Community Affairs Committee Budget Hearing for Animal Care Services – September 9, 2025
Community Affairs Committee Budget Hearing for Animal Care Services – September 9, 2025
The Community Affairs Committee of the Indianapolis-Marion County City-County Council met on Tuesday, September 9, 2025, at 5:30 p.m. to review the proposed 2026 budget for Indianapolis Animal Care Services (IACS). Acting Chair Nick Roberts presided. IACS Director Amanda Dehoney Hinkle and CFO James Finlayson presented the agency's successes, goals, and the introduced $8,023,991 budget, a 1.5% reduction from the 2025 adopted budget of $8,138,806. The hearing included detailed discussion of staffing, new shelter construction, and fiscal changes.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Chris Roberson, a volunteer at IACS since spring 2022 and a mayoral appointee to the agency's board, spoke. He noted the board had not reviewed the budget ahead of time due to administrative challenges. Roberson commended the new director and the new shelter but cautioned that Marion County's animal welfare crisis has not yet been solved, citing a drastic overpopulation of dogs.
Discussion Items
- Presentation by Director and CFO: Hinkle highlighted programmatic successes including over 2,000 high-risk animals transferred to rescue partners, a 10% increase in adoptions, a 27.5% increase in foster placements, a 91% live release rate (up from 84% the previous year), and decreased workplace injuries. She also announced a new volunteer coordinator hired the day before. The new shelter, scheduled for completion by March 31, 2026, will feature 60,300 square feet, 234 dog kennels (182 indoor/outdoor), 80 cat cages, a public dog park, two acres of pasture, and state-of-the-art veterinary space. CFO Finlayson detailed budget changes: a $49,810 increase in Personnel Services (Character 1) due to COLA and health insurance; a $100,000 reduction in Materials and Services (Character 2) from reduced office and medical supplies; a $131,164 increase in Other Services & Charges (Character 3) primarily due to rent for the new building (paid to Building Authority); a $213,718 reduction in Property & Equipment (Character 4) from fewer vehicle purchases; and a $17,928 increase in Internal Charges (Character 5) from higher OCC chargebacks.
- Councilor Questions: Councilor Hart asked about the move-in date (target May 2026) and sought clarification on the Building Authority rent structure and the OCC chargeback increase. Finlayson promised to follow up on the OCC chargeback. Councilor Cahill discussed the practice of waiving adoption fees (currently set by ordinance at $60) and suggested evaluating whether fees should be reinstated to generate an estimated $200,000–$300,000 in revenue, possibly directed to IACS rather than the general fund. Councilor Osili inquired about the large budget variances between departments; Finlayson attributed them to reclassifying expenses to the correct accounts. Councilor Grays asked about revenue from community events at the new shelter; Hinkle confirmed plans for on-site adoption events and use of the public dog park in partnership with Parks.
Key Outcomes
- No votes were taken; the hearing was informational. The committee will continue to review the proposed budget. Councilor Cahill requested a future analysis of adoption fee collection and potential ordinance changes. The board and committee acknowledged the agency's progress while noting ongoing challenges.
Meeting Transcript
All right. Good evening. I've called to order the meeting of the community affairs committee of the Indianapolis City County County Count City County Council for Tuesday, September 9th, 2025. At this time, I would like to introduce my account fellow counselors to uh I would like my fellow counselors to introduce themselves. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Derrick Cahill, District 23. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Michael Paul Hart, representing District 20. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Kristen Jones, representing District 18. Thank you, uh Acting Chair, uh Ron Gibson, District 8. Thanks, Mr. Chair, and good evening, everyone. Keith Grays, District 9 on the Indianapolis side. And I'm Nick Roberts, district 4, and as was mentioned, the acting chair for tonight, uh, counselor vice president Ally Brown is not able to make it. Um we were very fortunate tonight to have the director, Amanda uh Dehoney Hinkle as the uh presenter tonight. We're gonna be going over the 2026 budget presentation for the uh animal services agency. Um it's her first one, and as is the the CFO. Um, and we're very happy to have you guys and um very grateful to everyone who's here and um looking forward to hearing about what else is going on for the animals in our city. Thank you. Thank you, Councillor Roberts and all members of the committee for being here tonight. Um we're very excited to introduce our 2026 budget, and it's as Nick said, um, it is my second month at IACS as director, and this is James's fourth month, so this could uh get very interesting. This is our very first time presenting a budget to all of you. Um we're excited to tell you what our goals are, our successes, and our projects that we have coming up. So I'll go over those things, and then James will go over our proposed 2026 budget and our plan to allocate our resources. I do want to say thank you again. Um, you all have been big advocates for our efforts, and we look forward to continuing to work with you guys. So, first up, we'll go over our agency overview. Um, it's a highlight uh the work that our staff do. We're happy to have a strong ASME partnership and operating under a newly negotiated contract. Um, Indianapolis Animal Care Services is Indiana's largest open admission municipal shelter, providing 24-7 animal control services, um, sheltering, rescue, and support services for Indianapolis residents. Each year we respond to thousands of calls involving strays, cruelty cases, public safety issues, and we have four divisions, admin and finance, placement, medical, and shelter operations. Just to highlight some of our agency staffing, um, what we do, we are happy again have that strong partnership with ASME. We have 67 and a half current staff members with 16 vacant positions, a strong track record of internal promotions out of 16 managers and supervisors. 13 of those were ACS promotions from internal, two external and one internal city transfer. Employee retention. Um has we vacancy rate has improved from 38 percent, and that's from August 2024 to 19 percent as of July 2025, increasing consistency and efficiency. This is primarily from our ASMI contract. Our staff has a 100% defensive driving training compliance as well as all employees intended conflict resolution training. Our agency staffing. This is our agency's demographics. We have more women in our agency as you can see than and we will continue to work to have an agency that better reflects our community. Number five, our pro programmatic and fiscal successes. Um, our rescue transfers, so that's any animal that comes into our shelter. We send out to other shelters or rescues um so that they're not having to stay in our in our shelter. Um, we've had over 2,000 high-risk animals transferred, and this is for 2024 to other rescue partners. Our adoptions increase 10 percent, moving more animals out quickly into homes.
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