, and then talk about the impact of the proposed changes.

Next slide.

And next slide.

Okay.

So the changes that we're talking about today were really spurred by AR 2024-379.

This was an AR that was spurred by a very horrific incident where a vehicle that an individual was living in with many dogs caught fire, killing most of the dogs.

And the AR called for a review of animal cruelty and neglect laws and recommendations for updates.

So the health department took a two-pronged approach.

We requested review and recommendations from the animal control advisory board.

And then also we put together a working group of representatives from the health department, the police department, the department of law, civil side, and the municipal prosecutor's office to do a review at the same time.

Next slide, please.

So the animal control advisory board and the working group drafted changes.

And then those changes were looked at by the animal control advisory board and kind of combined into something that they voted to post for public comment.

The changes were put out for public comment on September 10th of 2025.

And the public had opportunity to provide in-person comments both at the animal control advisory board meetings in September and October, and to provide written comments from September 10th through October 24th.

So after those public comments were received, we the advisory board did look at the comments and did make a change to the proposed changes.

And that main uh thing was that initially we had the animals and vehicles had to be checked on every 12 hours.

Um, or anything more than that would be a violation.