Indianapolis Animal Care Services Committee Meeting, Nov 14, 2025
Indianapolis Animal Care Services Committee Meeting, Nov 14, 2025
The Community Affairs Committee convened on November 14, 2025, to review and vote on Proposal 331 of 2025 regarding the Animal Care and Control Services budget, and to receive a comprehensive 120-day performance update from Director Amanda. The meeting focused on fiscal adjustments for personnel and spay/neuter costs, operational changes including volunteer hour modifications, and a significant reduction in euthanasia rates despite a rise in animal intake.
Consent Calendar
- Proposal 331, 2025 (Additional Appropriation for Animal Care and Control) was moved and seconded for floor passage with a "do pass" recommendation. The motion was approved unanimously.
Public Comments & Testimony
- Kyle Hendrix (Vice President, Ask Me Local 725; zip code 46237): Expressed full support for the administration of the Animal Care and Control department, specifically citing a strong partnership and open-door policy with Director Amanda. He noted a decrease in staff grievances and disciplinary actions.
- Lucia (Volunteer Coordinator, Animal Care Services; organization not stated): Shared her professional background as a former animal control officer and current volunteer coordinator. She highlighted the success of her 45-day tenure, including a new self-guided orientation process for over 835 applicants, the creation of a new Volunteer Handbook, and a successful corporate service day with Alanco Animal Health involving over 40 volunteers.
- Angela Hopson (Sword Initiative; residing in 46222, serving 46208 and 46218): Stated full support for Director Amanda's work, describing her as the "right person for the job." She emphasized the shelter's current stability and the need for the budget to strengthen in-house veterinary medical capabilities to reduce city costs and serve as a triage center.
Discussion Items
- Fiscal Appropriation (Proposal 331): Director Amanda requested an additional appropriation of $710,000 and a transfer of $47,489 in reserves. The funds are designated for personnel cost overages ($120,000), medical supplies ($90,000), and character 3 services for spay and neutering ($500,000).
- Counselor Kay: Expressed concern that the primary driver of the costs is spay/neuter overages rather than the previously rumored cat virus outbreak. She called for benchmarking adoption fees against surrounding counties to ensure fees are set competitively to reduce reliance on the general fund and noted that spay/neuter costs are unlikely to decrease.
- Counselor Gibson: Noted that the additional appropriation is "reasonably in line" with the needs and expressed appreciation for the Director's progress.
- Counselor Roberts: Inquired about the publicization of the new volunteer hour restrictions and the average wait time for animal intake. The Director confirmed the hours (building closing at 7:00 PM, volunteers until 8:00 PM) were communicated to volunteers in September via email and Facebook, though he acknowledged a potential disconnect with public perception. Regarding intake, the Director explained that management vets animals to determine if they can be housed in the shelter or if resources should be directed elsewhere due to space constraints.
- Counselor Graves: Noted the robust number of volunteer applications (over 800) and asked if an ideal volunteer number existed. The Director responded that even a 25% response rate would be "amazing."
- Counselor Cahill: Asked three specific questions:
- Harassment Training: Inquired if volunteers undergo the same harassment training as city employees. The Volunteer Coordinator confirmed that while they do not undergo the exact same training, the new Volunteer Handbook and orientation cover harassment and discrimination practices.
- Out-of-State Adoption: Expressed concern regarding out-of-state adoptions (specifically from Chicago) that do not fall under Indiana's MyCase system. The Director responded that typically abusive actors do not drive long distances and that adoption counselors vet applicants to check for red flags.
- Unaltered Dog Registry: Requested statistics on the effectiveness of the registry program in enforcement. The Director noted it is still a "work in progress" focused on education, with no known violations enforced to date, though welfare checks are being conducted based on cross-checks.
Key Outcomes
- Budget Vote: Proposal 331, 2025, was approved unanimously to approve the additional appropriation totaling $710,000 and the reserve transfer of $47,489.
- Operational Stats: The Director reported that as of October 31, 2025, intake has increased by 394 animals compared to the previous year (7,249 vs. 6,855), while euthanasia rates have dropped by 137 animals (912 vs. 1,049). Adoptions are up 12%, and rescues/transfers up nearly 30%.
- Shelter Status: The Director highlighted a reduction in the average length of stay from 24 days to 20 days and confirmed the new shelter has drywall and paint underway, with walls and windows installed.
- Future Directives: Council members expressed a desire for more transparency on volunteer communication and a long-term goal of decreasing length of stay and euthanasia rates while increasing intake.
Meeting Transcript
Okay, I'll go ahead and call to order November's uh meaning for the Indianapolis or for Community Affairs Committee. We have one thing on our docket tonight. It's to hear about proposal number 331, 2025, which approves an additional appropriation totaling 710,000 and a decrease of 47,8489 in the 2025 budget for animal care and control services, animal care services in the consolidated county general and city cumulative funds for the purposes of funding personnel costs, additional spay and neuter bills, medical supplies and service costs. Before I turn it over to you, Director, I'd like to go ahead and have the counselors around me uh introduce themselves. I'll start on the left. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Derek Hahill, District 23. Uh thank you very much. Vob Ossilly, uh District 12. Thank you, Madam Chair, Nick Roberts, District 4. Thank you, Madam Vice President. Kristen Jones, District 18. Thanks, Madam Chair, and good evening, everyone. Keith Gray's District 9 on the Indianapolis East side. Thank you so much, everybody. And I am Allie Brown. I represent District 10. So, Director, would you like to go ahead and tell us about what's going on at the shelter? Yeah, so I've got James Finnlays in here with me tonight to go over our fiscal. And then I have an update just of um shelter things and my kind of 120 days in review. So just let me know what order you guys want to hear that in, and I can proceed. If you want to go ahead and start with per if I guess the proposal first, then we'll follow up to talk about what you've done. Absolutely. All right. Um thank you for everybody here tonight. And just a brief summary of the different elements of this fiscal is an additional 120,000 dollars for personnel cost overages, an additional 90,000 for supplies. Uh five five hundred thousand dollars for uh character three, so our professional services for spaying and neutering. And uh we identified 47,489 reserves to transfer. And overall, therefore I we identified overtime uh some outbreaks we had earlier, as well as just primarily spaying neuter cost overages. Okay. So some of the things we're going to be changing, some of the positive impacts we will be having is we're still actively pursuing full-time veterinarian coverage as well as uh contract vets to either come in part-time or full-time, as well as uh we are looking to get more medical supply vendors on fixed contracts, and that includes Alonco, who we recently had a very successful event with. They had some vets volunteer their time, and we are going to in the works to launch a shelter program with them where we would receive some discounts anywhere from 10% up to 75% on certain medicines of theirs, which is we're very excited about. And then um we're also pursuing local foundation grants uh for spay and neuter and vent services. So awesome. I'll turn it over to Amanda. Unless we're yeah, I mean, do you guys have any questions? Counselors, do we have any questions on the budget uh position so far? Counselor Kay. Thank you, Madam Chair. Uh just can I I guess I've heard two different things uh in the the breakdown of this. Uh so not not from you but separately. I had been told that the uh the largest chunk of this money was due to the uh the cat virus outbreak, but you're saying it's spay and neuter. Can you clarify? Uh spay and neuter costs have gone way, way up uh in the last two years. I think we're paying well over double for per surgery for both cats and dogs. And uh the outbreak had more direct costs related to like the actual supplies and personal protection protective equipment uh which one's more like what this is just a three of the spay and neuter overages are the area. Thank you. I guess that my my comment on that, and I know we're not there yet, but we are rapidly approaching, would be to reiterate what I've said before that when we get to the new shelter, and I hope that we are not constantly at capacity and waiv fees that I hope that we will do some benchmarking to try to make those fees set uh competitively with I think uh the the donut counties uh in particular, but based on our own costs, so that we're not taking money out of the general fund, but in fact uh taking care of this because I I appreciate that the costs have gone up since we've had that, but I mean this is this is a good chunk of change, and then it based on what you're saying, Spain neuter, it's not gonna go down. So I think we need to find a a more permanent solution. Thank you.
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