Music

Music

Chair, we're ready when you are.

Welcome to the January 15th, 2025 animal care, I'm sorry, animal well-being commission

meeting, recently renamed organization.

The meeting is now called to order and will the clerk please call the roll to establish

a quorum.

Thank you chair commissioners if you can please unmute your microphones.

Commissioner Treet.

President.

Commissioner Middleton.

President.

Vice Chair Bell.

Here.

Commissioner Fiew.

President.

Commissioner Heffner.

President.

Commissioner Garcia.

Here.

And Chair Morris.

President.

Thank you we have a quorum.

Thank you so much.

Just as a note we are right at quorum with seven if anybody needed to leave the dius we

would have to take a brief break so if anybody needs to leave the dius please let us know

so we can follow that requirement.

I'd like to remind members of the public and chambers that if you'd like to speak on

an agenda item please turn in a speaker slip when the item begins you will have two minutes

to speak once you are called on after the first speaker we do not accept speaker slips

on that topic or we do not accept speaker slips and we will now proceed with today's

agenda starting with the land acknowledgement and the pledge of allegiance so if you'd please

rise to the original people of this land the Nisanan people the southern Maidu valley

and plains me walk pat twin wind tune peoples and the people of the Wilton Rancheria Sacramento

is only federally recognized tribe may we acknowledge and honor the native people

who came before us and still walk beside us today on these ancestral lands by choosing

to gather together today in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for

Sacramento's indigenous peoples history contributions and lives thank you and now the pledge

allegiance a pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic

for which it stands one nation under God indivisible with liberty and justice for all thank you

we have kind of a full agenda tonight which is going to be fun the first item in our agenda

is to welcome our new youth commissioner I apologize I repeated her name twice it is no

Emmy Pew few thank you for that no Emmy is part of an effort in the city to have a youth

voice on advisory groups and committees here for the city and so no Emmy recently joined us

and I asked her to tell us a little bit about what's her interest here yes so hello I've always had

an interest in law and politics and I have two dogs at home so I've always liked animals and I'm

really excited to be on this commission so thank you well thanks for joining us I had that

opportunity to listen to the personnel and public employee committee when they were reviewing

no Emmy's application and she shared that she had read our ordinance which was helpful and that

she had done some volunteer in shelters in her application she said that so she's got a little

bit of experience along those lines as well so welcome to our commission no Emmy so we have our

first order is the approval of the commission meetings from the November meeting I'm always

looking to the clerk to make sure I'm doing this right any is there any public comment on the

minutes we currently have no speakers for the consent calendar okay I put a consent calendar any

questions from the committee on the consent calendar see any is there a motion to accept the

minutes from November so moved Mr. Heffner moved second by member treat thank you so much

commissioner treats all those in favor say aye aye all those opposed any abstentions the minutes

pass thank you so much okay so now we have the follow-up log and I was looking at the documents myself

and noting that in the cover document it says that this is a resource managed by city staff and

that this is a where an area that items of interest for which the well-being commission would like

items agendized and that members may make requests to add things to the log by introducing them during

our comments ideas and questions section which is always at the end of the meeting so this appears

to be a tool that is that is helpful for the city staff to kind of track things that we ask about

and so apparently we ask for these items to be added to the log at the end of our meeting

however I'll just say that the last time we met we wondered what was the difference between the

log and the work plan I think we're getting a little better flavor now that the log is sort of

the city staffs way to manage random so to speak follow-up items and so we'll work with this process

is there any questions about this follow-up log process at the moment any public comment on the follow-up

log thank you chair we have no speakers for the follow-up log thank you and any committee members

or questions about the follow-up log so we're directed to pass a motion adopting the follow-up

log as developed by proposals and discussions from the commission at this point the log is empty

so I'm not sure that there is much business to be done in terms of adopting this log other than

for us to possibly talk about it at the end of the meeting when we discuss during our comments ideas

and questions would that be reasonable I'm asking the clerk and the city attorney thank you so much

so is there a motion to adopt the process to add comments at the end of the meeting

we'll have middle ten as the moving and member treat is seconding it all those in favor

aye aye all those opposed say nay any abstentions okay we will add at the end of the meeting to the log

okay the exciting process of selecting a new chair and a vice chair for calendar year 2025

I've been reminded through a variety of documents that were shared that each person who holds the

position of chair or vice chair is for a calendar year and you can only have two terms and so each

calendar year is a term so therefore I'm completing my role as chair so therefore we need a new chair

is there a motion for a member to be a new chair member treat thank you for that is there a second

who that I'll second that for that do I take public comment on this is there any public comment on

this thank you chair we have no public speakers for this item thank you so much commissioners any

questions comments discussion on this item already then all those in favor of Paul Heffner becoming

2025 chairs say aye aye all those opposed any abstentions okay Paul Heffner can you just repeat I

missed who I believe commissioner treat you made the motion who was the second I'm sorry okay perfect thank

you so much hey so we have a new chair for 2025 I'll hand the gaville over at the end of the

meeting I think we need a vice chair now do we have a motion member Bell I would like to nominate

you Miss Leah for vice chair do we have a second all right looks like we have a nomination and

a vote and a second on that any public comment thank you chair we have no speakers thank you

and any questions from the commission Paula you've served this commission well and I think the

continuity of you working with Paul as the transition happens will be a good one thank you thank you

appreciate that I would echo that and just say that there's no way you're getting off this easy

well thanks for your confidence and I look forward to continuing and a leadership role to help

keep this work we've started moving forward so I just wanted to chime in yes ma'am so say thank you

for your service as chair and congratulations and I look forward to working with you Paul thank you

so much for the work that you've done as a volunteer and I'm important to working you and you're

working with you and your new capacity and I would like to also add thank you to Denise for

being vice chair and you're not getting off that easy okay so that's great

let's do the vote I thought we did that thank you for pointing that out all those in favor please

say aye aye those opposed say nay any abstentions the motion passes thank you so we're moving on

to some monthly presentations as you may have seen in the in the document we have some work plan

discussions we'll talk about but let's talk about the first monthly presentation I'm not sure

there was something specific for that so I'm gonna take suggestions from you of who you all would

like to oh thank you thank you for presentations yes so this is the idea that we would like staff

members from the shelter to come forward and like do a presentation some of you may recall Ryan

the communications director made a presentation about his role his team we had a very early on we

had an all control officer explained about their role and the activities we've had the hope program

but because there are new commissioners we thought maybe we would plan a set of presentations

to catch us all back up on some of the departments I know for me it's it's helpful to have that

education so that's thank you for that reminder I know we had the veterinarians here last time we

met but really that was more of an introduction to them it wasn't per se a presentation on the

services that they provide so if for me that that would be a nice presentation would be to have

veterinarians present again about the services etc before we dive into that is there any public

comment on presentations related to departments at the shelter thank you Jerry yes we do have one

speaker Jeffrey Jeffrey thank you

Jeff Tartagia district poor my question was directed to you as far as Lenny Lane out on the

journey what your monthly should we say presentations might look like and also that you a calendar so

to further to attend you know if it was something be interested in June and whether you're doing

something in July or whatnot as well as the other events that do take place related to animals

do you have you signified what for monthly events that are taking place there are various times I

used to work at the Los Angeles animal shelter down there so knowing there are months that there

are certain events going on I just had one of my residential neighbors just have

stayed because they were spraying all over the place so it's just the thing to ask you I will speak

further to other parts of this thing but the reminder here is that please as you put together

this calendar look at the dates and I hope that you will have somewhere a timeline of what monthly

presentations are going to look like and whether it be on the SPA and what your interaction is with

the county which I believe is your want to say Bradshaw animal shelter location don't know and just

what the interaction is knowing some other issues between city and county have been fraught with

discomfort wanting to see what you are doing as they're and lastly I will turn around say since

you guys are using the diocese common I made to city hall was it took eight years to put in

the we say doors to open up for the disability I've not seen anybody within the disability here

but wondering if you're also taking care of the other chambers for any disability

behind the dialysis thank you for your comments your time's complete

Joe we have no more speakers more speakers okay thank you comments from the commissioners ideas

about monthly or presentations I see Kathy yeah we sat down and thought about this because we've

thought about it other times who we'd like to see present from the shelter and someone I'd like

to see present is maybe someone like the volunteer coordinator kind of what what can you do to

volunteer at the shelter what what fits an individual person they may not want to handle dogs or cats

maybe they want to do office work or out in the field work so that would be really nice to have that

as a presentation as well as and I know this falls underneath volunteer is a shelter ambassador

what they do where they go how they present to people out there in the fields because they're

kind of the face of the shelter at a lot of the events so I'd like to see a shelter ambassador

present as well just work one end to the other I would like to see somebody come and maybe talk about

our ringworm program and you know the success we just got some statistics on that that we're sent

out to the staff and it's very enlightening so have somebody from there and then another's

program that isn't well known about is kit and connection and we're just getting ready to start

in the season so it would be nice if somebody could come and kind of lay out what that program entails.

Oh so I would echo what you said about the medical staff somebody from there would be I think

critical of course I'm going to throw out the my favorite topic foster and adoptions so

it's probably thing about that and then I don't know if it would be Liz or somebody else from shelter

operations I mean so many of the interim interim improvements we're talking about have sort of

impact on sort of the mainline part of the facilities so that would be super helpful to hear from.

Down here no Emmy anything you would be interested in hearing about from the shelter.

Great thank you. Number treat.

And middleton.

This might be a repeat but I think hearing from a volunteer coordinator to hear about the

volunteer programs and opportunities could be helpful hearing from an adoptions counselor

a day in the life and what they do and what we can do to help them. Hearing about events and

upcoming events again where we might be able to volunteer and help out or just kind of a calendar

for what the year is going to look like. As you mentioned hearing about the particular vet services

that are available so kind of a day in the life. The animal control aspect I think really hearing

from the people who are out on the streets it might be hard to get somebody's time to do something

like that but understanding that the hardships in what city can do to make their jobs a little easier

perhaps or what we can do and then the homeless outreach program I think it'd be interesting

here from somebody who works on that and can shed some light on what that looks like.

Thank you. Any other additions I was going to add to hope program so thank you for that.

So by my count that's about one two three four five six seven eight nine ten eleven about

eleven we just a remind folks we have ten meetings a year this being one of them so some of these we

may double up and see how we can do and you know expect those presentations to be like 15 minutes or so

10 minutes 15 minutes so just beware that we may have doubled up on some of these and we'll let Philip

kind of work with his team to figure out which order these going I'm going to actually myself put

this on the log at the end of the meeting so we have a way to kind of tracking the idea of how to

how to promote and and make people aware of these presentations who want to listen in or come and

join us. Okay thank you for that I couldn't remember okay so our annual report work plan review

if you all flip into the document into our minutes you'll see a sort of a table a thread sheet on

sort of table this is the sort of next iteration of the idea of a work plan that you have seen in

prior monthly meetings for this what I did was took the powers and duties out of our

statement of what our ordinance directs us to do and tried to put some ideas around what we've

talked about historically in terms of strategies or tactics to try to do some work in that

area of that power or duty I put some names on some of the activities in terms of involved

commissioners you may see your name there because you made one comment or you may see your name

there because you were deeply involved I've got some question marks on a couple of folks so my hope

is that we can go through this document in some detail tonight for maybe the next 10 minutes or so

and ask folks either to help understand if there's more content to put in here if you should have

your name taken off if you should have your name added and kind of think of this as a living

document that captures our activities I'll point out that there are some areas that we don't have

a strategy or a tactic and we don't have a commissioner named and that may just be the way that our

resources are deployed our resources being ourselves so I want to make sure I follow the procedure

before we work on it are there any comments from the public related to the work plan thank you chair

yes we have one speaker Jeffrey only one more after this but my comment here is in your work plan

um considered what months it is that for animal wellness has been lacking or have had a distinct

change there are seasons you know where you have a lot of cats and there are seasons when you

have a lot of dogs and so far it's only channel three that I've seen where you have an adopt an

animal program sitting up there I'm just wondering what else you know you might consider in the

future for Sacramento to do to talk about it when I was in Los Angeles I happened to be at the shelter

that also dealt with the other animals a horse you know and other things in the west valley area

unlike some of the other shelters that being more urban centered you had simply only cats dogs rabbits

turtles and other animals and I don't know the range of animals that you are dealing with

and handling at this point because I haven't seen the entire report to read it and I have a difficulty

right now but that's my comment in hope that knowing there's several plans and do you have any

idea when this is going to be presented to city council thank you for your comments other public

comments on this topic thank you chair that was our only speaker okay thank you so with making

sure I'm following procedure here with our clerk maybe we'll go through each of the powers and

duties and talk a little bit as a commission on these ideas and see whether we should add or take

something off the first power and duty is assisting keeping people yes sorry is there a

wish you can you can pull it up on your computer okay thank you for that make sure we had that

assisting keeping people and pets together we've talked about a 311 project in terms of coordinating

and collaborating with the 311 because of calls that come in there I will admit that that kind of

became a project that didn't pick up and is an area around which we could reinvest some time

and energy the idea of helping 311 by possibly having a pilot where calls came maybe to a dedicated

staff who were familiar with some of the animal questions right now the the last people who were

sort of involved in that was myself Paul have nerd kind of got on the discussion point we had

some discussions with that but that's an idea open intake I think what we were talking about

with open intake had to do with not requiring people were allowing allowing owner surrender of

animals if if that and I'll let people fill in the blanks here but the idea that sometimes

if we actually know it was on owner attempting to surrender their animal we might do some problem

solving with that owner so I'll take I would suggest that open intake ought to be maybe owner

surrender not that we're encouraging owner surrender but if we have awareness that the owner

surrender is being suggested we could possibly the shelter could engage with that family and find

out if there are issues that maybe we could try to solve or help with for owner surrender

I believe right now we don't we don't encourage owner surrender and so sometimes people bring

their animal forward and they don't say it's their animal and they don't get into that discussion

the HOPE program Homeless Outreach Assistance Program

that's one of the activities in that arena the pet pantry the food that being the food

services the pet food services and I've got return RTO return to owner maybe Phil can you

talk talk to us a little bit about the return to owner idea so RTO is just increasing the return

to owner of animals that end up at the shelter so just more proactive programs to get those

animals back to their owners instead of finding an alternate outcome okay okay

and I know for some of this for some of us this is new information you haven't really had a

chance to think about whether you want to dive in and do some work on this but I'll open it to the

commission members to see if there's any area that they'd like to work on around keeping people

on pets together commissioners any commission comments on this topic just a quick comment that I

as we broke this out here my purpose in listing some of these other things was we had talked

about the 311 as a potential area we could we could work in I've thought we would as part of that

think about is that the only sort of avenue we might approach right and thought about some of

the things that I know are what are going on at the shelter in terms of the pet pantry and those

sorts of things so and I know you could say vaccination clinics those kinds of things all sort of

help folks to phrase some of the costs of pet ownership and so rather than simply looking at 311

looking at some of the other things that we were already doing trying to see if there are some gaps

there that perhaps we can try to fill or sort of a broader discussion about the strategy as opposed

to isolating solely on 311 where we you know it's a little bit difficult to get your handle on it

and so many of the calls that 311 gets are not necessarily always related to a potential

owner's render or that sort of thing it's they they found a lost dog or they found a

or other problems right so that was kind of the thrust there for what it's worth so for example

I'm I'm just going to lock on to the pet pantry idea I recently had an interaction with someone

who's in the human pet I'm not the human food of support arena and I found myself thinking boy

if we could collaborate with some of those folks who who run some of the food food sites for

communities where people are coming to get food support could we collaborate with them and

and and have animal food be also delivered there and maybe some of them are doing it and we just

don't know about that so that that was an idea I wondered about is there anybody who has any

interest in sort of working to look into the food sources that are out there for humans and see

what we could do to find a couple that we could work with this is interesting yesterday I had a

phone call is talking to someone who had made some meals and she says I just go out and deliver them

and of course my first thought is do they have animals so that kind of ties into that and you

know there's there's churches that do it there's organizations that do it that deliver food or

take food out or they come and get it there and I think that would be an excellent idea to tie those

together because that was my first question do they have animals as well so it's funny you brought

that up we just talked about that last night with someone interesting idea though

oh remember Garcia it sounds like maybe you have a bit of an interest in this arena would you be

willing to kind of do some background you'll be happy to know that Shannon has already started

working on that so I'm sure she would love to have some additional work and so we did identify

you know we recently changed our pantry to Tuesdays and what we found was that was Tuesdays is one

of the human food banks hours of operation and so there's a perfect opportunity these are community

members that are already accessing these services so let's let's get out of the pet food pantry

business and focus on other things and again people want stop shop they don't have to go to

multiple locations to get the resources that they need so you've already got a new staff member

somebody's already going to be engaging with this volunteer hours in your future

on the owner surrender slash were is there any activity that this commission can support with

with any changing in the concept of whether an owner can come and surrender is fill up August

yeah where we know we've been talking about it inside again staff is a little little weary

about opening that floodgate I've spoken to several directors across the country they did not

see the increase they did not see a huge increase in intake they actually saw less stray intake

and more owner surrenders which if the numbers equal out they equal out the positive thing that

can come from an if an animal does have to be surrendered we can make a quicker outcome for that

animal and we can adopt that animal out that day whereas if it comes in as a stray we have to hold

it for three days and and all of that but ideally an owner surrender prevention program is is really

to have that discussion as you mentioned earlier if we don't have the conversation we we don't know

what it is that they need maybe they just found out that it has a $750 veterinary expense that they

they can't afford well if we don't have a conversation we can't tell them about our vet owned

assistance program with our friends group so we missed out on an opportunity they surrendered their pet

because they wanted to do right by the pet so again many positive things that come out of having

an owner surrender prevention program but there are going to be times where the owner surrender is

is the right thing for the pet so as an order is a concept of business would this be like helping

write a policy for the shelter on owner surrender we would we would welcome that is there anybody

on this committee who would want to work with me on a policy to address owner surrender that we

would then talk with the talk with the public and talk with the staff about I would yeah

anybody else want to I would just ask to make a change like that is that something that you're

able to do or do you have to run that through council or any other body no it's yeah it's it would

actually save us it would in the end it would actually probably save save us money

I'm going to move on because I know our time is special is select but second one is providing

quality care for animals housed at the city shelter and for me and again I put stuff on the page

here we can adjust it but promoting the needs assessment for me that was the number one that came

up in terms of what we can do to promote quality and and work to improve quality of care at the

shelter and I just put bullet points there that this has to do the next steps is as I understand

that or as we see them me is a site selection activity working on interim improvement list which

I'll talk about in a minute and looking about how to build community awareness that we need

we do need the new shelter and basically all of us are on this so to speak and Paul

Hepner has some background in the idea of how to do some funding Paul the treat also has some

background in the area of how to find some how to build a fund development plan whether that is a

bond whether that is going after private donors whether that is the state of California budget

those are the places that I hope that for example Paul and Paula can collaborate and talk about

whether there's any there there to go after some state dollars or other sources of funding

Kathy has been involved in the needs of selection from the beginning I would encourage Kathy to

kind of stay involved in the site selection that's why I put your name on because you were involved

I know Denise has been we've got a way finding discussion Denise you've been interested in that

are you still interested in staying on the way finding which is about quality services

member Middleton anything that you'd like to kind of dive in here on the way on the on the needs

assessment are these activities building community awareness I think getting more involved

as you mentioned I met with Ryan recently at the shelter so finding opportunities to help with

building more awareness about the needs assessment and how we can move to next steps on that

and then potentially funding I don't know a lot of donors here in this area but I know some

outside so perhaps that's something I can help with great I put over on or we actually I collaborated

with a member Heffner on some of this anticipating that maybe he had some good input so we worked on

this and I wanted to point out that we did send out our needs assessment report to each of the

city council members and we definitely made sure that our new member council member Phil Pluckybom

received a copy and also a new council member Dickinson received a copy and the mayor's office

I'm not sure I got it to the mayor's office that's my problem my fault but I will follow up with that

but we've had conversations with the new council members about and we've had a conversation honestly

with the mayor he visited the shelter his second day in office and we talked with him I see

members of the audience from some of those visits good to see you so we have more to work to do

on the needs assessment what next steps with that but thank you for your efforts folks okay

encouraging low cost pay newter services identify funding for that one of the ideas that we came

up with was about trying to develop a list of Sacramento vet clinics and maybe approaching those

clinics member bell any thoughts you were kind of diving into this one I got a list from Ryan

because your right page has a list I've not reached out to any of the clinics and then I did speak with

the who is the adoption coordinator and asked her about I know that with some of the foster

two adopts they can go and get them fixed themselves and then they waive the adoption fee and she

said it's not been a whole lot of people right now but finding out the cost of some of these

may help increase that if the need arises or stays let's put it that way because the need is

already there yeah so any is there anybody else who's got time or interest in working on some of

this with member bell Kathy's nodding her head okay we'll put Kathy on that so let me also kind of

throw in this isn't to put the work on you to to approach the clinics if you would if you

could develop a list and just in the city of Sacramento a list of veterinarians who have surgical

services who do this if you my my question is if you would bring forward a list to a subcommittee

then for we as a subcommittee could sort of work our way through that list and maybe determine

if it's a corporate organization for example probably not likely to want to work with us but if

it's Dr. Morris on free board full of art maybe she would be willing so it's not on just so you

know it's not on you to approach them but if we could start to sort a list and and and find some

friends some veterinary friends that then we could start to refer people to if if it came up or

maybe we could set up a relationship with friends to pay for that so the first thing is to help us

create only within the city limits a list of veterinarians who have surgical sites I guess

so it's not all on you to approach them all that makes sense to folks remember Pue we might

recruit you into this one just to kind of help us learn about the other veterinary services

is that makes sense I think it's might be an area around which you as a young person might have some

technical skills that I don't have in terms of putting stuff together okay so we'll put

memory Pue on that one as well shelter needs is sure shelter meets exceed standards to the

association of shelter veterinary and guidelines you know we're waiting the outcome of the audit

that was done in 2024 we could that Philip I'm guessing this is on your report so we'll wait

to your report to get to that but for for this moment I put Christie Middleton and Paul together

on this to kind of help us try to bird dog when this report comes out understand what the implications

are in the report my suspicion is it will be some big report that'll come out and we'll need some

people to sift through it and kind of and since you have a background with the Humane Society that's

where I've thought because it's the guide associate of shelter veterinarians guidelines you might

have at least some familiarity with that is that a role you are comfortable with sounds good sounds

good okay so the next category was programs at the shelter and Christie had an interest in that

but tell us a little bit more about what you were thinking about the idea engaging with Ryan to

learn more about the communications at the shelter who's part of my background is marketing and

PR more on the PR side the marketing and it sounds as though he had he's very focused on social

social media that's definitely not where my strengths lie but a little less on PR so I think

that's something that I can contribute to obviously I have a lot more to learn but I think these

monthly updates from various aspects of the shelter will help me with coming up with ideas for how

we can help with generating some earned media coverage on some of the things that are happening at

the shelter in in general building awareness about programs and services that we offer thank you

anybody else interested in that arena to work with Christie on something like that

remember Pugh are you trying to vote are you just scrolling okay okay so at this moment we'll

leave it with member Middleton Christie and I heard a comment recently about some additional

outreach maybe in the world of fund development so maybe that'll help tie into some area of our

ideas about looking at fund development for a new shelter and to comment about some of the input

we've had today you know if we if we came up with a calendar I'm sure there are calendars that

Ryan manages but if there are activities like member Garcia has attended a lot of meet and greets

out in the community etc etc maybe we can just make that sort of a month we could add that I'm

going to put a note to myself to put that on the log in terms of monthly activities

the idea of promoting animals available for adoption so we talked about continuing to look at the

conversion factor Paul is going to make a presentation on that but at this point I've put

Paul's name down on this in terms of increasing awareness of animals available anybody else

interested in that Paula my cat person with two sure you you actually met with with Daisy so yes I

did so sure so for member pew pew I think few like f e w thank you um Paul works a lot with dogs

at the shelter and member bell works a lot with the cat situation at this so we've got good

expertise right here um yeah so we'll hear from Paul's presentation in a minute the promoting

importance of space and neuter we don't have anything going on I'm not saying that we can all

handle this but just putting that out there if there's anybody who's got any interest or area

of expertise in there um in promoting the importance of ensuring animals have medical care

and vaccines actually for both of those are new brochure uh we really need to continue to work

on getting that brochure in translated right I contacted them again to see where that where we

were with that yeah so let's um let's at least put put that down as I was a tactic that we're

doing in terms of promoting the importance of spaying and neutering and Kathy's going to be

looking at Spanish I don't know if Russian or what would be the other high volume languages do we

collect any of that on weight while yeah I forgot what I sent do we collect that on weight while

or anything no but the staff better really idea okay it's in any I think they said she

yeah yeah um liaison with the community a forum for public discussion we've done a lot of meetings

with city council members who've come and toured through the shelter do we want to do more of that

do we want to do more do another public forum like we had done with Lynette anybody

have any thoughts about that I kind of like to keep open the visits of whoever coming through whether

it be a council member or someone from a state office to keep that open you know just as an

opening invite someone um just I think the more awareness we have and and some of the some of the

council members have asked to come back so um I'd like to kind of keep that that open okay okay so um I

suggest that we keep this on as a log item as well because one of the things that comes to mind is

tracking uh um I thought just went out of my head I know you do visits and tours

we've kind of gone through all the city council offices of course to invite them back oh

some have asked about uh sitting in on the whole program and doing something like that

and um and I think there was a request to do a ride along with an animal control officer

so I think if we can track that and not just let it happen like organically and for us not to

know that we facilitated if you will and so if Kathy is willing to kind of keep the lead on on

tracking that um and I don't know it's a city within a county I mean do we do we want to work on

board of supervisors folks to come through our shelter or is that sort of completely separate

any common any thought

do they have

not over the shelter but over I mean I would think that certain would be good since it's

I mean we've we've really targeted city council members maybe we could target the the county

they don't per se have authority over any decision about budget or whatnot but

the city is within the county it doesn't hurt us and and we've heard some some discussion

about trying to increase our collaboration with these other organizations so maybe we should

start working on council uh city I'm sorry county supervisor visits anybody have any concerns or

it's good

so I would add that I mean I've got this big hairy audacious goal of a new shelter out there and uh

it's going to take building quite a coalition to make that happen so I think we should be

thinking that no stone should be left unturned when it comes to if there's a Kiwanis club that's

willing to like have somebody come and talk to them for five minutes and you know they'll

listen to us for five minutes we gotta be prepared to do that and and I think that um

I'm glad to hear there's somebody else over there in uh who's got some background in sales because

that's sort of my world too uh and uh we probably need to think about what are we doing in terms

of a social media presence when it comes to things like pushing forward for the interim

improvements and for the you know site selection those kinds of things so I think we

gotta keep that top of mind in terms of uh it's gonna it's gonna take quite a village I think to

better a really good lottery ticket. So we I know we've had at least one assembly member come

through we want to try to target a senator who represents the state's stricken if there's

another assembly member so we'll put that on the list to help Paula try to get us some state

budget money um I'm gonna go backwards for a second because we did talk we we've got interim

improvements as part of the activities and I'm not sure that we really have a section on our agenda

but um on our on our interim improvements some of you may recall just that we in the needs assessment

there was a very detailed list that was in the needs assessment of potential interim improvements

and we we are working to try to prioritize this list and see which ones would be the most most

expensive and not just the most expensive but like where would we potentially ask money for on

the city council we we we we have made a promise to some of the city council members to bring them

a prioritized list so we're trying to target which ones would be the highest priority and which

ones maybe could we do with maybe not so many dollars but we could move forward so we're definitely

I'm working on that. On the um advisory council on city ordinances and state legislation related

to animal well-being so we've got Paula and Paul targeted as this and I think this was basically

the idea of did does this commission want to propose any city ordinance updates or state legislation

not to say that we have it we've got it through we've but I would wonder if maybe Paula and Paul

and certainly to keep an eye on state legislation Paul. Well and keep my uh yes keep

but keep an eye on what's going on statewide for now and my guess is is that there will probably be

as usual some bills that are duced um some that might be good for the shelters and some that

might be disasters for the shelters like we had last year so it's just one of those things that

I wanted this to be in our charge so that we could let people in city council know um what the

likelihood of any legislation that would affect us in a big way um where it's going and if they

should maybe take a stance on it too. Thank you. The other thoughts Paul and Paul you accept

that responsibility to help us. Absolutely. Wait into that and I'm a

Paula thinks this is a good idea it's generally good. You know I want to say I really appreciate

that Paula put this forward when we were looking at redrafting the ordinance and it was accepted

at city council so really appreciate that and then our last item item eight is that we must annually

report to city council on our recommendations and activities and uh so according to the city council

agenda or uh we report up through the personnel and public employee committee PNPE our report is

due to them in January we basically need to have a draft in July August and we would move it

forward to to um PNPE in September so if anyone is out there in the public listening if you went to

our September agenda from 2024 you would find our annual report and you could read through that

if you're interested um and then I did with members of this commission in the audience uh with

helping introduce made a presentation to PNPE just last week on our annual report and I really

focus very much on our needs assessment and the idea that we need to find property and we need

to find a way to develop a funding funding plan uh welcome anyone to go and watch the PNPE committee

uh to see that presentation on our work so basically I think that that kind of falls to the chair

and the vice chair to draft that and bring it to the commission to report and uh like it said

date question well the date was 1 7 20 25 so if you want to go back and watch PNPE you can take a

look and and see that uh I think we've kind of covered the drafting of a work plan we'll kind of

fill it in around the edges thank you all for commenting and carrying your thoughts forward and um

don't think there's an emotion is there a motion on this one and your report no discuss

receive and file so uh with all the input that's come forward uh and Paul and I will continue to kind

of monitor put that into this work plan and kind of start to make some ideas around the next steps on

some of these items okay adoption rate discussion this is a presentation from Paul um there is a

PowerPoint hopefully it's loaded there is a PowerPoint is it the right one oh look it's the

right one I'm so thrilled thank you for the chairs indulgence uh this is I think this is my

third effort to kind of take a look at these uh that numbers on uh uh adoptions and foot traffic um

well let me start with we discovered some very interesting idiosyncrasies in the data and uh thank

you to Phil and his team for helping to identify some of those issues and help me clarify them so

uh let me just say that the data you're going to see differs quite remarkably somewhat from the

earlier numbers because but I think we've got a much better handle on the data now um the uh this comes

from oh thank you oh this is very good this is very helpful um so this looks at rather than just one

month at a time this takes this takes a look at from July all the way through November and what we're

really doing here is uh is uh we're taking a look at at how foot traffic and uh adoptions are related

in other words of the number of folks who come into the shelter what percentage of them actually

leave with an animal and what things can we do that would uh increase that batting average if you

will or I mean they they call it a conversion rate um I got this idea from a webinar from the

folks at uh human animal support services uh they did a national project and uh really we're

able to focus on uh foot traffic and and measuring that and and try to get some measurable outcomes

and figure out ways to to make some improvements so let's take a look at uh this data from uh from

July through November I apologize for the ugly numbers and and uh having to digest so much of that

but um I will show you this data in a in a more graphic friendly way in in a moment but uh if you take

a quick look here so you see uh we don't monitor foot traffic the way uh the folks from from

hostage when they did their project so the only real way we had was to to take a look at our

folks who sign up for the uh on the on the wait list to meet an animal right you come in there's

a QR code you scan or you can come to the front desk and you say yeah I'm I'm Paul I want to meet

scruffy or whatever that is and that person gets added to the wait list so obviously some people come

to our shelter maybe they consider meeting an animal or not and and don't ever sign up for the

wait list so uh our numbers are going to be a little bit different than what you might expect from

actual foot traffic right so but I wanted to call attention to um if you take a look here uh you

can see the variance in the the numbers of folks uh shining up sending for the wait list is really

you know quite large compared to the actual adoptions or even to the conversion rate so you

can see in September that was we had 528 people come in and sign up to meet a dog and we did 248

adoptions uh out of that group but that is actually our lowest conversion rate we only converted then

about a little less than half of of the uh of the folks who came in whereas over in November

was actually our lowest month in terms of the number of folks that came in but our highest conversion

rate and I think what is sort of interesting here is if you take a look at August we had

a hundred fewer folks come in and sign up to meet a dog but we only adopted 20 fewer dogs out in

August now September was a little bit of a interesting month because we did an extensive

free adoption uh uh time period there the shelter was even more crowded than it normally is it's

always crowded but relatively speaking and I think what this is uh showing us is that uh I'm going to

call it the uh the like the crowded Christmas Eve restaurant problem right so and you can see

here this is the same data but just a little more visually friendly and you can see that you've got

big big change in terms of the numbers of folks signing up for the wait list not so much a big

change on the numbers of of adoptions and really pretty pretty uh uh uh uh unvehried numbers in

terms of the uh of the conversion rate in fact it drops off to a degree as the number of uh visitors

or folks who sign up for the wait list uh expand so that extra hundred people who shut up in

September only 20 of them left was animals right so and I happened to have gone out to dinner on

Christmas Eve if anybody remembers it was Tuesday night and uh lots of restaurants were closed we went

to the little restaurant around the corner from us it's normally pretty easy to get in and out of

packed to the gills right and so what would have known me taking us 45 minutes or an hour we were

there for two and a half hours lots of people came in and said well if you haven't started my food

yet I'm leaving that sort of thing I think that's what we're seeing in in the shelter is we get

these times when and maybe it's because we've got free adoptions going often it's because of weekends

where we get so many people in the door that we really can't necessarily serve all of them in a

real timely way um that was my my thesis and I did a little bit more digging and here's where

really taking you really down into the rabbit hole here so what I did was break out by the number of

folks who who signed up for the wait list into uh sort of subcategories here so what you're looking at

is uh the blue bars represent the numbers of folks signing up from left to right so on the very

left you'll see zero to five that was a day and those are days in which only zero to five people

signed up for the wait list and the height of that bar is the number of days where that occurred

right so you see uh six to ten that was our biggest number of days we had 50 days in that sample

period where um we got between six and ten people who signed up right and you can think of as we

as we move off to the right that's when things got more and more crowded um the yellow line above it

there is the is the average conversion rate on those days so when when very few people come the good

news is almost all of them leave with an animal yeah it could come in your half year can I have you go

back and explain the wait list so if I went in just to say I'm just looking around am I on a wait list

you're not you're not like a win and say I saw a dog on line that I want to actually meet does that

go on the wait list depends so the way you get on the wait list is you come into the shelter and

there's uh there are signs with a QR code you you know you you capture your QR code it takes you

it says and you enter any of your name in your phone number and if you know it the name and perhaps

ID number of the of the animal that you want to meet and so not everybody has a phone not everybody is

kind of QR code friendly the customer service folks at the front desk will sign you up if if you're

if you come to the front desk and say well I I kind of like to meet this dog and what's this QR code

I don't have a phone that kind of thing so uh if I just came in and say I'm looking yeah if you

just came in and looked you're not on the wait list okay yeah you're not on the wait list exactly

and we do have uh signage throughout the shelter where it says if you're and those of us volunteers

who walk through if you see people standing around I say well when when you find when you find a dog

you want to meet scan that QR code that kind of thing right so um and thank you for that question

so you can see that the conversion rate falls off really steeply as we add numbers of people to

the wait list now to some degree that's not necessarily surprising because if you're only getting

a few people in those few people that got lots of time there's lots of elbow room uh a volunteer

like me has a lot more uh I might spend an extra 10 20 30 minutes with you and find you three or

four dogs you want to meet instead of one or two that kind of thing um but the other thing you

want to look at here and and the little red line is the average adoption by each uh group in

other words how does the how many adoptions do we do on the average day for that number of signups

now you see that the red line does continue to move up so the more people come into the shelter

the more uh the more adoptions are finalized but it flattens out really quickly it flattens out

very quickly and that's and the conversion rate as you see flattens out very quickly as well so it's

sort of that and again I think that what we're looking at here is sort of the crowded restaurants uh uh

syndrome uh the weekend challenges are still there we've talked about these a couple of times

because those very crowded days those days when we've got 30 35 people who are signed up for the

wait list um those are all going to be on your weekend days or you're potentially sometimes

holidays or maybe the day right after often it'll be on days when we're doing uh free adoptions

we bring people in the doors free adoptions but we also sort of uh you know create that

create that that that push and pull between conversions and visits uh all of the weekend conversion

rates were significantly lower than the weekdays and uh September really stood out as a place where

those two uh things were completely different really roughly during the week two out of three people

who came in left with an animal whereas on the weekends it was more like one out of three so

we can all speculate about why it is folks come in sign up to meet a dog and leave it out an animal

I mean I've got clearly I've got my ideas which I'm sharing with you but we'll never know unless

we actually ask them and that's one of the things that the folks at at Haas recommended was

and especially since we use wait while which is has the capability of sending a text message back

to people who come and sign up wait while it's a software yes wait while it's the software

application that the shelter uses to add people and manage that that wait list right and so

in that when they sign up you sign up basically with your cell phone and so you you'll get a message

back a text back from the from the uh folks either volunteers or staff who are working on

unadoptions that day and what the Haas folks uh uh did in the shelters that they worked in was

recommend that that shelters when people leave without without taking any animal you send them a

little link to a little survey that says you know thanks so much for coming can you just give us

a a reason why you might have left without an animal and it can be you didn't have the animal I

like you you know it took too long or any other number of reasons and so that can obviously you

know give you some sense of what we need to do um some of the other things we've talked about before

which are still sort of uh in process uh we've talked about the the fact that we've got both online

and paper applications and some of the issues with that and I should apologize to member Bell because

I saw her uh meeting with Daisy and I I parachuted into her meeting because they were talking about

adoptions and and thank you for your patience with that uh in terms of wayfinding signage that was

been something that uh that the uh the Haas folks mentioned and of course it did come up in the

uh uh needs assessment and we have made a little bit of progress there uh Denise and I've been

kind of reaching out to folks in the in the sign world and um we got two you can ask the same

question to somebody and get two very different different kinds of answers uh we received one

proposal from a local uh firm here that's on the city vendor list to to give us a plan and some

and and mock ups of signage they came out and we did a walk through the shelter with them

and they offered to do a plan for us for something on the order of about five hundred dollars I believe

and um then after that we received a proposal from a very interesting and fascinating group of

people in southern California and their proposal was two orders of magnitude higher than the five

hundred dollars so for those your math majors that'd be more than we spent on the needs assessment itself

so I'm guessing that we and we I had some conversations with Phil and so I think we've identified

some friends dollars that are gonna um uh go for the lower end of the the thing unless unless

somebody won the lottery anyway they I'm both proposals seem very interesting and we'll sort of see

uh you know where we get you from there uh the the other thing that um and it did make my heart

go pity pat was on sunday it was at the shelter for another meeting thought I might stick around

to do adoptions but came out and found two folks that I had trained to do uh adoption counseling were

hard at work on the wait list on sunday so that was we are making some progress in terms of adding

some volunteers who've got the the training to do adoption counseling but and this is kind of where

I you know I landed on this is uh it doesn't it basically anything you any time you do look at

anything at the shelter you're gonna knock up against the limits of the facility um to carry out

my little crowded restaurant analogy in essence we're a two table restaurant we've only got two

meet and greet areas that are immediately adjacent to the shelter that you don't have to go out to

the back 40 play yards which are you know somewhat problematic in terms of taking uh uh people out

there and we do have a uh uh there's a there's an area out front of the shelter but it's you've got

a you've got to move your both your uh your adopters and your your dog out through the lobby and

it's still a problematic and the door for that which I think we had a dog in the uh get loose right uh

the strangely and over put that door in uh the the door to that outside uh play yard is one where

if an animal hits the hits the door it'll open so so less than ideal in terms of yeah uh not the

best not the best approach so uh stuff to continue looking at I think we'll have some really

interesting data that as we keep looking at it and uh but I think the more you spend time with it

you come up you're bang up against the fact that you know we're a restaurant with two tables and so

when it gets crowded it doesn't take long to get crowded right so that's my report thank you for

indulgence I apologize for all the graphics and numbers and craziness thank you all sure

you can turn that in comment from the public on this topic thank you chair we have no speakers

for this item all right members of the commission questions comments to Paul on this information

buddy any questions or comments um next steps I think is what I would ask Paul and one of the

questions I I noticed in years in the work you've analyzed is kind of by month uh you talk about

weekends and weekdays is there a way to get granular on days of the week um if we have different

and then like next steps or strategies uh I think you were the the survey feedback is that something

that would be uh doable uh if so are you designing questions and what do you when might be a timeline

to get feedback and the other couple things yeah well uh Phil and Ryan and I met and had some

spent some time going over this and uh I know you folks have got some interest in the in the survey

and we uh I think Ryan sent me a kind of a first first cut at the questions we might ask and I

think the other issue is is it I don't know uh uh how like are we at the top tier of weight

while and do we have and you know does it does it actually I know that the system is compatible with

doing surveys I know that we probably have not yet done one I don't know if it would take us to

some higher level of whatever the fee is not sort of think that would be one question but I think

that would be the kind of the logical next step would be to work that part out and see and maybe

do a trial run of some kind to sort of see how that goes yeah um so there is a messaging option

we just don't know with our donor software we actually have the ability to also basically they

they call it a form where we could send them a link and then we could actually capture that data

yeah outside of weight while so that's the part where we're still trying to to figure out um if we

can do that happy to keep working on that example survey question would be for example for example

what I mean you came to the the shelter can you tell us in a few words why you didn't leave with

an animal that sort of thing yeah yeah and and I have a question too so when you talk about

preparing people to talk to people about adoption while they're there how long does that training take

well the classes I've done are about two and a half hours and then I have folks stick around with me

and follow me around as I do it okay so because I'm just wondering if this board would do a sign up

for a few weekends I'd be willing to to take the class which I haven't taken and then give up a

couple of weekends to actually come down and be there to help be another person I would be thrilled

I'd be thrilled to anybody and take care of what you wish for

yeah that makes my heart go pity pat because I mean it's and again you do run right up against the

and and we most often come against this when we're in the midst of free adoptions and that sort of

thing is you know okay you've got 10 people who want to do meet and greets you've even got three or

four people who are who are doing adoption counseling where do you put them and we can we can

you know we can use the conference room when there aren't four X pens with two GRD puppy groups in

there but it's it's it's it's challenge so but we'd love to have you yeah is that for dogs that's

dogs I'm sorry I should always say that that's okay every of my stuff all my stuff is about dogs all I

know about cats is I know where the cattery is I know that Denise knows about cats so that's

and there is a training for cat counseling I think at the end of the month if I'm not mistaken

I think Shannon told me yeah so you do cats do so likely next meeting we might get a better sense

of whether the survey was loaded and yes I would vote for boxes that people check versus freeform

yes you know couldn't get could meet with a counselor couldn't didn't find a dog I like

didn't have to wait too long sort of some of those kinds of things do you want is there anybody on

the committee who or commission who would like to work on this to more with Paul in terms of

look at you Paula could you go anybody else have an interest in this topic once again I'm

kind of ready you're out kind of ready I mean the goal is we're trying to increase adoptions we're

trying to figure out what the barriers are and how to move more animals in a way that makes sense

paper applications is that what is going on with that where are we I know we've talked about that

several times so yes we we have edited it so it is much more streamlined and less questions

ultimately we would like to get away from it and where it is just a conversation yeah that'd be

awesome and I know particularly the the real long form we have is the for fostering for and a lot

of the foster shoe adopts will give you a dog permanently you know for the nice half sheet but if

you wanted if you want to take one temporarily and you know and then adopt it after it's been fixed

I literally tell people well fill out this top part here sign your life away down here turn it over

initial in like 13 places something like that and then we've got to sign and date it again at the

bottom so it's it's a little on the cumbersome side was there not some concern with the city attorney

about the paper form or something it's just yes and no so it is refresh my memory when we left

this off at so we were can we require our foster to adoptors like basically outside of their

spare neuter can we ask them to actually be responsible for you know if that dog eats a

and ends up with about obstruction that's your responsibility you you're fostering this animal you

you've agreed to keep it away from these things and if you don't and that's it's going to be

your animal someday so we're asking you to take care of that so we're still working that out

our bigger goal is just to get rid of foster two adopts and let them be the exception to the rule

instead of yeah so would you get in goes back to capacity yeah okay that's some good plans

that were right that we'll discuss that sounds good thank you any other questions on this

presentation and this is a discussion file so thank you for that shelter manager report

well this is you all been following along if you look down there at the vacancy rate we're at 16%

that's the lowest we've been in many many years um unfortunately this as I always mentioned

this can change and it actually has changed so we will hopefully be having our new chief animal

control officer by the end of the month or the beginning of next month we have one animal control

officer also in that same time frame we are currently in the process of setting up interviews

for our two animal control officers that will be assigned to our homeless outreach program

and we have lots and lots of candidates for those positions we have one RBT starting on January 27th

and we have interview scheduled and we have seven applicants for that position so we'll now be

fully staffed with our VTs we have a customer service representative starting we were waiting for

a start date and then we have also selected a public information coordinator and we're also waiting

for a start date for them as well the animal services coordinator which was vacated by our previous

animal services coordinator gender from Magganya and for the first time ever we have been able to

hire one of our interns into a city position unfortunately sometimes they're they're wanting to

be veterinarian so they're still going to school so this is the first time we've actually been able

to hire one of our interns into a city position so we're really excited about that

and this is where the changes we now have three animal care technician vacancies we are we do

have a start date at the end of the month for one of our hires and we do have one person that is

out on the long-term disability and probably will not be with us much longer so we basically have

four animal care technician vacancies so again just major major improvements our department has

approximately 43 vacancies the whole community yes and so they're all a little envious that we're

we're we're we're getting we're filling our positions so glad to see that change some stats that I

ran on the ninth we had a 155 dogs and shelter and 28 cats I can share with you I checked before I

left the shelter and we have 205 dogs in the shelter right now animals and foster as of

the ninth we had 174 92 cats and others and then in our foster to adopt you see that we have

426 dogs and puppies and 406 cats and kittens you see it with our intake numbers had a slight

increase of 421 total animals over last year not not the number we want to see and obviously

with you know slower outcomes that's that's impacting us so again as of the ninth we had

1,315 animals in our care between shelter and foster again I've mentioned several times this

is typically the slow time of sheltering where you would be down to a couple hundred animals

again shelters across the country are in the same in similar positions but we do have some

plans to take care of some of these numbers I see our volunteer statistics in 2024

we had an increase in volunteer hour or volunteers but a decrease in hours but I know

many of our wonderful volunteers don't log their hours appropriately so we probably actually are

over that number if we actually looked into more detail some general updates on our audit the audit

has been sent back to the vendor we have not seen it it went to the city audit auditor's office

I don't know that process why they send things back but we are waiting for it to come back to

the city auditor and then be presented to us budget you know everybody knows that we have a

77 million dollar budget deficit what our department is proposing right now at this point there's no cuts

to our our budget they're actually the only thing that is changing is we're increasing our revenue

for licensing because we are seeing that we're getting more compliance with our licensing program

well we've been talking a lot about adoptions tonight

and as you as you know the numbers that I just showed you it's a lot of animals

and so we are temporarily really prioritizing transferring animals that don't get reclaimed by

their owners to rescues and shelters and the main reason is we don't have to spend new to them

we don't have to provide the veterinary care and it will allow our staff to get that 800 plus

number down so we're not having to have so many animals in foster care

it could be you know cost frustration amongst the adopters so we're working on

some ways that if people are watching an animal on the stray hold site to see if it becomes

available so putting language on there so that they know this animal may not be available

when it comes off its stray hold if it's not reclaimed by its owner so we can have that conversation

and to get expressing to them why we're doing this it's it's temporary and it's it's a way to get

this number under control because it's just not sustainable the veterinarians can't keep up with

the surgeries obviously they can't keep up with the requests from all the fosters so the

fosters are getting frustrated and then our regular fosters they're also getting frustrated

because there's the staff time you know there's constantly triaging all of these incoming requests

so the team is really supportive of it this was their idea

and so we've already done it you know we sent 30 I think it was 31 dogs to organ him in today

and then we're sending another 20 something to organe no doubt I'm sorry

no doubt on tomorrow so and we're lucky that we we have those especially with the fires right now

a lot of a lot of shelters are transferring those animals in so yeah we're it's

it's the best thing that we can come up is the first step to get that number down and then

there's other things that we're going to do as well as I mentioned before we we're we've

actually confirmed the dates to bring in animal balance and so they will be coming in

February 21st 23rd March 21st and 23rd and May 30th June 1st they will be spaying in

neutering 200 animals over those three days so that's 600 animals so that will be a huge load

off of those foster two adopt animals and then we're also still working with San Diego

Humane Society they'll be coming in February and March and spending three days with us to also

be performing surgeries as well so we're making headway but we have to do something about that

number of foster two adopt animals it's it's not sustainable and so yeah we glad to answer any

questions about those items thank you chair we do not have speakers for the shelters report

yes oh I didn't see thank you for that report I had a couple of questions one is regarding the

transfer of the animals how are you identifying the shelters and rescue organizations that you're

working with our operations managers literally picking up the phone making those phone calls

I'm really to Nevada Humane I know the director pretty well I better et's several so I

a couple weeks ago I sent out an email to a listserv group and she immediately responded and said

let me see what I can I can do for you so yeah it's you know SPC tick 35 from us last week so

it's yeah it is really gonna it's gonna help tremendously and then the second question I have

is regarding the spay neuter days are those totally open to the public or is that for shelter

those are just going to be the foster two adopt animals and then if we have any no shows or people

don't show up then we'll grab animals from the shelter that need to be altered okay thank you

yes you mentioned licensing so and it may not be something you can answer at this meeting but

I'd sure want it to look towards it in February at our next meeting is that on the licensing

restrictions in the state in the city of Sacramento you can only have three dogs which is crazy

and I used to talk to our last animal care person and it's crazy I mean some people can take

care of five dogs and some people can't take care of one so I would like us to make a suggestion

to the city council that they lift those numbers I see all the time both next door and Facebook

of people saying I would love to adopt that shepherd but I'm at three already you know we have

you know a couple of jacks right we could we could take others we're great with dogs so you wouldn't

it's also money to the city so I can't imagine why you would keep those are cane numbers some people

could take care of one great day and some people could take care of four jacks I mean it just

it's just crazy you're either gonna be a good caregiver of a pet or you're not and if you lift

that it also gives the animal control people I think more ability to go to a house and just say

you're not taking very good care of your animals and it also lets people who want to have more

than three dogs the ability to have three dogs and what is cats is five seven okay still you know

I mean and how does that affect fosters does that limit go to fosters too no you can have as many

foster dogs as you wanted to so that's kind of crazy because I think it it flies in the face

of wanting people to adopt yeah I would agree so if we can't go into a full discussion on that now I

do make a suggestion that we have on the February agenda going to the city and saying remove this

arcane number makes no sense oh the second thing I had two things the second thing was

were you going to talk about the catch up day on Wednesday or is that coming later later later okay

so that would fall under that ordinance change section of our charge okay thank you any other

questions down that end at the table any questions down this way Paul not so much a question perhaps

it's just a comment you know the numbers that we're seeing on those on the animals in the shelter

you know that comes after we did what was it 60 emergency fosters during the holidays plus what

three full weeks of of zero fee you know to have and I think I came in the last Wednesday and it was

we had 210 dogs including four pens in the in the conference room and any insight about

because I don't think we saw that huge jump after right after Christmas last year I don't know

yeah no I don't have the exact numbers but the staff did mention that one of our staff members ran

the numbers and this this was our highest December intake rate to date yeah so yeah last week

Sunday through Saturday we sent out 231 animals so return to owner shelters rescues

adoptions foster to adopts foster and again still have this week 205 animals 205 dogs

in the shelter and just the other thing I would say is you know the the transfers I know folks are

getting up at four o'clock in the morning and staying on the road for 16 hours drive into Portland

and coming back and that sort of thing and you know hats off to people who are able to do that I mean

that's they that's over and above they absolutely as soon as that email goes out there's 20 people that

because they know how serious the need is I believe you're doing that tomorrow yeah all right

how many am I taking again I think it's like 21 or 25 it's only going to be no no dogs it's dogs

and I'm not a dog person so it's going to be interesting it's only like two and a half hour drive

so it's not like but I got checked off to drive the van the city van you're excited I do have a

comment that I do look at the statistics almost obsessively daily and what's interesting is

there's not a whole lot of adoption returns that are coming back to the shelter it's not that's not

what it's more of the strays and the either the animal control officers are bringing animals in

or they're coming in as strays so it's not a lot of adoption returns which is nice to see

so is it mostly volunteers who are transporting these animals when we're transferring

them to other shelters currently because of the budget we can only send volunteers to do

transports but we could be qualified to drive one of your vans yes that's an exciting attraction

and the difference between a rescue and transferring animals to rescues and shelters so what's

the difference between an animal rescue and an animal shelter so rescue I mean there are some

rescues that have a facility but most rescues are foster-based where shelters so like a private

SPCA so Sacramento SPCA Nevada Humane those are considered rescues those are shelters those are

shelters those are shelters and a lot of them have breed specific yes and are they do they have

a license as a rescue how does how does it know they're they're all they would all be 501c3s I

mean there are some like Berkeley animal services they're a very small municipal shelter and they

actually have the ability to sometimes transfer animals for their community just because they don't

have they don't have strays coming in like a larger organizations do so if we transfer an animal

to a rescue like a pitpole rescue or a German Shepherd rescue we are then not responsible for the

neutering spaying of those animals the rescue takes on that responsibility and they take on all the

funding related to that and the same would you call the SPCA shelter yeah shelter so those

other entities that are taking this on take on that burden so yeah it's those numbers are huge

the idea of the animal balance coming in and doing these multi-day part of what I am just

curious and we'll watch the numbers is you know it may quote unquote take the back the back

lockdown but it feels like there's just a pipeline of animals that are coming in and as much as we

may organize these intensive and I was there on a day I think we did 60 cats it's an intense day

and it's intense but you know now we have more in the shelter and more is so it's I mean is this

just a trend we're going to have is every quarter there will be intense

multi-day event we're lucky that we have the funding to pay for that this year that probably won't

be the case next year but the idea is with the the vets that once they're not taking in all of these

calls you know regarding the the concerns the foster care appearance may have about their their

animal they will have time to focus more just on spaying neuter and then obviously with the

additional staffing we'll make an additional dent in that as well I'm going to turn to

doemi again and say come and join us for a day of an intense day new today you don't have to do

anything but just come and visit and kind of see what it's like it'd be interesting for someone

to see what how that works in the clinic yeah the two of you can come in I've been there I think

any for any other commissioner questions on Phillips report commissioner comments ideas and

questions so I think this is where we might actually put some item items on the log are there items

and other commissioner comments ideas that are pending other than what we might put on a log

anyone have any comments questions ideas other than what we've talked about are you talking

the work plan and log are they the same like I think we talked about this is the last meeting

so what what we seem to have determined is that we own the work plan we write the work plan we

edit the work plan the log is the staff of the city tool to track things follow up items

anything that we may want the city people to track I think is the best I can combine

the some of them look similar a lot of the areas look similar to what's on the log

I know I was sort of on the page of let's just drop the log okay honestly but it seems to be

not mine to call because it says it is a resource managed by city staff and so I'm looking at the two

people who give us the rules about anything to do with the log that being the city attorney

in the clerk's office can we just leave the log blank and we call it work plan slash those I

think there was the same question along the way that's PNP or I'm sorry one of the meetings yesterday

sounds like something that needs to be a discussion so I get to the clerk's office and then we

can go from there okay okay the one thing that I put a note to myself that we might put on a log is

some of the monthly calendar activities events that for example if we put it on the log of both the

staff from the shelter presentations if it was published on a log then the public could see our

published log and say oh I want to listen into the one on the animal control officer so I was

wondering about putting that on the log but that was the one note I made to myself about the log

okay we beat that horse I mean that topic

let me find my agenda commissioner comments ideas and questions let me see let me see we talked a

bit I had the question about the owner surrender so that's a kind of a policy we're going to work on

that with you just a couple of things for this commission there is a tool that's on your phone

I left my phone at home that's called my impact those of you who volunteer at the shelter

you that this is where the hours are collected for for those volunteer hours I asked if they

could put a category in my impact for us commissioners to capture the hours that we devote to the work

on this commission and they did it and so one of the things we need I'm looking at Philip is we

need all these people's names added to that category I pollen I tried to log his hours from

earlier today and he couldn't get into it so to speak so we need to somehow confirm that these

seven folks have access to log that to the extent that you think about it you would log the hours

that you've spent at the meeting tonight if you do other meetings like with Ryan or whatever so

that we can be a bit more thought aware of what the hours are that the commissioners are putting in

so each of you please get my impact it's an app and then we'll we'll work on making sure that

you can log the hours that you put into your commission work the agendas for these meetings

now that we're a bit more formal and we will be bigger there are 13 seats on this committee

the commission that it's come to my brain that we need to maybe do a little better job of kind

of how do we put an agenda together and who puts stuff on the agenda and so it's it's my

thinking to try this which is that the chair and vice chair drive the agenda so if any of you want

something on the agenda then you bring it to the chair or the vice chair and we work with Philip

to put it on the agenda in terms of working with Philip meaning Philip then works with the

clerk's office and that city attorney to make sure that everything is according to oil so how far

out would you need that information this is very helpful question and I happen to have a chart

here that was provided to me so for example the February 12th meeting materials for that meeting are

due on 127 to the clerk's office the March meeting materials are due to the clerk's office on

224 okay because they have to do a pan right they what public announcement they the items have to

be published for yeah yeah so there's a two or three week ahead of the actual meeting date that

we get items together for the agenda so if you have things that you want on the agenda please

let's try this running them through the chair or vice chair so that we can kind of control that

this is our meeting it's our commission we should control the or be be involved in what's on the

agenda speaking of that we have vacancies on this commission there are like I said 13 seats seven

of us is a quorum if there are not people here then we don't have a quorum and we can't

conduct a meeting I'll share there's a couple of commissioners who will not be here on February 15th

so at this moment we don't have a quorum for a meeting in February there may be some applicants

in the pipeline and if those applicants get moved forward and appointed there may be a quorum but

right now there isn't a quorum for the February meeting because a couple of the commissioners are

not going to be here madam chair can you send the link of how they have to sign up for people who

might want to be considered sure yeah we can send you send out the they have to be live in the

city of Sacramento I'm told you have to live in the city of Sacramento the vacancies that I'm

aware of are two from the mayor's office and then city council members the only commissioners who

have been appointed are Middleton from Maple's office yourself from Kaplan's office and the

youth commissioner and so and vang for member bell so that leaves Jennings plucky bomb Dickinson

I'm sure a telemante I'm sure I'm missing people but so if there's six vacancies right six

vacancies 30 and a city council member can appoint from outside of their district so so keep that

they don't have to listen live in that particular council members district it just happens that I

guess Middleton lives for example in member Maple's district so applicants to our committee

the agenda we talked about my impact owners surrender we talked about rescues etc so

that there has been some discussion about a recent impact of a one-day closure at the shelter

I guess maybe we can just make sure people are aware that the shelter has now taken up status

and Philip maybe you can fill us in a little bit about the the shelter being closed for a day

yes so we are making plans the public yes all the animals are being fed all of the kennels

are being cared for all of the veterinary services are happening it's a day that the public

is but emergencies are handled strays are being intake animal control officers are going out

etc it's just in a sense essence the front desk is not a public although

is today Wednesday and I did see some people in there when I was in earlier so can you tell us

a little bit about and how did you pick Wednesday yeah it has not went into effect yet but it's not

gone no it's not okay okay no estimation date is March 1st March 1st and the idea is a single day

of the week that the public that the staff is there without the public of the public coming in and

what's the background on that why would you do that and what how do you how do you pick a day so

the shelter used to previously be closed Mondays and Tuesdays reached out to the you know the team

advocated for Wednesdays that's one all we're all there we struggle with staff training

we have a lot of training that our staff needs and there's only so many hours in the day

and so I was like you know there's one really good positive reason to to choose a Wednesday

and then you know again having to support staff there or the ACT's to be able to support

the different programs the foster program the rescue program if you've all been to the shelter

the people that have you know it gets messy there's only so many hours in the day the staff

doesn't have the time during the regular days to clean up the shelter so there's many many positive

impacts and it is why shelters typically close one to two days a week did you have a question

Paula on that do you go to me first you go to public this is this is already a discussion

and I had thought about this and I actually had talked to to to fill up and actually had talked to

Paul too I don't have a problem with shutting down one day to the public because I think the

I know how I run an office and the key is is that you need a day when no one's dropping in on you

to actually catch up with stuff if you're busy and the shelter is super busy my biggest question was

did you run it by the the the people who work there the staff was that a good day because I know

that I don't think Monday's a good day I don't work there though I think Monday's a day where people

maybe collect kittens or or her dogs or something on a Sunday and then they would bring them in on

a Monday or whatever it is right or maybe that's the day they want to adopt and vice versa on a Friday

I don't think Friday's a good day Wednesday seemed like an okay day to me but my biggest concern

with the people who work so hard there was that the day that they chose yes and you assured me it was

because you wanted a different day okay so so that was my biggest concern is that you know it's

it's it may not be convenient for some of the people in the public but they're not the ones

putting in the eight nine hours over there so I I do think the idea that you pulled them that works

for me reminded by the clerk that we will likely go over our time limit of 7 30 we have some

public comments still coming so we need to take a motion of our committee to extend the meeting

we don't need to give how many minutes we're willing to extend just that we'll extend the meeting

past two hours do we have a motion to extend the meeting past two hours moved by member Heffner

do we have a second oh second it remember Bell second it so we will go a bit past 7 30 thank you for

that we got a rule call thank you for that all those in favor please say hi hi all those opposed

any abstentions okay thank you for that the only other question I had was to see if member Heffner

in monitoring adoption numbers is there a way to get granular not this minute but granular

on the days of the week and see if we can learn a little bit about any impact on so my answer would

be there is because I do have I mean the data I get is is day by day there is degree of variability

particularly around you know when was there a holiday when we start a free adoption is that sort of

thing I mean the general answer is going to perhaps would be for me I haven't looked at the

data for sort of Wednesday specifically but typically our weekdays are our lower sign-up days

are higher conversion rate days so our average adoptions are way higher on the weekends obviously

because that's when we get most people and even though the conversion rate is lower the net

is still positive and then just as far as I'm concerned in terms of adjustment to the hours

I'd like to see this committee bring this back on to the public agenda before the first of March

if for no other reason than to simply get public input and see if folks have ideas about

about how that might affect them or you know shelter operations that sort of thing so

don't know if that's possible that's be my suggestion because I think obviously the public to

one degree another is impacted and one of our charges is to be a public forum and a liaison

to the community not sure that that you know we're going to get a whole bunch of people who are

really interested in you know I want to I want to be there on Wednesday to get a dog as opposed

to Tuesday or Thursday but I think that would be time will spend.

Thank you I'll just share that um a prior member of this commission Dr. Karson from the

UC Davis Shelter Medicine program was an advocate for a shelter to be closed a day a week so

that there is time for some internal activity and I always wondered how that might actually happen

and so uh from based on the input from that veterinarian with the shelter expertise I think it's

a reasonable thing to do not sure the day of the week but maybe we will see kind of how that goes

and if we can look at if there's data that we should be concerned about and public input.

Okay I think that concludes the commissioners questions comments so the next agenda item is

public questions comments and I gather we have some yes thank you chair we have two speakers

uh we have Jeffrey followed by DIA.

Well the reason I am here is as I've said to the city council is public comment needs to not be

the last item on the agendas but also the disability turner I made it the first item on the agenda

I do not believe that's an appropriate place for public comment to be it should be after you're

consent but before you get into your discussion that I think is important so you're not like here

I have many other meetings on Wednesday night but tonight was important to spend the time to look

at that comment until the mayor decides that public comment you know does not need to be the last

item on the agenda now the other thing I will I'm working on is what's called a speaker's bureau

and that's the city and the county of people that are experts in certain matters that they be

part of a resource so in the city and the county you have the means of you know knowing who to

talk to directly when there is a matter and subject some years ago worked with the voters registration

office to get those type of individuals for the vast amount of people that are very speaking various

languages and we've got a lot more immigrants and how they are impact the third thing I'm going to

speak about is in Los Angeles we had some educational reports sitting there about your cat population

and your dog population do not know whether you put any resources to public to explain of how often

cats will reproduce and other information available to let the public know that you know

you know there's a means and a reason why we have spayed neuter and the other purposes through

there to keep the wellness of our pets and animals and that's my public comment thank you for your

comments our last speaker is Dia thank you did you know that if you went to adopt if you went from

street tomorrow and adopted a dog and it wasn't altered you would be given a surgery date in July

or August so how is that acceptable and if you keep sending out unaltered animals daily you will

never be able to catch up what kind of message does that send to the community that's being

or neutering your pet is not a priority but state law says it is and the shelter shall not release

unaltered animals unless they are sick or injured in October and November and just now the shelter

stated that more than 800 800 animals were in the foster to adopt program in the queue waiting to be

altered but front street continues on a daily basis to send out unaltered animals so what happens

to these animals many get lost or dumped or re-homed going to heat or a bread there are no repercussions

if the pet never comes back to the shelter none and the tracking system is abysmal the shell I

disagree the shelter has ample resources in their internal donation account and through the

friend's nonprofit to address this issue the shelter has a list of 25 contract thefts plus

three full-time extraordinary vets plus there are community resources to address this issue but

front street has chosen to kick the can down the road if you don't believe me just call up your

local shelter and find out how they're dealing with the problem. Print street is the outlawed

liar and while I know that this commission can't fix the issue I just think it's time for all of

us not to be complicit thank you thank you for your comments chair we have no more speakers

and we didn't actually go over 7.30 so this is my last time I get to bang the gavill

we're adjourned thank you

you