Music

Awesome, we're down to nine.

Excellent.

All right.

Good evening and welcome to the Wednesday, April 9th meeting of the Animal Wellbeing Commission.

The meeting is now called to order. Will the clerk please call the roll to establish a quorum?

Thank you, Chair.

Commissioners, please unmute your microphones.

Commissioner Tree.

Here.

Commissioner Snell.

Here.

Commissioner Aboushay.

Here.

Commissioner Middleton.

Here.

Commissioner Garcia.

Here.

Commissioner Bell is absent.

Commissioner Mousis.

Here.

Commissioner Bagley.

Here.

Commissioner Christie.

Here.

Commissioner Feu.

Here.

Vice Chair Morris.

Here.

Chair Hackner.

Here.

Thank you.

We have a quorum.

Excellent.

Thank you.

So just a reminder, all members of the public are welcome to address the commission as we are here to provide a quorum for public discussion.

I'd ask members of the public in chambers that if you'd like to speak on an agenda item, please turn in a speaker slip no later than when the item begins.

You'll have two minutes to speak once you're called on.

After the first speaker, we will no longer accept speaker slips.

So now we'll proceed with today's agenda starting with the land acknowledgement and pledge led by commissioner Garcia.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you.

and Justice Sprawl.

Okay. So let's begin by welcoming our newest member of the commission,

Samantha Christie, commissioner Christie.

We're happy to have you join us and please take a moment to introduce yourself and

tell us what sparked your interest in joining the commission.

Thank you. So I hail from the East coast and I've lived in a few different states

but we landed in California six years ago.

I've been a resident of Sacramento for four years.

I work at UC Davis at the school of veterinary medicine,

but not working with domestic animals. Actually,

I work in wildlife conservation, wildlife rehabilitation,

which is a program that's within the One Health Institute at UC Davis.

So I'm not in shelter medicine specifically,

although I do use a lot of their continuing education.

And my background is in wildlife rehabilitation.

I've been doing that for about 15 years and mostly doing disaster response for

wildlife. So things like oil spills, disease, outbreaks, things like that.

I've been really active in the domestic animal rescue world in my free time,

of which there is very little,

but I constantly foster dogs and cats and sometimes small animals.

Often independently, but sometimes for local rescues as well.

I've also been an active trap neuter return volunteer in the past.

And so I think I've gotten a pretty good introduction to animal rescue and

sheltering resources in our community.

And I've identified some of the gaps that some have you have also identified.

I'm really passionate about spay and neuter.

And, and trying to improve shelter outcomes and standards and all of that.

So I'm very honored to be joining the commission and I look forward to working

with all of you. Thanks.

calendar.

Thank you, chair. I have,

no speaker slips on this item. Okay,

do we have any members who want to speak on this item?

Just a point of information.

Um,

two items,

here are the follow up log and the work for the pieces that you can

install.

I'm really impressed.

Alright.

Great.

I'm all charged.

Okay,

so I'm going to start thinking about my lighting to say

a little bit more,

but I'm just going to add a few things to each chair.

here the follow-up log and the work plan are iterative documents so they are

updated at each meeting so if you have items that you want to add to the

follow-up log or progress to report on items on the work plan the time for

those comments is later in the meeting during the comments and questions for

members of the Commission if you have any changes you need to make to the

minutes however of course that's time for that is now commissioner Morris

thank you I do have one correction to the minutes if you will on item number

five shelter needs assessment budget discussion I actually went back and

watched the video because I think my motion was a little different than this

the motion said recommend to the City Council to identify and commit funding

to complete the list of interim shelter needs improvements identified in the

2024 shelter needs assessment and prioritized by the shelter staff and so

the end prioritized by the shelter staff is the part that I would like to

correct in these minutes that's what the motion was meant to be and I think that

will come up later as we talk about interim improvements

thank you the clerk's office will notate that and make that correction thank

you other members wishing to speak on items in the consent calendar seeing and

hearing none we'll take a motion if someone cares to make it

well I second I got a motion and a second all those in favor signify by

saying aye all those opposed any abstentions searing none thank you eyes

have it motion passes excellent okay let's now proceed to the discussion

calendar we are quite lucky that this afternoon early evening to have Daisy

or taiga animal services coordinator here to give us a presentation Daisy's

pinch hitting as I understand it so come on up Daisy it's your chance we can't

wait to hear from you

I think is there a yes it is okay thank you for having me my name is Daisy or

taiga and tonight I'll be speaking to about front streets off-site adoption

program primarily focusing on the relationship with Petco and PetSmart

I'm gonna start off by telling you a little bit about myself so I've been

involved in pet adoptions for over 10 years I started volunteering in PetSmart

doing in-store adoptions when I was pursuing my bachelor's degree at Cal

Poly San Luis Obispo in animal science on the left you'll see a photo of me with

one very hefty kitty that I was transporting to one of my first

adoption events in San Luis Obispo at PetSmart after finishing my degree I

accepted an outreach and adoption position at Field Haven feline Center

at this in this role I focused on community engagement and the

relationship with Petco and PetSmart as well but it was feline focused only I

started working at Front Street animal shelter a little over three years ago as

an animal care technician and towards the end of my first year our wonderful

off-site adoption coordinator Sherry retired and I was able to step into that

role on the right is a photo of me with one of the first pups that came to our

Petco adoption center despite her size she claimed to be a lap dog and she was

adopted and still is a lap dog in her new home in the past ten years I've

learned a lot about adoption strategies pet placement and post adoption

support I've captured hundreds of smiling faces bring home their new furry

friends I can't really put into words the joy that radiates from an adopter when

you place their new family member in their arms and say say cheese and there's

some examples pictured here on the right this is such a special moment that we

wanted to show you share the joy with our foster parents and so this is why we

implemented the use of auto pets pet adoption software at our shelter by

using auto pets in our foster programs we open the door for foster parents to

connect one-on-one with adopters to find their perfect match once a foster

parent found a potential adopter they proceeded to schedule a meet and greet

at our Petco adoption center where they were provided with adoption support as

well as a sponsored goodie bag to set them up for success in the new family in

addition to the software benefit in the addition of the software benefited all

foster animals but the positive impact really became clear when it was used for

our pups that were not considered to be highly adoptable on the left you'll see

a photo of diesel a sweet mellow senior pup that was overlooked only because of

his age and his special diet his foster mom found the perfect adopter using

auto pets this is one of my favorite pictures that I took of her taking a

picture of diesel with his new adopted mom on the right is a photo of chunk a

timid and obese Pomeranian that was shut down in the shelter and shut down in

the foster home for weeks his foster found a wonderful patient adopter that

actually came back to Petco months later to share an adoption update just look

at that smile these wonderful pet placement stories are a testament to the

positive impact that our fosters auto pets and the Petco adoption center have

on our special pets

in addition to Petco being a safe space for our fosters to finalize their

adoptions we also host weekly adoptions at our Petco adoption center in Arden

pictured are just a few of the dogs that have been adopted from Petco in the last

couple of years we have a very open and supportive adoption program in place

with our foster parents if a foster does not feel comfortable using auto pets

they can come to Petco and participate in our open adoptions to the public by

providing a safe and supportive space for our fosters and their pups we have

created lasting positive experiences which encourages them encourages them to

keep fostering in 2023 we had over 300 adoptions take place at our off-site

adoption centers that number dropped drastically in 2024 due to the lack of

spay-neuter resources available at our shelter animals must be altered before

adoption and due to these pending surgeries we were unable to facilitate

these adoptions at our off-site locations in 2024 we adopted just over 150

animals from our off-site adoption center that's over 50% of a drop thanks to

the hard work of our foster team and our dedicated medical team we have already

completed over 100 adopt altered dog adoptions in 2025 setting us up to have

the most successful year yet

in addition to dog adoptions our Petco adoption center also houses adoptable

cats and kittens throughout the year during the summer months what we

considered to be kitten season we house up to 20 altered and adoptable kittens

each week in 2023 we completed over 900 kitten adoptions that are offset

adoption location although our cat adoption numbers dropped in 2024 due to

the same reasons mentioned before our dedicated medical team and foster team

stepped in once again and this year they have pre-scheduled large kitten

surgery dates every month to ensure that we are caught up on surgeries and we

are able to keep the cuteness flowing into our adoption centers when it is not

kitten season we utilize our community rooms to house adult cats in need of a

break from the shelter the open concept of our adoption meeting great rooms

allows both cats kittens and adopters to relax and let their personalities shine

as well as creating an inviting space for cats and kittens to play with each

other our Petco adoption center also provides the privacy that some kitties

need on the left you'll see a photo of princess this kitty has hated every

living creature that she met that she wasn't a human from a young age she

terrorized her siblings in the foster home as well as the adult cats and dogs

that lived in that foster home when she was finally ready for adoption she was

given her own castle in the form of a private adoption meeting great room at

Co she enjoyed her privacy and she was quickly adopted into a home with no

other pets on the right is a photo of Sappho and Judith with their new pet

parents these kittens were brought in as strays and were terrified they spent

most of their time snuggled up on this bed next to each other hiding their

adopters were able to spend hours in a quiet room giving them snacks and

cuddles waiting for them to warm up they finally decided to take them and

their favorite bed home with them the adopter for all live in cheesy pictured

on the far left shared a one-year update with us that'll share with you today

both of our kittens were adopted from front street at the petco location on

Arden after visiting front street and surrounding shelters we found the petco

adoption site to be a much better fit for picking a new family member at petco

we could see how the kittens interact in a group play with them allow them to

come to us and really get a feel for their personalities to find the best

fit for our family there was no rush or pressure and the volunteers were so

welcoming and helpful they even remembered us and return months later to

get all of a friend we adopted all live in cheesy after the passing of our

family pet a 12 year old basset hound named Sonic and they have brought so

much love and laughter into our lives both kittens came into our home well

adjusted playful happy healthy and we attribute that to their foster homes

which provide the foundation for them to become beloved family pets we love them

both so much thank you front street and foster families for your dedication and

hard work that is just one of the many wonderful reviews that we receive about

our foster program and the adoption experience that we provide this year we

want to highlight the amazing work that our staff and volunteer do volunteers do

during kinsies and by hosting a kitten shower at our petco adoption center this

event will be open to the public and will showcase the many different aspects and

needs of our cat foster program the community will have the opportunity to

learn more about fostering and sign up if they're interested there will also be

cute kittens available for adoption of course please keep an eye out for more

details another special group in need of highlighting at our shelter are all the

wonderful adult dogs available for adoption here are some of the photos of

adult dogs adopted from our pet smart stores staff and volunteers love our

adult dog events because it gives the opera the public the opportunity to see

how sweet and well-behaved our dogs are in a community setting pet smart staff

and trainers provide support and feedback on leash manners and basic commands

to our fosters and volunteers in addition to giving the pups lots of snacks

and cuddles although spay and neuter and warm months post challenges to our

events we had a very successful national adoption week at pet smart what

avenue last month with 17 dog adoptions in addition to hosting dog events our

pets Mart Delta Shores partner provides adoption support for our cats and

kittens and their everyday adoption center we currently occupy the adoption

center every other month during kitten season this partnership creates a space

in our category in petco adoption center during the peak months and also

increases our outreach in the community our fosters and volunteers of the clean

new updated adoption center and we appreciate the care and dedication that

pets Mart have for caring for kittens and their adopters each kennel in the

pets Mart Delta Shores adoption center can house about two to three kittens but

pets Mart involvement in kitten adoptions doesn't stop there we are so

excited this year to bring back our large foster kitten events during the

summer months we set up large kitten events with up to 75 altered kittens

ready to go to their forever homes foster parents love to show off their

kittens to the community and also bond with other fosters at these events

during this bittersweet part of fostering you can feel the energy

radiating from these events as adopters chat with fosters in search of their

lifelong buddies events on this scale would not be possible without our

dedicated staff and volunteers as I prepared this presentation I thought of

this quote alone we can do so little together we can do so much because

although I am standing alone I think about all the dedicated staff and

volunteers that made all these adoptions possible I want to provide the

example of just one animal coming into our shelter first our customer service

team and animal care technician process the intake and care for the animal at

our shelter then our medical team provides treatment and spayneuter

surgery our foster and volunteer teams guide and support our foster parents

and those foster parents provide love and care until adoption all these

dedicated individuals play a crucial role in the animals life before it

comes to me and my wonderful volunteers to find a family of its own

although I am presenting alone I want to take a moment to reflect and

appreciate the many helpful hands it takes to make these adoption stories a

reality and we can do any of this without the unwavering support of our

petco and pet smart adoption partners petco and pet smart staff has supported

our in-store adoptions they engage with the community about the work that we do

they collect donations and they provide cuddles and snacks to our adoptable pets

every chance that they get petco love and pet smart charities have provided

grants that have funded our foster programs they foster support staff pay

for spayneuter surgeries volunteer appreciation and goodie bags that set

up our adopted pets for success in their homes although 2024 was a tough year

for adoptions our partners stood by our side they understood our challenges and

provided support along the way and we are so excited to see what we can

accomplish in 2025 thank you for having me tonight and providing us for

providing a space for me to share all the wonderful work we are doing up front

street if you're looking to adopt please come by petco on Friday Saturday and

Sunday from 12 to 4 we have lots of pets waiting to meet you thank you very

much Daisy appreciate having you here do we have members of the public who'd

like to speak on this item thank you chair I have one speaker step on this

item

yes Julie Berga

good evening and thank you so much Daisy I know you are a dedicated

volunteer and you help with with petco and fostering and all of that I

greatly appreciate it it's life-saving but one of the things I want to bring up

tonight is that I remember when this petco adoption center was open it was

really really exciting there was there was news media there there was the

mayor the assembly members because it was a really big deal to have a

dedicated adoption site in fact in the 2019-2020 budget they said that it was

the highest adoption rate of any petco in the United States that's that's big

and when you talk about what happened in 2024 because of lack of spay-neuter why

that doesn't make sense solutions for spay-neuter can always be found I sent

an email today to a lot of the new commission members we're kind of coming

back to this meeting now because there are new members and I think it's

important that you know what's really going on please look at that email okay

because we tried to bring spay-neuter services to Sacramento front street

animals recently and they were rejected okay and there was an article we didn't

talk about it last time because there was an article that was just written

about it in the April inside Sacramento magazine okay and they were rejected

because basically you had people like me who have been vocally critical of

front streets operations not front streets volunteers not front streets

fosters not front street staff but their leadership okay because we feel that so

much more can be done to help animals yet when we have over the years brought

spay-neuter services to front street they've been rejected so please I just

ask take care of animals do your homework look into background there's a lot

more going on thank you any other members of the public I have no more

speakers okay do we have members of the Commission who would like to speak

the I've got you on my list still here are you are you're looking to speak on

this item floors yours come on back Daisy we'll ask you some questions thank you

the open concept of meet and greet what is that

kennels they don't have cages it's full rooms so if we have multiple different

litters we'll set up like different crates to keep them in or if we have

multiple litters of puppies we set up play pens but all the rooms are large

like a family can sit down on the ground and actually meet with the animal and

this is provided at our partners the pet stores yes only the pet co-art in only

the pet co-art in has open concept rooms like that pet smarts they have cat

adoption centers that have a little meet and greet area so you can't take the

animal out but they primarily stay housed in kennels okay okay so because that

that is one of the things we're I know we're struggling with at the shelter

itself is where to do meet and greet so that's interesting and then you also

commented about the kennels so when they're when you comment about kennels

at the pet stores do do the animals then end up sort of staying there and living

they do but actually so our pet smart Delta Shores Center so the kennels are

pretty small but typically our kittens get adopted within one week so we drop

off altered kittens on like Wednesdays and Thursdays and by the following Wednesday

and Thursday we're already dropping off the next batch we have a pretty high

success rate there the same thing applies to our pet co adoption center so in

2023 when we were caught up on spay-neuters and altering about 20 to 40

kittens each week kittens came to the center they were adopted deep cleaned

next week the same thing it was pretty rare for kittens to stay a longer amount

of time and if they did it was typically if they were shy or something like that

and the processing of the adoptions when they're there at those sites is that the

staff of the pet store or is it a volunteer or who it's myself and

volunteers yourself and volunteers and we actually use auto pets to complete the

adoptions as well so they're done completely through auto pets and then

process through chameleon later and when they stay overnight the the staff at the

kennel or I guess the pet store like feeds them in the morning or do you know

we have volunteers that come in in the morning and the afternoon so we have two

shifts available staff like to check in on them and they usually take their

breaks with them but the primary care responsibilities are on us and you are a

full-time employee of the front street shelter yes and you coordinate volunteers

to do this service thank you for that

answers and yeah Christian Christie thank you so much for that presentation and

all of that work it's great to see the animals getting exposure question about

logistics so you said that the adoption site center is open Friday Saturday and

Sunday is that the one the Arden locations so animals are housed there only on

the weekends or so our cats are housed all throughout the week so typically right

now when it's not kitten season we house adult cats there so we have volunteers

that check on them on the alternative days and then adopters can set up meet

and greets either at a specific meet and greet time or we do have two pet co

staff that are trained on adoption so if someone shows up and they want to adopt

same day if we don't have a volunteer available a staff member can process the

adoption the reason we dedicate our hours to Friday Saturday and Sunday or

because we have such a high volume of kittens on the weekends that we want to

dedicate our time and resources to when we know that we're gonna in p get a lot

of traffic so our volunteers and staff want to come in and the volunteers love

to see kind of like that rush and make a lot of connections so if we were to open

all of the days then on the days that we're where we have you know six adult

cats you're gonna have a volunteer that's sitting there primarily their full

shift they do get to have people come in and want to pet the cats but the

adoption statistics are really low Monday through Thursday and then they

really pick up Friday through Sunday and like I mentioned before

historically we wouldn't hold on to the kittens more than a week so that Monday

Tuesday Wednesday Thursday if there were kittens left overs their fosters wanted

to take them home because it would be like one or two stragglers that didn't

get adopted and then they would prefer to just bring them back then know that

adoptions are gonna be slower and their kids are just gonna sit there all week

or thank you so okay so same day adoptions are possible yes sounds like

for all cats and kittens at both locations yes okay that's great yeah I

remember I volunteered at a place that did that 15 years ago when I was one of

the people cleaning kennels yeah so I was curious and maybe this is more of a

question for Philip Span Uder services availability was the barrier for 2024

that we're saying are there other barriers like is staffing ever an issue

or volunteers what other barriers might there be for these centers being fully

utilized again yes so one of the barriers also that Petco stores they

have a high turnover rate and so that's that's a real challenge for Daisy and

other shelters that utilize that the Petco stores is the staff turnover is

is high sometimes you get really great staff that you really pick up on the

process as Daisy mentioned can do the adoptions for us but those are really

the minor minority and so just like we're seeing in a lot of different sectors

staff turnover that has been a challenging problem not just for our

shelter but actually for shelters across the country and so you guys are you

sounds like we're predicting that with being caught up very soon on Spain

Uder that we'll be keeping these facilities at their capacity through the

kitten season yeah so what one of the things that Pet Smart did due to the

backlog of Spain Uder across the country not just here in Sacramento they

actually started allowing adoptions to happen prior to the animal spade in

Uder because it was such a severe issue across the country unfortunately

California we can't do that so we weren't able to do that and so we weren't

able to keep up those statistics as the other states were and I will just like

touch on what Philip said as well because specifically with the staffing

you'll definitely see the difference between Pet Smart and Petco

individual if you look at cat adoption centers across Sacramento there's two

adoption centers one is in Antelope and the other one is in West Sack I believe

that don't have cat partners in their stores right now I actually approached

them in 2023 early on because we had we were at such a good point with our

kittens spay neuter surgeries and we were ready to get them into stores and

their staff were completely unwilling to help with any sort of adoptions and or

provide care and it's not a necessity because we can staff volunteers however

if a volunteer calls out or we need something in a pinch we really want to

be able to rely on our partners to be able to step in and if you go to those

stores today they're both still empty so there are other stores that are

potentials to be taken over by us or other organizations but it's pretty

telling that they're not thank you commissioner Bagley did you have

excellent okay well as you might know we recently established a ad hoc

commission committee on adoptions and so if we can get permission from your

boss perhaps you could be be a part of that work if the opportunity presents

itself yeah I love to thank you so much for coming we really appreciate you

can I just give a Daisy one other shout out here so typically I'm the one that's

been applying for the grants for the last five years and so Daisy volunteered

her self this year and applied for her first grant and received a third we

received a thirty thousand dollar pet smart grant that's sort of I appreciate

all your support thank you okay no vote is required on that item so we will move

and with the commission's indulgence and maybe we'll keep Daisy around just for

an extra minute or two if we take item six adoptions before item five if that's

okay with folks if you're if you're willing to indulge me on that that would

be great adoption data trends I'm this is thank you thank you to everybody for

indulging me on this stuff I don't need the little clicker thing this is I think

this is this might be my eighth time around on this but we have and we do

have the ad hoc committee on adoptions which has its first meeting scheduled

for next week I believe so hopefully we will be somewhat sparing you all from

having to bore into the details of adoptions as much as I like but I I'll

try to keep this short but there is some new first-time data that I'm so thrilled

to have and to share with the Commission committee sorry so for for review for

those of you who are new or newer to this issue back when I joined the then

committee last year we started to look at adoption data for Front Street based

on some of the national research that we saw happening at shelters across the

country which was encapsulated in what they called the competitive pet

placement project where shelters around the country looked at started to take a

look at their at their data not just in terms of the animals but to look also at

the the visits by potential adopters and try to get a sense of what was driving

people to come into shelters what was making a difference in terms of those

those shelter visits resulting in an adoption and what emerged from that

research was sort of the findings that that by streamlining adoption processes

and by improving communications with potential adopters and by providing some

support to folks who do come in and do try to adopt that you can improve your

rate at which for every person who walks through the door you can improve the

chances that they're gonna leave with a with a pet and adoption being completed

so I do have a new month's update it but we also have some of the very first

feedback that we've started to get from actual visitors to Front Street so I'm

very excited about that this is kind of thing that makes me so let's take a look

at the first set of data here so this is this will be familiar to folks who have

had to sit through me yammering about this before this is sort of three

different sets of data regarding adoptions at Front Street on the the blue

bar represents signups by people for the electronic wait list to meet and I'm

sorry for you I know there are lots of cat people here but I'm just a dog person

I you know I apologize but so these are for folks who signed up to meet a dog at

Front Street is the blue bar for each month then the followed by the red bar

which is the actual number of adoptions completed during that same period and

then the yellow bar represents what we call the conversion rate which is it's

a calculation based on the other two items right so it's it's the number of

adoptions divided by the number of people who show up on the waiting list so

for example if 10 people came to your shelter and signed up to meet an animal

and all 10 of them adopted an animal then your your conversion rate would be a

hundred percent if five of the 10 people who showed up at your shelter to meet an

animal left with an animal your conversion rate would be 50 percent so you

can see here sort of the the broad trends you'll see the highest months of

where the blue line is highest you'll see that that occurred in December and

September of last year both of those are months where we had lengthy adoption

fee waivers in in in the shelter so not surprisingly we'd see an increase and

the number of folks coming in and and not unsurprisingly you'll see a drop off

when when those those periods and periods ended the interesting thing that

is sort of coming at looking at these trends has been that increasing the

number of folks coming into the to the shelter to meet an animal doesn't

necessarily there's not a one-for-one correspondence between that and adoptions

that during those free adoption periods we do tend to get more people into the

shelter but the rate of conversion actually drops a little bit so and we

can take a little closer look at this data by if I can press the right thing

yeah so this is the this is the same information on in in numeric form and

you can see the latest new information is the February data over all over on the

far right where we had about 390 people who signed up on the wait list to meet an

animal and we completed 191 adoptions with a resulting 49% conversion rate as

you note there's a considerable drop off compared to those periods in December

and September when we had free adoptions and but what we didn't see

interestingly in this last in this February period we did not see what we

saw in October and November so in the wake of the September free adoptions our

visits dropped in October and November but our conversion rate rose pretty

substantially in fact we had the highest conversion rate for the year last year at

63% in November but then you take a look at February and you did see a drop in

the number of people coming in and signing up for the wait list but you

saw relatively small increase relatively stable overall conversion rate love to

know why I'm not certain I'm sure our committee will be delving into all those

things but what I want to also share is and these are some of the points that

we've talked about earlier that there's a very quite a variance between our

statistics based on visits and adoptions during weekdays versus weekends we get

smaller number of visits on the weekdays and but our conversion rates are

substantially lower on the weekends and so you get this sort of weekday weekend

conundrum where ideally we would get more visits and also more adoptions

during the week and ideally we would convert more of our visitors on the

weekends into adopters one of the ways that the research suggests we could find

ways to do that is to enhance our communication with potential adopters

and so we with the helpful Ryan and others on Phil's team put together just a

very quick I think it's five questions long survey that folks who come into the

shelter who sign up for the wait list now when their their meet and greet is

concluded they get a little text message from us inviting them to answer a

quick five five items survey about did you adopt an animal if not can you tell

us why you have any suggestions about how we might improve things and we talked

about this a little bit last time but that now we have actual data about that's

coming from from visitors to Front Street I will tell you that this is a very

small sample size at this point these are just these are very early early

numbers and of course it is a folks are opting into this survey so having spent

millions of dollars in my past working with public opinion research firms they

would be the first to tell you that when folks are opting into a survey that

makes them not entirely random and so you should view this with caution and

again the sample size is very small but a couple of things that jump out when we

ask folks well so you know why did you not adopt an animal today I had quite

frankly expected that we would see quite a few people saying you know the wait was

too long because as we've talked about with limitations on our facility only

really having two convenient meet and greet yards close to the kennels when we

have those free adoption periods it does get very very crowded very quickly and

you know it's not sometimes it is a considerable way however this data at

least suggests that that really is not the principal issue and so you say you

can see that the the big things that stood out so far were first that someone

else adopted the animal I was interested in which I thought was really somewhat

surprising now for those of us and I'm sure Daisy can talk to talk to this and

I see other I see my friends Janet and others in the audience we have what we

call the the dog of the day effect where we open a shelter for the for the day and

there is a particular breed that is suddenly popular and we happen to have

you know an animal or two that meets whatever the fashion of the moment is

and we will frequently get four five six seven eight people who have all come in

and all want to meet that particular dog you know they don't know that dog from

Adam and all they've seen is a photograph but they're convinced that

that's the dog they want and unfortunately we don't have a device that will

convert animals into the breed of the moment and so of course only one person

is going to leave with that animal but I I do think that that the fact that

roughly a third of folks are telling us that that the animal that they were

interested in was already adopted I do think there's some interesting stuff to

be gleaned from that because to me it suggests that the adoption process in

these days for folks starts online it's not starting at the door of the shelter

they are seeing what's online and that's how they're at least in their head that

that's how they're making that connection so I think it's something that our

our committee can take a look at I know for example one of the issues that we

face is when dogs are intakeed into the shelter the intake staff has to take a

photo of that animal so they can recognize it when that dog becomes

available it comes off straight hold whatever that intake photo look like

and it is not a you know made for made for TV sort of environment and so that's

often the first photograph that gets posted of an animal I know we have some

great volunteers who come in and do photography on a regular basis and that

certainly improves things for for some animals but I think it behooves to take a

close look at sort of what that online experience is for folks because people

are definitely at least this data would suggest that folks are making they're

starting their adopting adoption experience well before they show up at

the shelter similarly the other sort of number that jumps out are folks who are

in one way or another not entirely certain or or still making a decision and

again I think this is something that hopefully our committee can take some

time looking at because to me it means those people are ideal for some

additional nudging for some some follow-ups you know you met Charlie you

know when you came in Charlie's still here Charlie would love to go home with

you something along those lines if we can figure out how to do that we have

because the survey that Phil and his team put together does invite people to

give us their emails so that we can continue to follow up with them and

provide information on for adoption events and things like that so we kind

of found a way to open that conversation a little bit maybe the folks on our

committee can can do some more work on that and try to figure out some

additional work we can do there but so that's that's kind of where we're at

and looking forward to working with others on this committee and trying to

see how we can make things even better happy to take questions

Commissioner Christie thanks Paul that's all fascinating and I'm definitely

interested in looking up some briefs

thank you that help people raise that conversion rate I was curious whether

you'd consider incorporating a question in the survey about was cost a factor in

their decision if we are doing free adoptions I'd be curious if doing those

more often or less often would impact these conversion rates good suggestion

yeah I mean I do think that there is some research nationally that would

suggest that one of the factors that is in many ways limiting adoptions these

days is both the cost and the availability of veterinary services I'm

sure everybody at this and probably everybody in this room has the same

experience that I do when I mean just getting your animal in for routine

vaccinations has become sort of you know difficult to say the least so that's

probably a good good avenue for us to explore other questions commissioner

Garcia thanks for that Paul if they're interested in maybe getting a pet and

they're kind of on the line and they send you that email who responds to that

email to see you know say they're still here are you still interested who

follows up and how timely is that or what time frame do they respond to that

email or have they even started that yet I don't think we've got a protocol for

that yet if you've got any data on that at this point I think we're still in

early days on this I mean we're really just kind of getting things going but I

think that's one of the how do we follow up and what form is probably the you

know one of the areas that we'll be looking at sure commissioner treat

yes I was trying to it sounds to me like the photos online actually are more

important than we originally had thought and maybe we could talk to Sac State or

or or one of the other higher ed photography classes and see and and

the professors and see if maybe people could get some credits if they came out

and practice better photos for the dogs that are going to go online yeah I think

that's a we can't afford to you know professional photographer to be there

all the time but maybe on weekends we I know we have hoodwinked or benefited

from the volunteer work of there's a couple of folks who come in regularly

I'm looking on in the audience and that I know come in and do and do photography

with some help of some of the dog handling volunteers but it does sound to me

like this would suggest that the more we do of that the better off will be

commissioner Middleton yeah you mentioned the sample size being small did you

say exactly what it was less than 50 yeah it turned out actually that we got

more responses to the survey from people who did adopt than we did from people

who didn't so there you go the interesting to see how this plays out when we

get more data yeah yeah thank you so much for doing this work

commissioner few yes so I wanted to ask what's the difference between the

miscellaneous and the other oh very arbitrary categories that because it was

an open-ended response so you could pick one of the alternatives or you could say

something else and I couldn't figure out a way to categorize a few of them so if

you want to see some more detail I'd be happy to share with you thank you and I

also wanted to ask this front street have an Instagram as a way an Instagram

yes we do and I know that the I know even the doggy day out has a Instagram a

well-followed Instagram thank you there questions excellent we will move to the

neck oh commissioner Morris thank you first of all I want to thank you Paul for

doing this data and this analysis and presenting this to us I you've apologized

a couple times but I don't think you need to apologize I think at least for my

eye this is the kind of data we need to start looking at to try to figure out how

to be helpful in this world of challenges with adoptions and so how do we

understand what's holding somebody back or how can we create strategies to move

this forward so thank you for doing this and just seems that each of the things

that we might come up as a strategy on moving the needle here the commissioners

may need to be somehow involved in those strategies and so commissioner treat I

love the idea of a photo class or something like that and then I think

does any commissioner here have a connection to Sac State or some way that

we could open the door to somebody who has professional photography experience

or something like that so that's kind of the next step always in my mind is these

are great ideas and how do we like move them forward what's the next step with

that and you know maybe maybe I do know somebody at Sac State I don't know I have

to think about it but that's kind of where I go with whatever strategies we

come up next with is what level can the commissioners assist with as I'd like to

point out we're a commission with no staff no budget and no authority so you

know it's all about us rolling up our sleeves and trying to get stuff done and

the other thing I just was gonna say was I've heard you describe Paul once or

twice something about like some strategies to make a dog appeal appear more

adoptable IE if you can teach them to sit if you can teach them to retrieve a

ball if they're the kind of dog that does that and so I know you're working

with some of the dog trainers and some of this you've done because you've

watched webinars and taken training classes and whatnot and so I know for me

I probably need to get some of those resources from you for like what

webinars are out there about increasing adoption rates I've found a few myself

but maybe our committee can talk about some of those resources so that we can

be more helpful as we look at adoptions I think I mentioned last time that there

was some research that dogs that would sit at your feet or if you had established

a toy preference with a dog and then of course gave the potential adopter that

toy gave a chance to play a little fetch and things with the dog and we did

thanks to I see Shannon out there we worked on some updates to the dog diaries

that dog handlers and people who work with dogs in the shelter use and so we've

we've started to make that a thing that the dog handlers can note if there's a

toy preference and then the used dog sales people like me who can look at that

before we bring a dog out to a meet and greet yard and you know grab that toy and

head out to the play yard with it so we've started to incorporate some of

that stuff and I'm sure as as our ad hoc committee meets we'll have more

opportunities to look at that stuff okay Commissioner Moose I'm sorry I'm

gonna get this wrong now this now is this sorry anyway you say it is fine so

thank you very much for the presentation I find the data really interesting and

I'm wondering based on the information regarding from which we glean that online

presence makes a bigger difference and maybe we thought whether it's worth

exploring the idea that Commissioner Bagley talked about at the last meeting

for Front Street in other words she spoke about Bradshaw animal shelter

having sort of a listserv of available animals with pictures and you know I

have signed up for that I get it I think it's interesting and helpful I'm

personally looking to adopt a dog I'm looking for the right dog it's really

helpful for me to look through and say you know are there any dogs kind of on

a regular basis that might be a good fit for me so I'm wondering if that's worth

exploring for Front Street as a another way of you know reaching out to the

public and kind of a semi-regular way to say hey here's what we have and it

will it be a good fit for you yeah very well taken I think you're right I think

you're absolutely right about that and we definitely have the dog for you at

Front Street come on down I'll be there Saturday noon to five well can we sign

her up for the waitlist from here and Commissioner Bagley

there it is thank you for this oh sure I this is fascinating this stuff it is to

me but I'm so disappointed that people make an appointment to come through the

shelter and their mind is set on one dog for whatever reason to breed the

physical attributes the way they look and somehow walking through that shelter and

looking at all those dogs they can't find another dog I mean that's just I

can't even fathom that but and this is going to sound kind of weird you know how

when you shop on Amazon after you look at the item down below it says you might

also be interested in blah blah blah blah blah so my question to you is when

walk me through this for just a second this appointment that's set is that set

with a certain person a certain staff or volunteer I come into the counter I've

made my appointment I know a dog I want I meet a person they already know the

aid number of the dog I'm interested in is that is that how it works so yes and

no the appointment there's no appointment per se so but when we open

right now at noon the online the online waitlist system opens at 1130 and so

folks can if they're within what is it 300 feet of the shelter can make they

can scan a little QR code and add their names to the waitlist and they can

indicate at that time the a number or even just the name of the dog that they're

interested in so so let's say you're assigned to me Paul you're volunteering

that day and you're assigned to me how much work would it be if you know that

I'm interested in Fred and you know what Fred looks like to go through the motion

of okay there are three other animals and I'm gonna keep those animals in mind

because this person might not want to walk through all these kennels but I have

three animals in mind that are very similar to this animal is that is that

not doable or so it'd be most doable if we were all as smart as Jody but so it so

I'm gonna my answer is gonna be it depends right so reality is most people

coming into our shelter want a puppy or a small dog right yeah so those of us who

are in the you know use dog business we know how many small dogs are available

that day and we know how many puppies are available that day and and where

they're located and what they're you know because you just know you're gonna

get that question within five minutes of showing up right so that's kind of the

first order today then and quite frankly if if I've got so for the dog of the day

people most of the time as soon as that they are only interested in that dog and

as soon as that dog is spoken for they disappear right yes and I mean I could go

on about wouldn't wouldn't be better if we had the people in cages and the dogs

and that's a whole separate yeah but for but for other folks right if they've

got their you know if they've just they've seen some picture of a husky or

something like that right then we can it's it's not at all hard to steer them

to or at least introduce them to another dog so that that and that kind of that

already happens yeah yeah so it if we were all as smart as Jodi we'd know like

every single dog that's here and Jodi's one of the supervisors she's happens to

be the audience she knows everything and well these people pick up my dog you

know it's not about the photo they they know I mean they know so much about the

animals who are there and what they're like and what they can do and who belongs

with whom so you know you should folks shouldn't look at the pictures they just

go talk to Jodi they'll find you the right dog yeah Commissioner Snow I'm

curious how much we've heard of Instagram how much other social media

presence does the shelter have it tick-tock Instagram Facebook anywhere and

who's man who's kind of managing that and how often and how often are they

posting yeah so we have for the shelter itself for the we have Facebook and

Instagram and that's where we post a lot of adoptable animals and then we have

our doggy day out Instagram and then we have our homeless outreach assistance

program Instagram we used to use Twitter not not much traction with Twitter

it's not really the forum or at X now so really Facebook is the main one in

Instagram is the other one as well however unfortunately we don't always see

the results that we would like to see especially when we're posting like a lot

of animals when we do like a high we like highlight an animal that's when we

can we can see more traction because it's that more personalized story and

pictures absolutely do make a difference we're actually just discussing

today we do have a photographer that we pay that comes in unfortunately she also

has a full-time business and so we we kind of take the back burner and so

we're looking at some other ways to potentially getting somebody in there

on regular day so we know that we're gonna have updated pictures to get up on

the website thank you I we do have a public comment on the site is that

correct yes I have one speaker slip Julie Virga

hello again Paul that was awesome and I love it that you take the time and an

energy to put into trying to figure out how to save more lives and I know that

you are a sincere advocate and I want to thank you for that I think well first

of all let me just say two minutes is not long enough to really say much of

anything and I appreciate your response to my email today Paul and I'd love to

talk but I think I think you're missing the bigger point here you know I for

instance we talked about pet co-adoption center and by the way I know many times

we hear that they're just completely closed there's no animals there at all

even on weekends I don't care what what may have been heard otherwise and that

there's only 120 animals adopted there in 2024 because there was a lack of

spay-neuter I mean I think you're missing the bigger picture there's an

elephant in the room here there's a problem that I think you really need to

look at more closely and obviously pictures are really important energy

exchange when you go in into a shelter is really important but there's a lot of

great volunteers that I know that have been fired and retaliated against and

told not to come back and they're the ones taking the great pictures of the

animals they're the ones that are taking the videos but they can't say

euthanized they can't say that there's there's a potential for them to be at

risk for euthanasia or they're fired so there's in my opinion the way Front

Streets want run right now it's a very authoritarian government if you go along

and and and you get along then it's fine but for people who want to stand up for

animals it's a problem and so I just want to again encourage you two minutes is

not enough time do your homework and look into the background of a lot of the

information you may be hearing today thank you thank you for your comment no

more public speakers okay and moving on then to item number five I believe and

that's gonna be Commissioner Morris is item on thank you our friend the budget

hey our friend the budget so commissioners may recall that we have been

talking about how to move the things from our needs assessment forward through

City Council I'll divide the needs assessment discussion into the big

finding gee we need a new shelter we need more acreage another finding there

are a host of possible interim improvements that could make the shelter

more comfortable more safe possibly more welcoming to people coming in to to

look for an animal to adopt we're we're still kind of moving forward on the big

question of how to move forward the the discussion about a new shelter a new

site so that's that's still being forward forwarded but the issue around

interim improvements we've had positive response there was a couple of council

members who were very very verbal about wanting to support interim

improvements at the shelter and wanting to assure that we initiated that work in

this fiscal year is my understanding and so we you may recall we had a

discussion with the staff at the shelter about prioritizing the list of

fiscal I'm sorry of interim improvements and came up with a few very top

vote-getters if you will one of them being the safety issues around the

kennels the curbs the gates the locks the guillotines doors another one being

possibly moving the parking from the center space there to under the free way

the parking of fleet vehicles and another one that is more pricey is the idea

around a medical clinic improvement expansion etc so right now we're trying

to understand how to move forward on which interim improvements we did reach

out to the architect who did the needs assessment because they're very familiar

with these and ask how they might work with us to initiate some of these

construction efforts around these interim improvements and then be sure we

follow any rules from the city about any kind of bidding or competitive bids

contracting etc so just initiating some of those discussions but also looking to

use the right resources to do that I'm sure there are construction people

within the city but what they know about shelter other than just repairing a

gate or a latch is not necessarily the exact thing that we need but we definitely

want to work with the rules of the city about who does work in a facility so

we're kind of stepping forward with that and I'm looking at Phillip because I

believe that we're we would like to get this work done or at least committed to

be done before the fiscal year is over is that right Phillip yeah so we have

received permission from the Interim City Manager to proceed forward with

several of the interim improvements as you highlighted the guillotine doors the

latches on the kennels and in the shade structure and then the way finding that

we're already in the process of almost being completed with and so we've met

with our Public Works Department we're identifying the funding and getting the

process started even if we don't get them done by the end of the fiscal year we

will have the funds set aside to be able to do those interim improvements I will

point out as I've said it in a couple of point places the the needs assessment

was renovate or relocate the outcome of that assessment was relocate so interim

improvements are great we want safety we want staff to be able to have space to

have shade and and have meet and greet etc but it will not resolve the issue

that we're on 1.7 acres and we need a minimum of seven or eight acres to be

able to do the types of services that are appropriate for the for the capital of

the state of California and so I want to help do interim improvements but it's

still sort of Frankensteining this facility and so I don't want to lose

track of I'm gonna look at the staff who've taken their evening time to be

here tonight we're not losing track of both we want to fix things that are

there that make it safer as well as continue to to move forward on the idea

of a new shelter site and a new shelter to take care of the animals thank you

thank you do we have a public speakers on this item yes we have one speaker

Julie Virga

so one of the things that I just wanted to point out about this needs

assessment and I and I agree with most everything that came up with that

there's probably a lot more that needs to be said and done about the needs

assessment as well but I do want to point out a really important fact is

that friendship used to do much better in my opinion before with the same

shelter okay they had a lot more volunteers there was a lot more

adoptions there was a lot a lot more good stuff going on and it's changed a

lot in the last five years and so the question is why and I think that's

something that you that you all need to look at okay and why I'm here and why

I got involved to level that I did because I was a front street foster front

street volunteer I remember when front street with the pound and just an

animal went there and they they were killed and and I could sleep at night

when when things changed at front street and then I could not sleep again in

2020 when directors and mermen announced that he was following community

sheltering and reduced intake programs and they closed their doors and two

two animals and in in my next door community where I'm the animal advocate

people were saying yeah called Julie called Julie called Julie because it was

so crazy and what we have learned since has basically now I have my own

nonprofit call fix our shelters it's not just front street where this has

happened there's many other shelters but we have a big problem at front street

in leadership and and I hope commission members that you take your job

seriously and that you really do your homework and you look into both sides

because there's there's a lot more going on here than you may realize thank you

thank you for your comment I have no more speakers comments from members of

the commission commissioner treat yeah back to Commissioner Morris's point on

what the study was supposed to do I was talking to an Elk Grove City Council

member and they told me that they're excited to hopefully get the zoo but

they're still I think they've raised 12 million dollars and they still need like

44 so however they come up with that by a certain date is there something in the

interim because it does have facilities and it has land is there someone maybe

on council even that could even City Council that could even look at the

current zoo facility and let us know it doesn't have the right buildings does it

have the right space I mean just an overview some engineer or something how

hard would it be if that was a possibility since we know it will be empty at

a certain point so I would love to have that asked of City Council because it

might be a conversion of the Sacramento zoo facility is being perhaps a good

alternative without looking for brand new land in a brand new build so just a

thought

yeah your next step anyway go ahead um thank you for that commissioner treat I

I took the liberty last fall to go to the zoo and and be toured through the

facility with one of the communication director of the zoo who I actually met

at the gala our friends of front Street gala and a couple of things I learned

from her which were helpful to me which is the buildings need to be according to

what I learned at that tour the buildings need to be taken down and so it's my

understanding that that land needs to be sort of returned the buildings taken

down this individual those said to me we wouldn't want the medical clinic she

said that it's really quite small it has like one table and it's really not

necessarily up to date on anesthesia and air ventilation etc so I was myself

kind of excited about the idea of getting their shell their their medical

clinic but I didn't tour the med clinic but she was saying it's kind of dated

but even so the fencing the the property itself that property is about 13 acres

I've from what I've been able to learn I think if we were to share it with some

other resources that might be really helpful and so I wonder about us you

know talking to our own council members who are in I've been looking at council

member Middleton because Katie Maple in in a meeting city council member Maple

said was kind of excited at the idea of the zoo she was like wow that's kind of

a cool idea hadn't thought of that so maybe that's a strategy that some of us

want to get together and noodle upon as should we do a little reaching out to

our council members I think there was a couple of other council members who were

sort of engaged in that idea so yeah I definitely think it should be on the

table as property

comments by others okay another receive and fight well no I know vote required

so we're gonna move to our next item which is the shelter managers report

give you that back

all right well actually I think we discussed after the last meeting we

weren't going to talk about staffing anymore since we're doing so well and so

this will probably be the last time hopefully that will we'll spend some time

on providing updates we're doing really really great with our staffing we are

sending our final two animal control officer candidates into backgrounds and

then after if they pass we will be fully staffed and field services we have one

RVT vacancy and we're conducting interviews this Friday our communications

and customer service team is fully staffed and our shelter operations of

volunteer services we do have our shelter operations manager vacancy we are

conducting interviews tomorrow all day and then we have three animal care

technicians they interviews and they will be scheduled for the following

Wednesday and if we don't have enough candidates will then do another round of

interviews the following week so we have a 11% vacancy rate one of the the

lowest that we have seen in many many years even when we had fewer staff

members so whatever is happening out in the community and it's bringing people

and applicants to us it's it's really exciting I mean just just for an

example for the shelter operations manager we had over 51 applications for

for that position so there's just a lot of needs so things are looking really

good some stats this again was from a couple of days ago

you the time we had 158 dogs and foster to adopt and 23 cats and then in regular

foster 76 dogs and 72 cats and then in the shelter we had 142 dogs 32 cats and

three others I would be remiss if we don't say it now I will talk about it

here on the next slide but updated statistics today for foster to adopt

after our Spain neuter week with a San Diego Humane Society we are down down

to 136 dogs in foster to adopt compared to our original highest number of 874 so

huge huge increase in getting those surgeries done again lots of community

involvement many people that are sitting on this dais were involved in those

programs so the audit is currently being reviewed by our city attorney and that

should be a public document by the end of the month so more to follow on that

regarding the overall city budget the interim city manager will be publishing

the proposed city budget the week of April 28 so if you're interested in that

you can watch that for that online we did complete our second animal balance

spay and neuter surgery day on March 21st and 23rd we were scheduled for 200

surgeries we did 203 surgeries those clinics are scheduled their their

schedule to do 100 cats and 100 dogs we didn't have a whole lot of cats and so

we were really really dog heavy which was great for the foster to adopt program

and so they made a really big dent and then we have our third one May 30th and

June 1st as I mentioned we've got San Diego Humane Society they did I believe

34 dogs and cats yesterday and 32 32 today and again so making making huge

strides in that and they did mention tomorrow there's another 22 foster to

adopt dogs that are on the surgery schedule so we're getting closer and

closer to eliminating foster to adopt backlogs effective April 2nd because we

are having so much success in getting surgeries completed in a timely manner we

have we are no longer processing animals as foster to adopts the changing of our

operating days and hours is currently on hold due to some meet and confer with

our labor unions regarding that so more information to follow up as we get

through just as a reminder if you're at the shelter next week is starting next

Sunday is National Animal Control Officer Appreciation Week so we'll be doing

stuff for our officers and field services team and then the following week

will be National Volunteer Appreciation Week and so we'll be doing something

every day for all of our volunteers so yeah if you're gonna be at the shelter

and you're a volunteer come and enjoy the good treats we'll be treating you all

with any questions questions and comments from Commission members

Commissioner Middleton yes on the work plan one of the assignments that you and

I have Paul is looking and reviewing the audit I was just curious how that will

be communicated is it shared with the public or does it just go to select

folks it'll be a public document yeah we'll have it as an agenda item for next

month and I would think um it's on the follow-up log I believe yeah

and there are baggy just is this working it is thank you just a couple

questions I didn't understand the San Diego agency what are we doing with

them what is their involvement I didn't understand that yes so they they received

some grant funding to come into shelters that are having backlog with

spay and neuter surgery so they sent out a they send a veterinarian an RVT a vet

assistant to come in and assist shelters you know our vets know how to do a high

volume spay and neuter surgery we just don't have the capacity but there's a

lot of shelters that they're going in and helping and teaching them the skill

and how to perform high volume spay and neuter our is front street still

engaged in the vet student on loan in the in the med center to train them and

have your lead vet supervising them and getting them acclimated with spay and

neuter yeah we just we just finished one two weeks ago she was on her her

rotation and so yeah we still bring them in and they do their their clinical

rotations again it's we love we love bringing them into the shelters because

we actually want them to to be shelter veterinarians but it really doesn't make

the impact because it does slow the veterinarians down because they are

training and so again we're always inviting them they're always welcome to

come but it doesn't actually increase our capacity it actually kind of decreases

I can understand that do you bring one at a time are you bringing a whole group

in as I recall a dr. Warner used to bring a whole group in every week she had a

group in in the yeah it's it's we've had times where we have two or three but

it's typically typically one at one at a time okay then I had a question about

the fosters to adopt was eight seventy four the highest number that you had yeah

and then can you did you put together numbers to determine if or how many of

those animals had already been altered were there any and then how many can you

estimate or lost or you just couldn't locate so meaning all all first question

out in foster two yeah there are people that yeah they just go and take it and

um yes so we I don't know the exact number but we do because we did actually

ask people you know hey if you want to do this you want to finalize your adoption quicker

yeah you know we're open to that and so there is that there are some that dogs and cats that are

non-compliant we're currently working with the city attorney's office right again and we are

we're you know again just being a little more stern in our language that they are in violation

and so we've gotten compliance from several of those have you determined how many of the eight seventy

four are just I don't want to call them stolen I mean they've just fallen through the cracks

lack of contact it is again I'm off under 50 total so really a a low number compared to

the number of animals that were actually put into the system

um

commissioner snow uh yeah we had a request last meeting for the numbers of the euthanasia site

also do you have any of that or can we get that that's on the follow-up blog I spoke with the

chair and the vice chair and we're going to be presenting that at the following month yeah it's

it's not great news but it's I think it's something we should keep in front of us to remind us why

you know

commissioner christy I have to guess because you

share right to sort of look over there and see who who looks ready to talk

so thanks philip because I had a chance to come to front street a couple of weeks ago and get the

grand tour and I definitely understand the challenges with the spay and neuter better

after seeing the facility and some of the limitations so it was it was helpful to me

I'm curious with these upcoming dates these are for shelter population not for public is that

correct so they were the animal balance you know we originally planned for them to all be for to

help us get caught up but as we're seeing the numbers go so low um so we are open we we don't

have to just make it so if we do have spaces to fill we are working on some plans to provide

some public spay and neuter okay great and so if in the future um imagining that we're caught up

and we're maintaining that status for long term um is it in front streets scope and and capacity to

help the community schedule spay and neuter events to bring that resource to the community and how

do you foresee that happening is that outside grants is that city funds how would that work

yes so we we do currently have our low cost spay and neuter voucher program okay again we don't have

the capacity in in house to provide that we use our community partners community spay and neuter in

the Sacramento SPCA again they also have limited capacity so it is bringing in organizations like

animal balance that can do 200 animals in a period of three days really really impactful at a very

affordable cost i mean 133 000 is a lot of money but that's for six six hundred animals um again we

all know the city has a 44 million dollar budget budget deficit they're gonna be having to close

fundraising is is you know we'll see what happens in the next coming years with the economy um so

we want to do as much as we can um our nonprofit partner already spends a hundred thousand dollars

a year with the community spay and neuter clinic spaying and neutering um cats for the community

so you know again we're not directly doing it but we do we are providing funding through our other

fundraising mechanisms so the vouchers to the other high volume clinics in the in the community

and then potentially fundraising for bringing in these outside entities to support us yes thanks

other questions from comments from members

commissioner morris um i just wanted to share reiterate with the commission that um that i and

actually commissioner garcia participated in the animal balance uh event so for for me for two

days i was at this event for 10 hours uh and uh we were moving fast i i have pictures i realize i

don't know if they can be projected on my phone but uh it's quite an event to watch the the team

take the animals in and i want to give it a shout out to britney from front street animal shelter

who coordinated this massive event with 200 plus animals being brought in and volunteers to support

that um we had a brief moment where we thought where did that dog go at the very end and there

was a cat as well at the very end that the pickup was and it was like nope it's right there that's

the last one that's the last one in the last cage that needs to be returned to owner now because that

animal was fostered to adopt and is now adopted they had adoption people on site to finalize the

adult adoption at the event um i also had the pleasure of being there yesterday for nine hours

with san diego's uh high volume high quality spay neuter team i thought the count was 37

animals done yesterday or about four and a half an hour i did the math um

um there was a dog that was a complicated uh spay and she took more time but even with that very

complicated spay uh because she had an infection going on they were able to still keep the rest

of the animals going through and again um just an amazing work on behalf of the shelter staff to

move the to coordinate those animals bring them in and and work with the fosters in terms of getting

there was maybe i think four no shows of the foster i think that was about the no show um

number that i heard at the end of the day yesterday um from what i could tell in both of these

situations there was work to to work on how to increase the volume how to increase the speed at

which our veterinarians are doing their high volume high quality spay neuter services um and so it

was fascinating to watch them huddle and talk about what went what went right what was um not going

so well and just trying to deal with um the learning curve and move along for for encouraging the

ability to do the spay and neuters um next month i'll i'll get some pictures up because there's

nothing like seeing the pictures they call it the beach at the animal balance and there's like

huskies and big dogs on the floor who are all being recovered kathy and i were extubating animals

you know we're taking their temp taking their pulse so it's quite a thing um i did i shared

actually with commissioner bagley that a few of us had the opportunity to go out to broadshaw

and meet with the director and the chief veterinary medical director there and she was

describing that they use animal balance uh on a fairly regular basis and they do community if i'm

understanding absolutely what she was saying they do community events so people can bring their pets in

and and and the shelter supports the event but the these are pets from the community so i do

hear what you're saying about us doing quote-unquote free spay and neuter events once we get sort of

through our own shelter backlog um to build our face even more so in the community and what was

described was that there was a little bit of competition being generated amongst

board of supervisors members to figure out which which district had like the highest need

and maybe get that district board of supervisor member to to throw in a little money for this

and so maybe we could reach out again to our city council members and see if we could get some

support and do some advertising in the different districts and see what we can do to increase

some of our relationships with our our community members as well as our city council members to be

of the service to them. Commissioner Morris i need to interrupt you we need to have a motion

to continue a few more minutes so we can complete or we need to shut down. No we're good until 7 30.

Oh i thought it was 7. I stand corrected. I'm sorry. And the chair will not be entertaining

such a motion this evening. We're not doing that tonight.

Anyway so lots of ideas and again the the work from those two events was tremendous and tiring.

Thank you. That concludes member comments and questions. Then we are to public comments on

matters not on the agenda. Thank you chair. I have five speaker slips. First speaker is Margaret

Gonzalez. My name is Margaret Gonzalez. I went to Adam Schalter on the front street on Fifth Street

to adopt a dog because I seen on social media that they were giving him way free. So I went over that

got five dogs and each one of them they told me that they weren't ready. They said they hadn't been

spaded or neutered or anything so I finally went back in there and got another dog that was able to

be adopted and I asked them why were they having those dogs there if they weren't ready and they

didn't answer me or anything. So I got the dog that I have and I asked them what was going to happen

to the other dogs and they said they were going to be euthanized on the 29th. I mean they had the

dogs and kennels. They had three big dogs four big dogs and one kennel four little dogs and a kennel.

You know it was just it was unreal. I cried all the way through the kennel. You know it hurts me

to see the way they're being treated there on front street. And I said needs to be done about it

because it's not right. That's all.

That's whatever that was that's much better. For next public commenter if you'll speak on the left

side when coming up if you're able it'll help with the feedback. Next comment is Annette Guzman.

Hi. I just want to tell you guys a few of my personal experiences with front street. I did

foster for front street a while back over five years ago. I am a failed foster. But the real

problems I have with with front street is the ACOs. I called on a dog that was dead on he was a

it was a rottweiler on a dog that was dead lying on the sidewalk. He was there for over six days

before anybody responded. I did not want to see that animal day in and day out because I drive by

there every day. It was on a busy busy street. It was on fruit ridge and 60 second. I must have called

four or five times and I know a lot of other people called to that animal was not picked up until

this almost the seventh day. It sat there it bloated finally somebody put a tarp over it.

But that animal was there and it was it was pretty devastating. Then the second time was recently

when I seen another dead German shepherd and he was lying next to Taco Bell on Stockton Boulevard

which is another busy street and that animal stayed there for three days and I still can't say if

the ACOs picked them up from front street because it could have been a citizen. And then the other

one that was killed by the railroad tracks this is just so wrong to leave an animal. What do we

live in a third world country? I mean it's just wrong to see an animal laying there that big.

You know it just bothers us and finally they did come out on the rottweiler but it wasn't until

after we made so many calls to so many different people that it was done. I think they need to be

a little bit more quicker and picking up these animals especially in our area where the kids walk

by. I mean people couldn't even walk by on the sidewalk because the animal was laying from the

sidewalk to the street and it was just there and it was ridiculous. It really was and it's just

it's just thing got to change and the euthanization of 325 dogs up to date is out of control.

Thank you for your comments. Your time is complete. Next speaker is Julie Virga.

So what Annette's talking about is a common occurrence. I think there's like 1500 calls

for 311 for animals calls that have gone unanswered. Compare that to Bradshaw's okay.

There's articles about it. Just trust me there's a big difference there. Why?

So we're talking about Spade and Newt are here. So my nonprofit because in January

Front Street stopped adopting out animals because they said they had so many animals. At one point

they almost had 1500 animals in the foster program that were unaltered in 2024. Okay.

That's crazy. Clearly there's something wrong with that picture there when you're not prioritizing

Spade and Newt are and legally an animal needs to be Spade or Newt or before it can be adopted.

You know that just doesn't make sense. So in January they're killing animals. They're transferring

them to other shelters because they're not Spade or Newt are. They're just languishing in there

and quite frankly the fact that you don't want to talk about how many animals

are euthanized is a real tell. That's scary. Okay. Because you should be able to talk about

that. That's important. But my nonprofit found Spade and Newt are resources. Snip, Spade and

Newt are okay to come in and Spade and Newt are the animals in the shelter that were dying. Otherwise

$15,000 we paid. We knew that those that would be sabotaged somehow some way and it was read about

it in Inside Sacramento. They said number one that Snip, Spade and Newt are was not

current with the AG's office. They're a service provider. They have premise permits. They have

DA licenses. Animal balance doesn't. Okay. And they were going to go to the shelter and Spade and

Newt are over 100 animals that was rejected. There is so much more to this story. Okay. Please

look at the email that I sent out. Please do your homework. Two minutes is definitely not enough.

Thank you for your comment. Next speaker is Susan Falcon.

Hi there. My question really just is for Mr. Zimmerman. I would like to know why you do not

include in your shelter manager's report discussion calendar items. It would make it so much easier

if we knew what you were going to talk about so we could make public comment. Why do you not do

that? You just put a little line down here. It would be very helpful if you did that. Is there

a reason that you don't do that, Mr. Zimmerman? Oh, you don't want to answer? This is not a time

for a back and forth conversation. It's just more of a public comment matters not on the agenda.

Okay. And then we can take that in and then... Okay. I always thought it was up to his discretion

whether he wanted to or not. So he's choosing not to. Is that it? Because I understand that you

have a choice to, but that's okay. You have my question. I'd like to know why if you could do

that it would be really easy for us to know what you're going to talk about. Thank you.

Thank you for your comment. Next is Kelly.

Left? Right. No feedback. I don't want that. That'll distract me. Okay. So because I'm unorganized,

let me...

Okay. It is imperative that Front Street cease any and all retaliatory actions against

individuals who voice legitimate concerns regarding its operations. Silencing criticism

through punitive resources undermines transparency and public trust. Moreover,

the practice of scrutinizing the personal social media accounts of staff and volunteers

and community members and subsequently terminating them for referencing issues such as the so-called

E-word is both inappropriate and unprofessional. And institutions that serve the public must

uphold the principles of accountability, open dialogue, and respect for free expression.

I also got to say that community members are retaliated against also if they voice concerns.

Okay. So Marigold, four-year-old people. I've been rescuing in a variety of ways,

helped with rescues, all kinds of things for over 10 years. And Marigold is a dog that I could have

helped. I could have rehabbed that dog and made her adoptable. She wasn't. She was just confused

and scared, didn't know how or who to please. And I went four times to try to meet her,

try to figure out, you know what I mean? Try to get a plan together, right? And I hit my people up.

And on that last day, it was very weird. It was Jacob and Jody. And it was bizarre. And I got like

eight different reasons why I couldn't see her and couldn't meet her. And they knew I wanted to

pull her and they knew I was going to save her. And I got to tell you, this is the seventh dog

that I have tried to pull for Front Street that's been killed since 2020. And I've been fostering

from and adopting for Front Street for decades. Since 2020, though, it's bad. And now I'm on a

list. I'm terrible with thank you for your comment. Chair, I have nowhere speakers.

All right. Well, with that, we will adjourn our meeting. Thank you so much and have a good evening,

everyone. Oh, we did commission or comments. That's

it. We did adjourn the meeting. I see. Okay. Okay. Sorry about that.

Yeah. Again, if folks, the work plan is an iterative document. So if you have feedback on the work

plan or progress to report during the comment period is when we do that. And if you've got

stuff on the work plan in the meeting time, I'm sure Vice Chair Morris be happy to get your

emails. How about that? Confused responding to the shelter manager's report with commissioner comments.