Great.

Good evening.

Welcome to the Wednesday, September 10th meeting of the Animal Wellbeing Commission.

The meeting is now called to order.

Will the clerk please call the role to establish a quorum?

Yes.

Commissioners, please unmute your microphones.

Commissioner Treat.

Here.

Commissioner Snell.

Here.

Commissioner Abushai is absent.

Commissioner Middleton?

Here.

Commissioner Hayes is also absent.

Commissioner Bell.

Here.

Commissioner Backley.

Commissioner Christie.

Here.

Commissioner Hugh is absent.

Vice Chair Morris.

Here.

Commissioner Garcia.

Here.

And Chair Hefner.

And I am here.

Thank you.

We have a quorum.

Excellent.

All members of the public are welcome to address the commission as we're here to provide a public forum for 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 uh two minutes to speak once you're called on.

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

We'll now proceed with today's agenda, starting with the land acknowledgement and pledge led by Commissioner Middleton.

Please rise to the opening acknowledgments in honor of Sassamento's indigenous people and tribal lands.

So the original people of this land, the Nissanan people, the Southern Maidu, Valley Plains, Miwok, Patwin, Winsune peoples, and the people of the Wilton Rancheria and Sacramento's 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 today in the active practice of acknowledgement and appreciation for Sacramento's indigenous peoples' history, contributions, and lives.

Thank you.

And now for the Pledge of Allegiance.

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America.

Thank you, Commissioner Middleton.

Before we get to the consent calendar, just a minor adjustment to tonight's agenda.

We'll be taking up item five, the staff presentation after the consent calendar.

So our first order of business today is the consent calendar clerk.

Do we have any members of the public who want to speak on the consent calendar?

I do not have any speaker slips.

Do we have any members who have a comment to make on the consent calendar?

If not, the chair will entertain a motion.

Oh actually I'll move.

Sorry.

Moved by Commissioner Middleton and seconded.

I'll second, but I do have a question.

Sorry.

I just realized may I ask my question.

Is there another second?

On the ordinance update, I something says on there that we can have that something about September.

So it's not.

I don't have anything to report back.

Just that that is going to be reviewed by the internal city attorneys.

They get together and they they have a review of any ordinance changes before it moves through the process.

It's in the process, yes.

Excellent.

I have a motion by Member Middleton and a second by Vice Chair Morse.

We'll proceed to a voice vote on the consent calendar.

All those in favor signify by saying aye.

Aye.

Those opposed.

Hearing none, the ayes have it.

Now we'll proceed to the discussion calendar.

Item five, the staff presentation from the administrative analysts, Brittany Alcantar and Robin Tomlin have joined us.

Welcome, welcome.

Come on up.

It's your time.

I've got it.

Thank you for having us.

So we are the Front Street Admin Analyst team.

So our agenda today is who we are, what we do.

And then while Robin and I are both admin analysts, we kind of oversee different areas.

So while we have shared duties.

Sounds like they're all here.

Yeah.

Okay.

So while we have shared duties, we oversee separate areas.

So I oversee veterinary services and Robin oversees field services.

So we're kind of gonna just go over what we do.

My name is Robin Tomlin.

I have been with the city since June of 2007.

And I'm Brittany Al Cantar, and I've been with the city since May of 2024.

So I oversee the veterinary services or veterinary side.

So some of my job duties are staff scheduling, coordination of daily and weekly shifts, contract veterinarian scheduling, so arranging hours for contracted vets, scheduling external students, so vet students, RVT students, scheduling of surgeries, scheduling of staff trainings, onboarding of new staff, administrative processes.

So I also do time sheet approval, so reviewing and approving hours for payroll, process reimbursements for my team, processing invoices for contract veterinarians.

I'm an HR liaison for my team.

I also do permit and licensing renewals.

So that's for our RBTs, our veterinarians, and then also our permit holders for controlled substances.

For communication and reporting, I do communications with adopters and fosters, so I provide updates and support, whether that's they need medical records, lab results, radiology, or they just have questions post-stop or post adoption.

I do report monitoring, so I track outcomes for adopted and RTF or return to field animals.

Um making sure the animals aren't sitting in the shelter and we can keep them moving through.

And if they need like something special, making sure we can squeeze them in a timely fashion.

So arranging logistics and executions for those, which I'll touch on in a little bit, but one of our probably bigger ones you guys have heard about and talked about is animal balance.

Um coordination for specialty surgeries and consultations, so arranging logistics and execution for that.

So that's things like specialty surgeries like FHO, orthopedic surgeries, eye nucleations, gastropexies, things of that nature.

Um, for operations and equipment, I'm also responsible for sending off specialty lab samples, uh, managing our outside submissions, so like samples that we can't send out through our regular um IDEX.

Um, scheduling machine maintenance and repairs, and also troubleshooting.

So if something goes down in the medical building, we want to make sure that we can get it up and running in a timely fashion.

So we have radiology, dental equipment, we have our anesthesia machines, all of those we need to be able to function on a daily basis.

So if I can't figure out how to get it to work, figuring out who I need to contact to get that to come out and get our machines up and running.

I'm also in charge of inventory management, so making sure that our medical team has the supplies that they need so that we can do surgeries, um, making sure that when we have these off-site events or these specialty surgeries going on on site, that we have the supplies that we need and we're not gonna run out.

Um, I also assist our premise permit holder, um, Dr.

Smalley with assisting with board inspection readiness.

So a lot of these like regulatory agencies will have checklists, so we'll go through periodically through like every aspect of the shelter and the medical building and radiology and just go through those checkoff sheets and make sure that there's nothing new that we weren't aware, you know, of and that we are up with compliance.

So our partnerships.

So animal balance is one that we um started this last year.

So we have had four clinics with them.

Um when I first came on board, we had over 800 animals in our foster to adopt program.

Um we are down to 19 now, which is fantastic.

Um, we actually have a contract vet who is a veterinarian at another local shelter, and she was sharing with me that their foster to adopt program is about 900 animals right now.

Um, so we're down to 19, which is fantastic.

We're not doing foster to adopt anymore.

Um, and that's largely due to our animal balance partnership.

Um we just had an animal balance recently, which was 100% community, so we were able to service uh 169 community animals, which is great.

Um we got a lot of positive feedback, so hoping that we're gonna be able to assist in the future.

Um, another one of our partnerships is San Diego Humane.

Um so they've come out four times now to the shelter.

And really, what their goal and our goal for them coming out is to help us be more efficient with our high quality, high volume spay and neuter in the space that we have.

So their team comes out and they actually look at like our space, our staffing, what can we like make work?

The first time they came out, we only had one veterinarian and I think three, maybe four RBTs.

Um, this last time they're coming out now.

We have three veterinarians and we have seven RBTs.

So we've been able to go through with different staffing variations and adapting some of like the tips and tricks that they have like taught us so that we can implement them in our facility.

Um Sacramento SPCA.

So this is one Sacramento SPCA we have a great relationship with.

We send 10 dogs to them every week, um, unless they're closed for some reason, holiday, something like that.

So they help us out with surgeries.

They're also great, like if a machine goes down or an items backward and we really need it to keep surgeries going.

I can reach out to them and vice versa, they can reach out to us.

Auburn Spay and Neuter has been a great one.

We sent cats and dogs to them to help us just get through like the number of animals, foster to adopt animals as well when we were trying to get that number down.

Audrey Creek has been great.

We've sent them orthopedic surgeries, we've sent them space and neuters and dentals.

So when we don't have the means to do dentals on site, especially when we didn't have the staffing, we could send dentals, so animals that had like severe dental disease where they were in a lot of pain, needed antibiotics to them so they could help us out with that.

UC Davis, we work with multiple departments.

So Gorley Teaching Hospital will send animals for spay and neuter, and it's a teaching hospital, but we send animals there for spay and neuter services, fracture program, we'll send them animals that are in need of fracture repair, CSS or community surgery services.

We'll send them amputation requests, gastropexies, eye nucleations.

So if we get inundated with like these specialty surgeries and we cannot accommodate them on site at our shelter due to the number of space and neuters we need to do, or staffing issues, can reach out.

It's not always quick, but it's a great option for us to have.

So whether it's cardiology workup, dermatology workup, if we're able to, we'll get them in there.

Sometimes there's a wait list, which you'll see Mark Queen on there.

So due to not being able to get in to UC Davis, we have sent recently two animals in for echocardiogram or echocardiograms and cardiology workups.

And the goal there is to provide as much detail as possible for potential adopters, or if a rescue ends up pulling, at least they have that information for their future adopters.

Summit is an orthopedic specialty group that comes in, so they'll do fracture repairs for us, FHOs, they've done a nucleations for me, they'll do um tikaboo surgeries.

So kind of those specialty surgeries that take more time.

Um that's that's what they do.

Um then last is the animal, excuse me, dermatology clinic.

Um so again, if we can't get them into Davis, this is a new clinic that we've sent a couple things to for skin workups, so that way we can provide the best possible care, especially if we've been treating an animal like the one we most recently sent.

We've been treating her for months.

She's improved, but she's just not quite there.

So we sent her over there so she could see a specialist, so we could get hopefully that next final step so we can get her adopted.

This button right here.

Yeah.

And I assist with the field service side and project management.

Um, some of the main projects that I'm currently working on is licensed compliance project with the veterinary hospitals.

Um, since implementing this project in 2024, we've seen a 55% increase in licence compliance and license compliance.

Um, this growth helps protect residents and the public by ensuring pets are properly vaccinated.

Um we are in the works of working on the barking abatement unit, which is developing a noise nuisance policy that is fair to both dog owners and neighbors while aligning with co-enforcement ordinances.

Um we just recently implemented a collection a project with collections agency, allowing us to offset costs while helping families keep their pets.

Um it's supporting both fiscal responsibility and community well-being.

Um, another project that I'm currently working on is the Bite Confinement Project, which allows pet owners to comply with rabies confinement requirements by submitting proof of their pets health virtually through like text messages, FaceTime, and things of that nature, and that allows the animal control officers to focus on higher priority calls.

Um, the shelters.

I also provide direct support for field service and shelter operations.

Um I train and oversee the field service customer service rep, manage animal service officer training, licensing, certificates, compliance, so like all of their PC A32 courses, cow animal courses, I help register that.

Um I coordinate fleet services, which includes vehicle maintenance to ensure that our staff we are riding around in safe vehicles, so we have to get regular maintenance, um, oil changes.

Anytime a vehicle breaks down, we I have to coordinate that to go to our fleet department.

Um I oversee the inventory ordering for shelters and our animal control office team.

Um I provide administrative and license support at community clinics.

I monitor and ensure department of public health compliance.

We have to provide our bright reports on a monthly basis to that department, and I help oversee that.

I process the permits for like exotic animals or any animal-related event that happens in the city.

I process those permits, um, fines, payments, and restitution.

Um, I handle all of the public records requests, so I compile and collect the data and submit them in a timely uh response.

I monitor and respond to departmental email inquiries.

I serve as the HR liaison, and I support the onboarding of the new staff, so I do all the I-9 documentations, um trainings, acumen, things of that nature.

Um I coordinate all of the staff travel and training, so if they need to submit if they are going out of town, I have to submit all the proper documents to get that approved.

Um, I also manage the grant monitoring, budgeting, documentation, and invoicing.

I also handle um citizen complaints escalations and resolutions.

Um I support the community outreach through clinics.

Uh the shelters volunteer team organizes a monthly community clinic and hide need neighborhoods offering free vaccines, micro trips, resources, and on-site pet licensing.

We do that on a monthly basis throughout the community, and I actively participate in the safety committee and the employee engagement committee.

Okay, and then so as I mentioned earlier, Robin and I also have shared duties.

So we have our separate duties, we have shared duties, so some of these include um procurement and contracts, so invoice processing and coding.

So we review, code, and approve all invoices to ensure accuracy and compliance.

Um purchasing reconciliation, so we have to reconcile our purchase orders with our invoices and budgets to maintain uh financial accuracy.

Um team monitoring.

So Robin and I both have our individual emails, we have shared email, and then we also monitor emails for our various departments.

Um, and then besides that, we have teams is what we use in the shelter, so there's different teams.

There's like an order teams chat, but then there's specific teams for our different departments that we help out with.

Um, and then vendor spend tracking.

So we monitor and report on expenditures to optimize budgets and identify trends just to make sure like we're not overspending in one area, and you know, just making sure that we're moving money accordingly.

Um, ordering, so we place and track orders to ensure timely delivery of goods and services.

So while Robin and I do oversee different areas, like if she's working on a project and she's really busy, I can help her out with ordering on the areas that she normally orders, and vice versa.

So, like if one person goes on vacation, we're out sick, we can make sure that the items that are needed within the shelter are getting ordered so we don't hold up operations anywhere in the shelter.

Um, we also do strategic planning, so we develop procurement strategies to support organizational goals and operational needs.

Um we also do cost savings, we identify opportunities for savings through negotiations, preferred vendors, and process improvements.

Um, we maintain structured records and documents for contracts, orders, and invoices.

Uh we also do vendor communication and we build and maintain professional relationships to ensure quality service and compliance.

Um, our favorite fiscal year procurement transition.

We coordinate year-ins and new fiscal year procurement processes, including budget rollovers, vendor notifications, and reconciliation.

And that's kind of what we do.

And one thing that I didn't know, but I know um, because I know my team presented last time, and a question was brought up like how many surgeries do we do?

So our weekly surgery schedule is set up for a hundred um animals to be scheduled.

Um that does not include add-ons.

So if we end up pulling additional things or adding on surgeries, it'll be over that.

Right now we are in kin season, so we're doing anywhere from 30 to 60 kins on Wednesdays, so that actually increases our weekly number of surgeries that were completed right now, somewhere between 110 and 140.

So, and as people maybe know, like you know, kittens are a little bit easier than dogs.

So if we don't have any kins and we're just inundated with large dogs, obviously, those are numbers are gonna be down because large dogs phase take more time.

So yeah, thank you.

Well, I'm pretty tired just listening to them.

I don't think going through the entire list.

I need a I need a break after doing that.

So um, thank you very much for being here.

I know folks probably have some questions.

Let's do do we have uh questions from the public or or comments from the public?

I don't have any speaker slips on this item at this time.

Okay, members of the commission who would like to be heard, Ms.

Bagley.

Oh, thank you.

You thank you for your work, ladies.

We all appreciate it.

Uh so you two are the team.

Yes, correct.

And how long have you been a team with these specific duties that you've delineated?

Over a year.

Over a year.

And have those duties increased, or yes.

What we see right here, have you had all of these duties for the last year, or have these been added?

I'd say for the most part of the year, yeah.

And Brittany, same for you.

Yeah, yeah.

Okay.

And I have just a couple questions here.

Robin, um the list of partnerships, those are all paid vendors.

Is that a fair assessment, a fair statement?

A fair statement.

In other words, no one's providing free services pro bono services to the city.

Yeah, no, those are not free.

Those are all people that we've worked with or repaid for services.

I'm sorry, I can hardly hear you.

Well, actually, no, so UC Davis, we don't pay UC Davis, so that is everyone else is a paid vendor, no.

Okay.

And I noticed that well, and actually, let me go back to San Diego.

We don't pay San Diego.

So San Diego is not, and you see Davis is not.

But for like the specialty or specific things that we're setting out to help animals, um, and yes, we are paying for those.

San Diego is is pro bono for all those visits.

Okay, it's a grant.

Great.

Other members with questions.

I'm looking.

I've got Commissioner Few on my list, but I don't have Commissioner Few at the table.

So I think that's me.

Okay.

Ladies, thank you so much.

I want to share with the audience that these are not professional speakers.

They are here at our request, and I appreciate both of them being here and sharing.

I actually had no idea of the broad scope of responsibilities that you carry and the responsibilities that you do wonderfully, and thank you for that.

Uh I think I had one or two questions.

Um, Robin, when you say licenses, you mean pet license.

Yes, yes, not staff licenses.

No, you for pet licenses.

Yes, pet licensing that you've been working on.

Um and then it the bite confinement compliance project.

So that's people in their home managing a confinement.

So the bike confinement project is um basically if uh animal bites somebody, they the owner has to submit proof of the animal's health and rabies.

Okay, and so we do that electronically now, so it helps save the animal control officers time and they can focus on more high priority calls.

Thank you.

Um, and then just to reiterate um um Brittany, you said we had almost 900 animals in foster to adopt, and now we are down to 19 animals.

So when I first came on board, um, we had over 800 animals, and now we're down to 19.

Um I believe that's I made a cheat sheet here.

Yeah, four cats, 15 dogs, and really what those are they're either non-compliant, like we cannot make contact, or they have um like appointments scheduled with their own private veterinarians.

So there are a handful of people who um did a foster to adopt for a breed that they really did just not want it altered until after a certain age, so they've been able to provide proof that they're gonna get it done with their own private veterinarian.

So a delay may be because of the age of the animal in terms of it not being yet altered.

I haven't thought about that, but that makes sense to me.

And then the last question is just related to our San Diego Humane Society relationship since Commissioner Um Bagley was asking, is my understanding that's through a grant project?

Um they're not doing it pro bono, they're being paid through a different grant.

So yes, they do have a grant.

I believe it goes till the end of this year.

Um so, and that was like their whole thing.

I think we were like one of their first um shelters for them to come out, and they've since like gone out, which is great.

Um, we actually had additional visits scheduled with them, but they had a lot of interest, so we gave up our additional spots so that they can go to these uh shelters for the first time, which is fantastic.

They're actually out here right now, so today was day two of the day three.

Um so we did 51 cats yesterday, we did 38 mix of cat and dogs today, and we believe we have 40 on the schedule for tomorrow.

Um so it's been nice having them out.

Um, it's a good way to wrap up our relationship with them.

This will be the second time we've gone to work with them with a staffed team, um, and really just taking what they've given us, seeing what works for us, and just having that like feedback relationship.

So just uh out of transparency, myself and uh Commissioner Dennis Bell, we we volunteered to be supportive during the San Diego Homain effort, and what I'm struck by is the clinic shuts down essentially for regular business.

The clinic turns into a spay and neuter site, but no regular, so to speak, regular business is conducted in essence because they're doing high volume span neuter in a tight site.

I've been in there when the dogs are barking in your back of your head, etc.

And so it's not as though that would be a sustainable model forever and ever because it's it's just an interim effort to try to take care of some of the volume of animals that are required to be altered.

Yeah, that's correct.

So we actually have to close down our catering conference room, um, pull staff from other departments to help us.

Um we are basically on a triage basis, so anything that uh needs immediate attention, we see otherwise if it can wait, it has to wait.

Foster appointments are a if it's an emergency, we will see it, we will get it in.

If it's not, they get pushed off because it's all hands on deck, so we don't have spare staff to spare in areas, and there's really no room.

So every single table surface being used.

We actually have pack prep going on in the office, so like the office is taken over, there's really not spare room if we ever do um another visit.

I welcome if you guys want to walk, or even if you don't want to come during that, just come on a regular day and see.

It is tight quarters in there.

Like we do have seven RBTs and three vets, and on Wednesdays when we're all there together, it's tight in there, they're on top of each other, but they do a great job.

Thank you both for all the logistics.

I know that you spend quite a bit of time and effort and energy coordinating on behalf of the animals of the city of Sacramento at the shelter.

Thank you.

Christie, I'm kind of blown away over here by just the scope of everything that the two of you do.

Um it's it's really impressive.

Um so thank you so much.

Uh I I'm a little curious about some of the partner relationships.

Um animals are uh what's specialty needs, so like it needs to go to a dermatologist, or it needs uh an FHO or I nucleation.

Um are those specialty visits covered in uh Front Street's typical budget, or are those like a friends of Friend Street support system?

Is how does that work?

It's a friends of Front Street, or if we have grants for specific services and it falls within that, then we can use those.

Excellent, thank you.

And so when animals end up on the like uh transfer uh partner request list, and it's and they have like a listed thing that's like ah, this one needs an FHO or something like that.

How do you guys is it just a balance of resources if this animal should go on this list, or is it kind of like oh, the wait list at UC Davis is gonna take way too long?

Let's put them on the rescue list and we'll see if maybe a rescue can pick up the animal.

How do you make that determination?

So if there's any question, like if we have if we're backed up on specialties, um, because obviously if we can send them to UC Davis, that's a free service to us, so we will definitely try.

If we can't get them in there, we will um look out.

So we have Summit come out about once a month right now.

Um, but I'll also put them on the UC Davis list to see, and we'll also put them on a rescue list because you never know what's gonna pull.

Like Muttville is fantastic, they pull like old dogs all the time with medical needs, so that's great.

So if Muttville's interested, and like that's their thing, like they have specific adopters looking for that, they don't mind it, they can take it on.

Fantastic.

If not, we'll keep it on ours for you know, either if we can get it into Davis, if we can get it in with Summit, or then if we need to like look at sending out somewhere else.

Thank you.

I mean, I think for me as somebody that looks at that list pretty much every day, it's really nice to hear the other side of it that you guys are doing your own networking and sending animals out, and so that when I see like on the list, just me, a random person sees that this animal needs to go out because it has like some kind of weird orthopedic case.

There's probably a ton of weird orthopedic cases that I don't even hear about because you guys have already handled it.

So that's really nice to know.

Thanks.

Thank you.

Uh Commissioner Bagley for a second round.

If we could well, it's actually it was I I wasn't finished the first round.

Ah, you see, sorry, really.

It's all right.

Okay, it's okay.

I forgive you.

Um, Robin, uh tell me, you mentioned contract veterinarian scheduling.

Are you still uh contracting with private vets to come in and provide services when your staff vets are unavailable?

Yes, we still have contract vets that we'll have come in.

So we have contract vets come in right now on Mondays, Fridays, and Saturdays, um, regardless to help us out so that we have coverage.

Um, and then if we have planned vacation or somebody calls out sick and we have a full day schedule, then we'll reach out.

Is the med unit being used on Sundays?

We currently don't have any veterinarians on site on Sundays.

Uh is that because contract vets are unavailable or have they been asked about that?

That's staffing right now, so we wouldn't have um like an RBT or anyone to support them on Sundays.

We currently don't have staffing on Sundays.

And I should clarify we have staffing, just not medical building staffing on Sundays.

Correct, I get that.

Um, and then I had a question about the partnerships.

I noticed that community span neuter is not on here.

Is that because these vendors are sufficient enough to handle things?

So community span neuter, we um we have a relationship with them for community, so like the voucher program.

We don't send shelter cats there um this year because they actually ended our relationship.

Um they just were trying to get more community animals in last fall, and then we were able to get animals in elsewhere, and we acquired full veterinary and RBT staffing, so we were able to pick up surgeries on our end here.

Okay, thank you.

And then one other question for Britney.

Last one.

Um you mentioned that you handle citizens' complaints to some extent.

Is that after they've already called them in to uh 311 and they're unhappy with something?

I mean, how do you get those complaints?

And I'm assuming that was for British.

Are you talking to Robin or me?

I oh excuse me, I thought you were Rob No, I'm Brittany.

I apologize.

Okay, you're Britney.

This is Robin, Robin.

I think I'm addressing you.

Um regarding citizens' complaints.

Is that after they go to a certain extent where they've already called 311, they they feel they've had an inadequate response, and then how does it get to you?

Uh yeah, so it cut usually comes in by a Salesforce ticket through three and one that it's handled by our customer service um enforcement team, and then if it can get escalated from there, and either myself will handle it or our ACL supervisors.

And is there is there still a duty on the part of your field team to pick up strays on stray calls if they're if they're uh contained?

If they're sick or injured, yes.

Sick or injured only, and if and if staffing permits.

I'm sorry, and yes, and if staffing permits.

Thank you.

Hi, hi guys.

So on Sundays, any medical issues or emergencies, those go to Muellers?

Yeah, so if they are a medical emergency, they'll go to Mueller on Sundays.

You have a lot of those on Sundays or medical issues that arise, or is there an on-call bet?

Um, Dr.

Smalley will take phone calls if the staff is unsure if it is a medical emergency.

Um, but the staff is pretty good, so that yes, they will take them over.

Um we do have, I mean, I do feel like Mondays we get in um quite a few.

Um, whether that's from the shelter, though, a lot of citizens drop them off, especially on the weekends.

Like there's hit by cars, there's cats that they found, they'll drop them off at Mueller, and then they all come back on Mondays.

Thank you.

Well, thank you both for uh appearing before us and for your incredible work for the shelter in the city.

We appreciate it.

Thank you so much for coming.

All right, moving on, item number three regarding euthanasia statistics.

Mr.

Zimmerman, did you have comments to make before we hear from the public on this?

Um I don't really have any.

I'm here to answer questions.

I think uh it's pretty straightforward.

Um the the data is here.

Um and as you see our our staff put together um information um regarding you know behavior dangerous medical others, uh the the percentages and the total number of animals that were um euthanized in fiscal year 2425.

Um and then again, as I mentioned, uh the historical data going all the way back to 2008.

Um so again great strides.

Um I do want to highlight um that since 2019 um we've we've been doing really well with dogs.

I mean, compared to the previous years.

Um cats we always struggle with.

We take in a lot of neonate kittens that just they're they just don't make it.

Um we're always looking for ways to improve.

Um but again, I think that the team has done an incredible job, especially with some staffing issues to be able to save this percentage of again, especially dogs.

Um because we know dogs, large dogs have sometimes behavior issues and all the other things, and um so again, just really incredible numbers based upon the resources that we have in our outdated facility that we have, um, the limited resources that we have, um, and again um just yeah, I'm here to answer questions.

Um love to have some dialogue.

Okay, let's start with uh comments from the public.

Do we have speakers on this item?

Yes, I have three speaker slips.

First is Jamie McDoll.

Hi, good evening.

Looking at these numbers, uh, the intake rate, it's a interesting if you look around 2021 with our lowest intake.

Um, and our 2022 was the highest uh positive outcome.

But if you look at 2021 to 2024, the intake numbers all go back up.

And if you look at the uh survival rate, those numbers all go down.

2022 is about when the uh management adopted the policy of the dangerous and extremely detrimental policy to leave strays in situ.

So we are not picking up all of our strays.

We are not vaccinating, we are not spaying, we're not neutering, we are leaving them out to breed, and the overpopulation just shows in the euthanasia rate.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next commenter is uh Julie Verga.

Good evening.

Uh, and I agree with what she said.

Um at the recent city council meeting where the audit was heard.

One of the most important acknowledgments was that public trust had been violated and animals have been failed.

So far this month alone, 23 dogs and 23 cats have been killed as of today.

Year to date, that's 1,355 lives lost at Front Street.

Yet we are told not a single animal was killed for space.

That defies logic, and it is exactly why public trust in this shelter has been shattered.

Since Stacey Day's arrived in May, euthanasia has increased 38% compared to the same period last year.

Under her leadership in Los Angeles, euthanasia also surged by 72 percent.

And now, just as before, we are seeing adoptable animals labored with let labeled with behavior issues as a pretext for killing.

Unless and until Front Street stops lying about why animals are dying, trust cannot be rebuilt.

Hiding the truth will only cost more lives, and it will not help save them.

It is time for Front Street leadership to stop the cover-ups and start being honest with the community.

Only then can trust be restored and life saved.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker is Elise.

Julie stole a portion of my speech.

The same approximately for the prior year.

This year, suddenly we're down to three animals.

Despite the fact that intake is higher, euthanasia is higher, live release rate is lower.

The director likes to speak about how space is the problem for all the ills at Front Street.

Commissioner Hefner, you've spoke about the space issues, and suddenly we have a 90% drop in euthanasia for space.

Until you're honest about the problems, we can't fix the problems.

It's very important to be transparent.

You mentioned the data, Director Zimmerman previously, that the data is the best in Sacramento.

Absolutely, the data format is the best.

However, I don't trust the input of the data.

It doesn't make any sense if our intake is higher, our euthanasia is higher, that suddenly space killing is lower by 90%.

That just doesn't make sense.

It's not logical.

So just be honest with the public.

That way we can help.

We want to collaborate.

We don't want to always be here every week or every month.

We're sick of being here every month.

But if you're honest with the public, we can help you honestly.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Comments from members, member treat.

Am I unmuted now?

Um I've asked um a couple of times during the last two years to see those statistics on the stat sheets.

I don't want to see another shelter statistic sheet that doesn't show me the euthanasia rates.

I keep asking, I always have to dig for it in the files.

I want those stats to be on a stat sheet and the reasons why.

It is actually in it is provided.

It's not on the the live release rate, it actually has the percentages and the numbers.

It's on page.

I'm talking about the sheet that was handed out to us.

No, there's there's you should have another doc.

I don't have another document.

This is in the agenda.

The attachments for the agenda, I'd like those printed out so I don't have to search for them each time.

Okay.

I mean, that's that's not typically something that boards and commissions do.

Okay, I've asked for it before.

I don't care what other boards do, I'd like that printed out.

Okay.

I'm dyslexic, it's not that easy for me to find things online.

I'd like to have a printed copy.

Okay, we can you know we'll print you copies of the all of the agenda items, and I can I can bring them to you when you're attending comments and questions from other members, Ms.

Bagley.

Yes.

And this is to manager Zimmerman.

You know, I I personally believe there's a stigma, an unfair stigma on humane euthanasia.

Uh, and I don't think it's something anyone should hide.

In fact, I think that if the public, if the community, if the mass is new, what the breeding and the carefree uh procreation with animals is causing, it's one of the best ways to educate the public.

So I don't believe in the stigma, and I believe that a lot of bad things happen to animals, and humane euthanasia is so much better.

But with that said, I get contacted by a lot of folks who want to save an animal, and they don't want to just go into the shelter and save an animal.

They want an animal that is on the last five days.

And I realize you have a lot of animals that it wouldn't be wise to be advertising as being in their last week because they shouldn't be adopted.

There, you can't rehab them.

I get it.

I've had pit bulls since the 80s, I get it.

But I also came into Front Street several years ago and wanted to pick a dog that I knew had no chance.

Five or six years old, look like hell, and took her because that's what I wanted.

And I get calls all the time from people that want to do that, and they don't necessarily want to walk through the shelter and pick one that suits them.

They really want to see a list from the shelter of the death row dogs.

The ones are gonna go down, they're they're tagged for it, and I want to know why we don't do that.

So, one, there's a couple things.

Uh one, if the dog is truly dangerous.

Well, yeah, that's I'm not even talking about okay.

We're not off the record.

Okay.

So if you're talking about a dog that you know is just having some behavior issues in the shelter, again, it is a snapshot in time.

That is what we know.

So when the team collected collectively makes a decision that that animal is gonna be euthanized because there's no rescue, there's no nothing, um, and we're not gonna put that.

The reason, and and this has actually been discussed on this commission before.

There is data out there that says what you are suggesting would actually stop people from coming to municipal animal shelters specifically because that is going to make them feel sad.

They don't want their children to see that, they don't want their spouses to see that.

If you want me to show you the data, I can show you the data, the research is out there, the scare tactics, the the making people feel bad.

People want to come to a shelter and have a feel-good experience.

That's why less than 30% of people in this country get their pets from shelters because they think they are sad places, even if they are the most incredibly brand new design shelter, it's still sad to them.

And I will not do that at the Front Street Animal Shelter to our community and to the pets, because that is like scare tactics of people, and it is actually going to harm animals, and it has been proven.

Don't you think that by stigmatizing humane euthanasia when you tell people don't bring that animal in because it'll be killed here, it'll never get adopted, you better keep that animal and privately shelter it.

Don't you think that that's exactly the same thing?

You're you're you're guilting them.

It is it is the the truth that that is.

But what you're suggesting is that you know, we we post some list or we we send some list out.

That's not gonna people are gonna be desensitized to it, it's gonna make them sad, and they're not going to look at that.

They're not that's one school of thought.

I mean, I'll never agree with that.

No, I get and I will be I will be glad to bring that information back to the commission because the data is out there.

They survey thousands and thousands of people in the state of California, and that is the reason.

Who's that?

I mean, I don't want to get into the weeds of this.

I really don't.

This isn't the time or place, but I know that people want to save.

And you you know, you talk about life saving, and that's one way to do it, because there are people, animal people want to come to the shelter and find one that they know is unattractive, is not going to be adopted, and there's no reason for it, and it's gonna go down, and it's a good dog.

And those people may not want to walk through the shelter and have a sad experience, but if that list was provided, you would see the life saving you say that you're into and and involved in with.

So there's also a liability issue.

So again, we see the behavior that we see in the shelter.

If that animal, we then adopt that animal out to somebody, and our staff and our volunteers have noted this dog has attempted to bite this dog, is scared.

It's not even those dogs.

I I'm not even suggesting that anything like that be on the list.

If your staff, if you have confidence in your staff that they have the knowledge to be able to make that call, I respect that.

But I can walk through your kennels and look at dogs and know those dogs, that dog right there, that one, that one, that one, that one, they're gonna go down.

They're five years old, they're already starting to get a white little face, muzzle, no one's gonna adopt them.

She's been bred a number of times, and everything's hanging down, and there is someone that may want that dog.

And I'm not saying that I'm I'm not saying this is a tremendous amount of work, and if for the sake of one dog, I'm just saying that that is how you change the mentality so that people aren't just coming in looking for a puppies and the young ones.

That is how you change change it.

You you that's how you educate the value of an animal, the value.

And I don't understand why you don't try.

You don't try.

Because there's data and science behind that, that is a thing.

Commissioner Morris.

Um thank you for providing this data.

I know it's been talked about on different occasions, and um I appreciate the work to categorize because I understand that what's posted is multiple categories and hard to understand.

Um, we do see the category of behavior as the largest group of animals in the dog world that and are euthanized.

Um my understanding is that behavior could be aggressive behavior, it could be an animal in a kennel that's turning in circles and circles and circles as not appealing to an adopter.

It could be an animal that is shy and withdrawn and not again appealing to an adopter.

Um, in addition to some that may be aggressive.

Uh I do wonder.

So let me also back up and say a few of us attended uh the California legislative day uh at the state capitol in April.

Um I think the humane society was the host of that legislative day, and at that legislative day is when there was a presentation about the concept of sadvertising, and this um uh talk was basically saying that promoting animals as about to be killed was driving people away from shelters, and so it it is was information that was shared at this legislative day, and they were educating us about looking at different ways to positively promote animals at the shelter and try to bring the sense that these are animals that are healthy, that are adoptable, that are cute, that are trainable, etc.

So we those of us who attended that legislative day heard that talk and and it left an impression on me of how do we promote the animals that are adoptable.

Um I do wonder about if there are animals that are behavior challenges, if there might be a way to create some sort of a I'll call it a transfer list.

I I know there are lists that I'm not entirely familiar with, but maybe something about dogs that are adoptable that that though are showing a high level of of kennel stress and and maybe some different effort to reach out to our partners along the lines of what Commissioner Bagley is saying.

Could could we pilot a like uh something like that?

And I'm not asking you to answer this right now, it's just an idea that went through my mind.

But if we think there are animals that are not aggressive but are struggling, um, that may decline.

Is there some way that we could partner with folks to see about helping those animals?

I believe Commissioner Bagley does some sort of similar work for the county.

I'm not sure about that, but I think Commissioner Bagley, you mentioned that once before, something like that.

So I don't know, it's just a thought, and I'm interested in seeing whether we can help some of these kennel stress animals or some of these other animals.

It's just thought not asking for an answer, just putting it out there.

It does seem that those animals get really um stressed out in that kennel, and especially when the space is small and the and it's loud and the freeway right there, and so much cement that everything is echoing off of every bark.

Um, it's not surprising that they're getting stressed out.

So thank you for providing the info.

Thanks.

Um, yeah, thanks, Philip.

This has been um pretty easy to interpret, and I appreciate the way you've got the data here.

Um I'm not gonna talk about behavior and dangerous because that feels really far out of my area of understanding.

Um so looking at the the medical side though, um, I think we've previously identified that maybe the unweaned kitten that breakdown was probably not accurate, right?

And you've mentioned a few times how difficult that demographic is and that they don't do well, and so probably some triage euthanasia is happening just for humane reasons, right?

Yes, absolutely.

I mean, so we can see, you know, with it the kittens, um, you know, we're we're not we're not seeing anything um, you know, unweaned.

Um well or seeing a very small percentage.

So again, that's because it's it's a they're making a medical decision.

Okay, um again, it is a possibility to us to get back in there and get in the data and and sure.

But it's still it's it's still medical and untreatable based upon that kitten's condition.

Are we able to going forward, like without spending our time looking at past data?

Are we able to going forward classify and of kittens that are euthanized for being unweaned as their primary reason?

Like we know that they might be dehydrated and thin because that's just part of being unweaned.

But if their primary reason is unweaned, are we categorizing them that way now?

So some, um, but especially like when it gets back to the medical building or something like or a veterinarian seeing it, they're seeing it from you know the medical standpoint.

And so that's that's where a lot of this it's still it's a medical thing.

Um I don't think that anybody would be a poet.

I'm definitely not opposed to saying these animals were treated because they were euthanized because they just they were unweaned, we had no fosters, we had sure nothing, they weren't thrifty.

Um and sometimes that is the case.

Like there's just sometimes they do come in, they're you know, a day old and they're healthy, but we have no bottle baby fosters, nobody's signing up.

Um staff can take them home for a night and hope for the best.

Um, but then there are some that just come in that are so unthrifty, like absolutely I know I I see them, I get them too.

I 100% understand that.

I think that because the unweaned population sometimes can have a good outcome if we have enough fosters, if we have enough resources, it feels like separating that out as a classification shows us an opportunity for you know, building on those resources to get more out to foster if we can point at that and say, you know, what if we had 20 more bottle baby fosters, like that would do amazing things for the program.

I know that those people are difficult to come by.

I also know that sending really risky animals out to fosters can deter them if they have a really negative experience, and it's uh it's a balance.

I I totally get that.

I think that would help though, and I'd love to see that data cleaned up a little, and if you wanted to move unweaned over into the medical category and have it be met unweaned, I think that makes sense too.

And if you wanted to move unweaned over into the medical category and have it be met unweaned, I think that makes sense too.

Um when we see like so the the number of medical untreatable cats is quite high, and then like what's the difference between medical untreatable and physical condition?

So it's just data entry.

There's there's you know, yeah, whether it's an R VT or a veterinarian or an animal care tech.

Okay, putting that, you know, it can fall under kind of both.

There's there's not a clear um okay.

So, like in my mind, I can kind of combine those, most likely that we're just in some kind of physical treat condition that was not treatable.

Yes.

Okay, yes.

Um, and I I think just to um to Commissioner Morris's point and Bagley's point that like uh I've seen long timer lists on shelter websites before, and you know, maybe having that be like a clickable part of the website so that not everyone's being exposed to the more sad side, but just like as an opportunity to view the animals that have been there for more than a few weeks, like to just see that they're there.

If some people, I think that the number of animals that need people that want those animals far exceeds like there's probably a hundred animals that need somebody that that bleeding heart person for every one person that is willing to look at that list, but maybe that's something to just consider.

I've seen that at municipal shelters before.

Yeah, I think that that is I I've seen that too, and that is something I think that's uh actually a really good idea just to say hey the every animal that's been here for more than 30 days, we're they're gonna go on that list.

Um they're still doing good, they're behaviorally sound, they're medically healthy, they're just being overlooked for whatever the reason.

Thank you.

Yeah, Commissioner Snell.

Thank you.

Um, just two points.

Uh, the the first, I would just suggest maybe a I don't know if we call it a sad list, but you list separately on social media or somewhere.

You don't have to have it on the same stream as your happy list as your puppy list.

The sad list can be marketed to specifically to the people who are looking for those for those animals.

Social media is powerful enough that if I you know do a quick search on my phone for something, it's gonna show up on my TikTok within a few hours.

Um, so if the people that are looking for that are gonna find those lists, so they don't have to be advertised at the at the same on the same stream.

Um and then the other is does the shelter have a written policy, publicly available policy on euthanasia, which defines all of the conditions under which you know we're gonna that we're gonna decide euthanasia is the right right choice.

So, no, there's not an official policy, obviously, medical those are made by veterinarians that are determining that.

So that is one of the policies that we are going to be working on, yes.

Cool, thanks.

Commissioner Garcia.

Just to piggyback on that, there is a section on the site that is uh senior dogs, which is which is good, you know, kind of meet our senior dogs, which may be some of those that um are have been there for a long time.

So we really like that.

Um, and on the medical side, I was kind of thinking the same thing.

Um, the treatable ones, are there actually some that are treatable?

You just don't have the fosters to take care of them, or does it get really expensive for someone to take in an animal that has a known condition that's gonna require extra time, extra care, extra financial um whereabouts to have all of that at home?

So let me make sure I'm understanding.

So, as far as like an animal that's gonna be euthanized for medical and treatable?

It says medical treatable, medical treatable, yes.

So that comes down to resources.

So, you know, we only have three veterinarians, we only have five RVTs, we only have so many fosters that are willing to take on, like a you know, I'll give you a prime example right now.

We have a um a sweet dog needs two major surgeries, um, fracture surgeries, um, and then one other thing, I forgot what the other thing is.

It's gonna take like three months of cage risk.

So it's gonna take a really dedicated foster.

And you know, we've got the surgeon lined up, and but we just needed we were able to find finally find a foster that's willing to take that on that has the ability, but those are those are challenging cases.

Do you seek out medical foster folks, or are there's folks out there that say we'll take the medical cases?

Yes, we do we do have fosters that just do medical member treat.

Did you want a second bite at the apple?

Well, I just have a question in my tell with these numbers.

Okay, I have a question.

And that's where they put some of their animals that you're hoping that people with big hearts will look at first.

Do we have anything like that?

Oh we have a transfer list, so those are animals that were looking for somebody to take them, whether that be for behavior, whatever.

It's not necessarily a euthanasia list per se.

Um, yes, could some of those animals potentially be um euthanized?

Yes.

Um, but but it's not guaranteed.

Sometimes it's just they just came off their stray hole.

We know they have a bunch of medical stuff.

This is kind of the breed that this particular rescue likes, so let's put that on that list.

But it's not, it's not a no, I mean an urgent list for adoption.

Bradshaw has something like that.

I'm not sure how it works, but that would be urgent.

That's a question.

Yeah, that's my question, is it would be interesting to see how that works.

It's supposed to be fairly successful from what I'm told.

So sending like on their website, I they I'm told they have an urgent list, which would be please come look at these dogs first and see if one of these appeals to you that you could take home or foster versus automatically putting them on a list that you know they they need urgent needs.

They they are traumatized by the shelter or whatever it happens to be.

Maybe they've got some medical issues.

But when they were talking about having the page you could go to, like Doug talked about, to actually go to click to see, you know, special needs traumatized in the shelter, probably a really good dog you should consider it, or cat that could be but mostly dogs.

Maybe we look at that uh blue blueprint as to how they do their urgent column to see if that's a way to take care of some of these.

So it it it goes back to what is the story that we want to tell people about shelters?

That they're sad places and that animals are are euthanized, or do we are sad places?

No, I know and I I would agree, but but when we're doing that, we're we're we're it doesn't mean you have to put their face right up front.

This guy's gonna die.

I mean, I think you can have a button there that says these are special urgent cases that we would like you to consider, and there could be a list of animals on that for people to go in and say, Oh, I would love to help this boxer have a new life, or whatever it happens to be if they like different breeds.

Um, you know, again, I have done the research, the research has been done.

If that's something that this commission would like to put forward in their plan, um you can do that.

Um, but I I it's not something I'm gonna support.

Um, and I I will bring in other professionals to show why we should not be doing that.

Um if I knew we could save more animals and that has been proven that that saves more animals, we would absolutely do it.

But it's been shown that it actually doesn't save more animals.

Okay, well, I'm trying to figure out why Bradshaw's really happy about the so we could success they've had.

I'd be happy to do a little investigation at Bradshaw and learn a little bit about their list.

Some of you know I volunteer at Bradshaw as well, and um thank you, Commissioner Morse.

Have the opportunity to talk with their um chief veterinary officer and learn a little bit about some of their work.

But um I know I'm jumping in here, uh, but I've watched it but happened before.

Uh so I'd be happy to look at Bradshaw and understand kind of what's going on there.

I hope to go and listen to a talk there next week.

Um, and um I think some of you may remember we had an we have an ad hoc committee on large animal adoptions, and the research that was presented last uh commission meeting showed that pit bull's rule and huskies drool, I think might have been the right terminology, but what we basically learned is pit bulls, German shepherds, huskies are difficult dogs to move through the shelter.

And so we at the ad hoc committee were chatting about trying to put some higher attention slash promotional um focus on those dogs, and maybe we could morph that into a long timers list, not a sad list per se, but a long timer list, or uh uh we were talking about something called staff favorites, call them something positive, staff favorites or something.

So we are actually noodling on this a little bit.

The ad hoc committee had a good conversation earlier this week, um, which we which I volunteered to write up and haven't gotten to it yet, but we'll have it for you all by the next commission meeting.

Um we were looking at staff favorites or something like that to be looking at maybe helping move these animals.

Commissioner Middleton.

Yeah, uh, thank you for those comments.

That's exactly where I was going.

I think we have a lot of people here who have mixed feelings about this, and it's an issue that's very emotional.

Um, totally understand, like I want to support what the research says.

We don't want to make people sad.

I work in an industry where similarly research indicates that that does not work, guilt and shame does not work, but we probably have access to a lot of brilliant marketers who can find a way that we can, if it makes sense for us to prioritize this, find a way that we can call attention to these animals who are at risk or in urgent need and do it in a way that it is positive.

So if I can add to that or help identify somebody who can come up with the terminology that would make more sense that would motivate people to take a look at these animals, and I would be glad to do that.

Thank you.

Um before we move to the next time, I just have a couple of thoughts to share.

First, I think it's important that we remember that euthanasia I get it, it's unpleasant, but it is fundamentally a procedure to end an animal's suffering.

And uh, you know, we're lucky that we have people who are going to do that work, and because I certainly am not.

Um the other thing, and we spent some time on the categories, and and I I appreciate that.

I'm not a student of those.

Uh, but my thought about this was you know, what drives euthanasia rates, and I think to the point that some of the folks in the audience made, um, you know, there is a direct, if you look at the research, and I've started to do some looking at the research myself, there's a direct correlation between intake and euthanasia rates.

And no matter what category it falls into, intake, especially when intake outruns outcomes at a small shelter where we don't have enough space, that's where you get euthanasia.

At some point, it's mathematics, and that's it's not about Front Street.

If you look at the entire United States, there's a clear measurable relationship between euthanasia and intake.

When intake goes up, euthanasia goes up.

And it's it's not a one-to-one correlation, it's actually it's way worse than that.

So from 2011 to 2025, animal shelter intake across the United States dropped from roughly 8 million animals to 6.3 million.

In that same period, euthanasia fell from 2.6 million to 920,000.

That's a 65% reduction.

Okay.

2022 national study published in the Journal of Animal Welfare looked at 1,300 shelters across the country over four years, and they found that uh shelters that reduced intake by 10%, just 10 to 15 percent, could cut their euthanasia rates in half.

Conversely, last few years, dog intake exceeded live outcomes by as little as four percent.

The euthanasia rate doubles, increase your intake by four percent, and your euthanasia rate doubles.

That's the math, folks.

It went from 5.6% to 10 point cent, 10% in just two years.

Why it comes back to space and resources, right?

And behavior, medical, they're all interrelated, right?

And the more animals come in than can be adopted, fostered, returned to home.

That re that results in real choices.

So let's keep that in mind.

Sorry about that.

Moving on now.

Um to item number four.

Spay and neuter capacity.

Okay.

So before we do public comment, I just want a little bit of background.

Um, we know that the shelter alone uh doesn't have the capacity to to perform all the spay and neutery surgeries we need, and we had folks talking about that today.

Um we don't really have an estimate as to how much additional capacity is needed, however.

And nor do we have, I think, at least on this commission, a sense where we might get it.

So this is an attempt to start to answer those questions.

So we start with intake and specifically what proportion of animals come to the shelter unaltered.

There was data in the attachments.

If you didn't print the attachments, I apologize, but in the attachments, the data tells you that more than 80% of the dogs and nearly 90% of the cats coming into the shelter are not spayed or neutered.

So roughly about 85.6% of all intake or are not spayed and neutered.

And those rates are somewhat higher than the national numbers.

And the troubling thing about the national numbers, also in the attachments, if you didn't print those out, but is that the rates of altered animals nationally are continuing to fall.

So more and more of the animals that are arriving at shelters are not spade and neuter.

At Front Street, where we had a total intake in the last 12 months of 10,300.

That rate tells you that 8,755 animals came in unaltered.

Subtract out the RTOs, return to owners, transfers, rescues.

That means the shelter, just to meet its own needs, needs to perform 7600 surgeries a year.

That's before we do anything in the community.

All right.

So our friends, the veterinarians were here last month.

They indicated that over a 12-month period they performed seven 3,789 animals.

That's really about half of the of the overall need.

So it leaves a need, an unmet need there of 3,800 animals or so, give or take, right?

So we did the animal balance event, and uh, of course, those were just those are just community animals where we did 168 animals.

Rough justice cost for that was 40,000 cash money plus some real expenses beyond that.

But if we took tried to use animal balance exclusively to bridge that gap, you do the math.

We'd need to do 19 weekend clinics a year at a cost of roughly 760,000.

I don't think that we could get them there that often, even if we had the money, and I don't think we got the money.

So I would suggest it's time to start to explore some other options.

And I would say that the first place to start with that would be to look throughout the region and and try to connect with folks, and I don't know if Brittany's still here, but I'm gonna hunt her down because uh she certainly has uh contacts with a lot of folks that we need to talk to, right?

Um because I think that that the first step is to is to look for the options for adding additional capacity.

And I know that there's discussions about building a facility and all that sort of stuff, which is great, but that's a that's a that's a project that is gonna take at a minimum some considerable time to get off the ground.

What can we do in the meantime?

And I would suggest that all of us could take on the project of trying to assess what the capacity is beyond the shelter itself, and uh and taking a look at that.

So uh I I've started my own little list.

I will certainly add to it a couple of things that Brittany has on her list.

Uh and if folks are interested in, I've included in the attachments, again, if you didn't print those out, there's a little template for gathering some data from these various partners about how many days a week are they in operation, uh, what kind of capacity they have.

I know, for example, community spay and neuter is only open four days a week.

The place exists in real life seven days a week.

No idea what it would take to get them to operate five or six or seven days a week, or whether that makes any sense.

But if we start to ask those questions, perhaps collect that data, we can come back and start to get some real um uh helpful research in terms of what some of these options are.

So that was the purpose of this, and um, you know, folks are interested in helping out with that.

Love to hear it, love to share and get additional ideas from folks and hear um comments from the public about this issue as well.

Yes, I have three speaker slips for this item.

Julie Verga.

Ms.

Verga.

You are on the right track, Paul.

You have to increase spay neuter.

You just can't stay status quo.

You know, you have to think outside of the box.

You have to make phone calls.

You have to, you know, go everywhere you can to increase spay neuter.

It's what we've been doing for the last five years.

And I think unless you know, unless this commission knows what has gone in in the past, you're not going to be able to fix it to go forward, okay?

And I can tell you that it has been resisted, uh increasing spay neuter when we brought pre-spay neuter uh to Front Street, it's been rejected.

When we brought high volume spay neuter surgical teams to Front Street that were within their budget, they've been rejected.

So I'm so glad that this commission is here to add some oversight and some accountability to that because there are always solutions that can be found if you're looking for them.

So keep looking for them.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker is Elise.

I'll add on to what Julie said.

So animal balance is here because Bradshaw brought them here, and Front Street was able to piggyback on that.

But Bradshaw found them, and Bradshaw brought them here.

Snipbus that is now doing low-cost spawn neuter in our region is here because Julie picked up a phone and called them, and they're here.

That's literally all it takes is somebody Google searching for something and picking up a phone and saying, hey, we need help here.

What can you do to help?

What is it going to take from us to get your help?

That is what has been missing for the last five and a half years is the effort to go into this.

That is why there was 850 animals in foster to adopt that wasn't spade or neutered.

Additionally, let's talk about the volunteers you had for the voucher program that were just dismissed.

We talk about we don't have resources, we don't have space.

But you had a whole volunteer team doing the voucher program, and that was taken away from those volunteers and put on a staff member, a staff member who I'm gonna assume is already overworked.

And it doesn't take a brain scientist to realize that some of these solutions are so very easy and so very logical.

It takes money.

If you're doing the things that you're supposed to be doing, the community will help you fundraise.

We see what Friends of Front Street does every day.

Just pick up a phone call and make a phone call.

Thank you for your comments.

Last speaker is Jamie.

Yeah, I echo uh the last two speakers.

Absolutely, spay and neuter increase is what is so necessary to help.

Um and Paul, as you put the the intake rates, the intake rates, if we ever spaying and neutering this whole time would be less.

The euthanasia relates would be less, but we are having to backpedal from the damage done by the adoption of house and the correct policies with all these animals that have been allowed to continue to breed.

Yes, we absolutely need to increase spay neuter.

We should have been doing it this whole time.

I'm glad that we're looking at different ways to do it.

Uh, one of the things that as a UC Davis employee, I really really stress that you guys need to establish an even closer relationship.

Get all of those vet students in.

Let them come and help your your staff.

There is no reason that they shouldn't be doing an internship there and having them in on your spay and neuter days.

Thank you.

Thank you for your comments.

That's all the speakers I have for this item.

Comments from members.

Commissioner Morris.

Um I think that we're somewhat piggybacking on some um ideas that um Commissioner Christie put forward last meeting.

And um, I think I'm not gonna speak for Chris Commissioner Christie, but uh the idea of like doing a bit of a survey in our community of um resources, for example, community spay and neuter center, which is next door to uh Bradshaw County, uh the county um clinic shelter.

It's curious why they're why they're open four days and not seven days, and so having the chance to do a little bit of a survey of that organization, having a chance to do a survey of um SPCA.

We toured SPCA about six weeks ago, uh, saw the functions that they uh uh their their setup is is beautiful for high volume, high quality spay and neuter, the way that they're I call it a racetrack is set up that you can go in a U shape and move animals.

So learning about what physical setup and um and the fact that apparently they do 10 animals a week for us, but that's never gonna be enough when we need about 4,000.

But um Commissioner Christie and I did chat about looking at a way of conducting a survey.

I know there's a couple of other commissioners who are interested in potentially working together to conduct a survey using the tool that that Paul created.

Um I do want to uh acknowledge, I think that Brittany mentioned it, but I don't know that that it was called out very well.

We do have students from the UC Davis veterinary school come and do rotations.

They come and they're there for about two weeks, they do surgical rotations.

They must, they are not licensed veterinarians, so they must be supervised by a licensed veterinarian.

So while it's great to have the additional hands that pulls a licensed vet to be supervising them as well, so it's not an a total answer, although it is nice having seen and worked with those students.

Probably the biggest win in that situation is encouraging vet students to want to come and work in a shelter.

The vet students that I've had the opportunity to meet and talk to when they're doing that rotation.

Um some of them have had no idea what shelter work meant, and they were there mostly to get their surgical hours done because they're required to do so much surgery to graduate as a veterinarian.

So the opportunity to expose them to what shelter medicine is uh is has been eye-opening to a few of them that I've chatted with.

Um as far as trying to get more of them.

I do know that Brittany works on that, and Dr.

Smalley in particular, uh she and I have chatted a couple of times about increasing the vet students, and again, the supervision required by the licensed vet takes that vet away from other activities.

So it's it's got some pros and cons.

Um, but it is an area, and I think Brittany mentioned it in her presentation.

Um pick up the phone.

I appreciated that.

Uh this week I've been calling private veterinarians in the city of Sacramento asking for help.

And at least so far, three that quit came to the phone to speak to me and gave me their time, basically said that they don't have space and they don't have the the team members to help.

They wish that they could help, but at this point in time, they really don't have enough staff of their own and enough space to be able to help us with any level of high volume.

Um they a couple said call them back in a year.

They may have added some more veterinarians to their staff.

So they didn't say no, they just said not right now.

Um I have further uh these are private non-corporate vets, a couple of us are working on outreach to those vets.

And um, and so there are still more to call and talk to, but um, right now the the vets who came to the phone and chatted with me were very willing to talk to me and and recognize that they're struggling themselves to meet the volume that comes through their doors.

Um but we are myself and Commissioner Bell are making these calls.

Um our other commissioner Ava Abushelle, who is a veterinarian herself, uh, who's not here today, she's helped with this project too.

So we're learning, we're definitely learning things by making these phone calls.

Um, but uh yeah, it's it's a challenge across the community, it seems.

But Commissioner Christie, thank you for chatting with me earlier that about this idea.

Appreciate you.

Commissioner Christie.

Thanks, Leah.

And Paul, thanks for putting together some of those numbers.

Um and kind of a comparison of what we think that the current need is annually, and then um with what the vet shared with us, which was what they're getting through in a year, and um what a that's like a huge gap, like really scary, and that's you know, with the limitations of space and and it the time that it takes a vet team to take care of 10,000 animals a year, like that's not uh I don't think that's a problem that Front Street will solve all by itself, and if it does, please share that with the rest of the world because I think that they're having those problems too.

Um the animal balance is great, but in order for us to use them, we kind of have to build up a backlog of animals, right?

Because then it's just we're we're waiting and doing a whole bunch of animals at the same time, and I don't know all the logistics of like how we would choose those animals and what that wait list would be like, and are those um animals that are in foster or are they shelter living or or whatever, but um the that gap is so scary, and I think that our community's been caring loudly at us for a long time about the importance of spay and neuter, and then you know, I listened to the city council's meeting where we all agreed how important spay and neuter was, but the final thing is just well, okay, there's just not enough, and we can give do outreach all day up and down, but the fact is that every low cost appointment is filled, and so like I'm a person that um does a lot of rescue, and I'm on that link at you know 7 a.m.

But the fact is that every low cost appointment is filled, and so like I'm a person that um does a lot of rescue and I'm on that link at you know 7 a.m.

trying to click like I'm getting concert tickets, trying to get a spay and neuter appointment, or I'm calling and I'm finding out that I can get two appointments per month, and I maybe I have like 50 cats that I want to get fixed, right?

So that's the access to care, and that's not Front Street's entire responsibility.

Um, this is something that our entire community um needs to be helping with.

So I think that the capacity assessment would be really useful because we have dumb demonstrated that the demand is higher than the capacity, but we need to now understand what that gap really is, and hopefully once we have really outlined that we can be looking more fiscally and seeing what city council can help us with.

So uh I did want to ask one question about the a voucher program.

I know that I was the recipient of Spay neuter vouchers through the city a few years ago when I did some TNR and I had some kittens that I got fixed at SPCA.

Did that program go away?

Because it was a volunteer that I coordinated with at the time.

Yeah, so no, we we do still have it.

The reason we brought it back in-house is um again, it's it's paid for by um unaltered licensing fees, so not a lot of money.

Um and what we discovered is that people were utilizing it for community cats, which again it is important.

We're not saying it's not important, but it's in clear violation of the of what we're supposed to be using the funds for.

We had people getting cats under their name in the hundreds over the years.

Um, and so it was designed to help the low-income animal owner.

Yeah.

Um, and so we had to bring it back in-house.

Okay, because we we did discover that.

Um, and then unfortunately, and you know, as everyone's mentioning, CSN has limited spots, SPCA has limited spots.

Um, and again, we all know that we can't do public span neuter in-house.

Right.

Um, and so we're we're utilizing those two organizations.

Um, if someone does happen to be lucky and they get the appointment, how do I access that voucher program?

So, how it's currently unfortunately how it's being done now, and and this was at the at the request of um actually it was a suggestion of our volunteers.

Okay, once you get your SPCA or CSN appointment, then call us back, and then we'll get you the voucher.

Um because then it just it's the person's not waiting as long, or does it doesn't appear that they're waiting as long.

Um, and so we can get them fast, but they're not getting in fast.

But once they get their appointment, then they get their voucher, and then they're getting uh so that's that's one of the things that Front Street is still offering.

So, like if I so say that um I find a cat, right?

But it's not sick or injured, and so Front Street's not able to accept it, and I'm willing to foster it on my own, but I'm not gonna be able to afford its surgery.

Is that an option for me to access a voucher?

Like, because that's that's community sheltering, right?

So, like I'm keeping that animal because Front Street is at capacity.

I'm able to get a voucher for an animal like that theoretically.

So no, okay.

I'm owning it right now, I guess.

Yeah, okay.

Thank you.

And again, just again, you you will run up to like again, it's there's such a backlog, we just don't want to send people off into the abyss, and then they're sure.

Is there a cap financial cap on that program?

Or you're not really reaching it because people aren't every year um at the end of the fiscal year.

Um, our accounting folks determine how much of the um unlicensed altering fee the additional amount, and then we move it into another budget item to pay for that.

Unfortunately, um, even though we have some, we've raised some revenues, CSN and SPC have had to raise their prices.

So unfortunately, it may come a point where that's gonna become a challenge to be able to keep up with right.

Okay, yeah.

Um, so then lastly, I'll just say that you know, I'm really excited to dive into the assessment and like thanks, Paul, for getting going with that.

And I've been thinking about a lot, and I'm sure that when we have our interested commissioners on board, we'll huddle so that we're reaching out in a really organized way to like some of these contacts.

Um too quick, I just put you in charge of it.

So love to connect with Brittany because she seems like a wealth of knowledge about the partnerships and and capacities and what they're currently doing, that's amazing.

And you know, to the extent that you're able, Philip, when we get to this point in the road, I think we're gonna need to understand the financial aspect of what is possible with this.

So once we've identified like what, you know, if we reach out to ex organization and they say, you know, if we had this resource, we could actually open an extra day a week, you know.

I have no idea what's possible, but I know that you're interested in you know a new clinic and all of that, and I think that that is wonderful, but I wonder if maybe like us occupying someone else's building for a day is maybe an interim solution to that, and if that's gonna end up being possible, that would be amazing.

Yeah, and you know, we we have had conversations with the SPCA.

Like, could we do an overnight graveyard swing shift when they're not utilizing it?

There's liability reasons and issues, and so again, would love to because one they have the space.

Um, but it's you know, and then not gonna get a whole lot of contract ads that want to work swing shifts or graveyards.

Sure.

Well, the CSN though is a more reasonable option, right?

Because they're only open four days a week right now and they're empty three days.

They are um again.

I I've been there just once for a complete tour, and and they're set up for high volume for cats, dogs, not so much.

Okay.

We got plenty of cats.

Oh, we got plenty of cats.

No, totally.

Thank you.

Commissioner Middleton.

Yeah, I was just wondering if there are any um parameters we'd have to be concerned about, like geographically, because I feel like we're talking about a lot of local partners, but I'm wondering if there might be these kinds of opportunities in more affluent communities where maybe they have better design, bigger spaces.

I'm thinking like Palo Alto or something.

If we could, you know, find those kinds of partners that may be a couple hour drive, but enable us to do a higher capacity.

Are there any constraints like that other than obviously having the the staff and transport to get them there?

Yeah, so uh Brittany Mitch and Auburn, we we use them.

They're they're very reasonable.

Um they can do a high number, especially if it's uh cats or kittens.

Um so we've used them.

We haven't gone to like the Bay Area.

Umfortunately, we're kind of having a because of the budget travel is limited, and so we really have to we have to pull some strings and and get approvals from all the way up to be able to travel outside of the the the city area.

Okay, um so yes, we're open again.

It it also comes down to funding.

Um, and that's that's the big that is the big um that's the biggest issue is gonna be the funding.

Thank you.

Other comments?

Okay, if you spoke up, you're on the list to work on this.

So I appreciate it.

We'll be um Burkness out.

Thank you.

Um proceeding on then to item number six.

The initial draft of the annual report.

Oh, yes.

Um I don't there's not a presentation or anything on this.

It was also in your attachments.

So if you didn't print your attachments, you may have cheat from your neighbor.

I have I have a cover here if you want.

Um so it does seem a little odd to work on an annual report in the middle of the summer, but here we are.

Uh a couple things to note.

Uh there's a section on community engagement, which is currently missing that um Commissioner Garcia is gonna be helping with.

And then um, as uh Vice Chair Morse indicated, she's got some additions to probably be making in terms of some of the recent work that we were doing on the dog adoption committee.

But it's at least at this point, all suggestions are welcome.

Um do we have uh uh members of the public who wish to speak on this item?

I do not have any speaker slips for this item.

I guess the draft annual report was not exciting enough for people to interest.

How about members of the public members of the commission?

We did members of the public, sorry.

Oh seeing and hearing none.

I have a question.

Oh, of course.

I'm I'm confused myself about when the report timeline.

I believe.

Oh, I have a I'm getting the I'm getting a fickle finger of things from Mr.

Zimmerman.

It's it's due sooner than we would like.

Yes, almost guarantee that's where I'm remembering something about this.

I know our last well, he looks at that.

Our last shot at the at the our last so this is Commissioner Bagley asked if I recall when I had to get it in as chair last year, and I think it's changed.

What I do want to first of all, I want to acknowledge Chair Hefner for the work to draft this and put it together.

It's it's a bit of work, so I thank him for that.

Um my plan is to draft a part related to the dog adoption and have it to Chair Hefner next week.

We um we I don't believe I can't remember if I included a work plan in last year's annual report.

I will go back and look.

Um as you notice the work idea of a work plan isn't in today's agenda because frankly I just didn't get to it.

Sorry for that.

Um, and I'm still sort of trying to understand how to how to categorize things and be helpful in terms of who's got what interest and what leadership different commissioners are taking.

So I will make a stab at that for the next um meeting.

But um I don't I don't know that we have to include it in our annual report per se, but we might want to.

We could noodle on that.

Uh anything, Philip.

Did you go to a date yet?

So what we did last time is brought a report as a draft.

People at that point sort of like this today, read through it, gave a couple corrections, updates, etc.

Adopted it as final at that meeting with with the recognition that we would adopt those corrections and then moved it forward.

So I'm guessing maybe we could do that in our October meeting and hopefully move it forward since we only have October and November meetings left in the year.

Sounds like a plan.

Although you don't need to send me anything until after the 23rd of September.

You want to look at this in Japan?

23rd.

Okay.

Well, I think we can go ahead.

Um for this commission, it is so it's due to the commission in either October or November.

Um it'll be going to P and PE in either January or February, and then to full council in February or March.

So I think we will we will endeavor to bring it back in October if that's possible, and if not, we'll punt to November.

Yeah, let's try that.

Okay, moving on to the shelter manager's report.

Zimmerman.

Do I take that all right?

Um these are stats from just a couple of days ago.

Um hundred and seventy-six dogs in the shelter, eighty-nine cats, and six others uh and foster regular foster 81 dogs, 339 cats, five others.

Um, and as Brittany mentioned earlier, we are now down to um actually 19.

Um we think we did one today or yesterday.

Uh so we're down to 16 dogs, and I believe it's three cats in foster to adopt, and as Brittany mentioned, uh at our highest we were at 874.

Um, so great work.

I don't have my clicker.

Oh, can somebody click it for me?

The search for the clicker has just one more page, perfect.

All right, so um again, as we have already talked about San Diego Humane Society has been here this week, so uh performing spay and neuter for actually three days.

Um we're glad they're here.

Um as we've been talking about here about spinging and neutering.

Um we I have been put in contact with the city's um real estate broker, um, and I will be touring uh nine locations.

Um the majority of them are in the city limits because we the city really wants to stay within the city limits.

Um and so we're gonna be touring either on the 19th or the 22nd of these locations uh for a possible uh off site veterinary clinic.

These are not currently veterinary clinics, um but we would repurpose them.

Um that will be coming forward here in the next couple of months.

Um obviously we will have to get estimates on how much that's gonna cost, how that how we're gonna fund that.

Is it gonna be a public private public private partnership would be my preference?

Um so again we can do um additional fundraising um and then definitely use it for shelter pets, but also be able to use it for community animals as well.

Um regarding the interim improvements that came out of the shelter needs assessment.

Um there's been some changes, um, and so public works has promised me a estimate, a final estimate uh by October 1st.

Um, and we're hoping to begin the work by January, is the is the is the plan.

And then our vaccination clinic uh will be held uh this weekend uh at Oak Park Community Center from 8 to 12 p.m.

Okay.

Do we have comments from the public?

Do not have any speaker slips on this item.

Okay, do we have comments from members?

Commissioner Middleton.

Uh I'm excited to hear about the potential clinic site.

I'm just curious, would that be for all types of veterinary procedures or primarily for spawner?

So the idea is that it will just be for spay and neuter, and then that way it would allow the whoever's working at the vet, it would obviously be a smaller team at the shelter.

Um, and they would be focusing on medicine.

Obviously, there may be some surgeries, um, but the Spain neuter clinic would be just for spay and neuter.

Thank you.

Commissioner Morris.

I'm sorry, I meant to be during the next section.

Sorry.

Commissioner Bagley.

Yeah, I just had a question.

So is it the city real estate person is looking for buildings for the city to buy?

It'll actually be um the ones we're looking at are are leasing.

Leasing not that purchasing is not off the table.

Um, but these ones that we're looking at are are for lease.

Um and some of them are really inexpensive.

That's great.

There's like one that's like three cents a square foot for 5,000 square feet.

Um so obviously, you know, we have to look at plumbing and all of that stuff because that's where the the price is gonna get has the city exhausted all the possible city parcels that might be available within the city where somebody could be built or something could temporarily be placed to be built, yes.

We actually did look at just actually just right here across the street.

Um, there's an empty five, it's just under five thousand.

It's got the space.

Um plumbing and water would be a major issue, um, getting it in underground, and then park, even though there is a parking garage right there, not really ideal to be bringing in animals from a parking garage.

And there is on street parking temporarily loading, but as we know, like it's a lot of traffic.

Um, so it's probably not gonna be the best location, and we still have to pay for it.

Right.

Um so that one's uh really centrally located, but how about like further out, you know?

I don't know, I mean North Sacramento, South Sacramento, you know, um, still within the city limits.

I mean, I know the city owns certain lots that are good sized, and I'm sure it would cost some money, but I'm just wondering if certain temporary buildings could be donated, and the city then, since they own the lot and the building or temporary building is donated, then the only cost would be re refitting that building for the purpose of what you need, which of course is expensive.

I get it.

I mean, yeah, so we did work with the city's actual real estate team, and they identified all the properties that were available.

Um, and there were just none besides this one.

Um, and then when we learn, and they're like, oh, by the way, you are still gonna have to pay for it too.

Um, meaning our our division and department would have to pay public works to lease it.

Um, so we're like, let's go ahead and look at other locations to see if it we could actually get a lower lease cost or purchase of it if it works out that way.

Um, and yes, uh some of the locations are up in district two, which is actually our highest intake area, so we really would like to be up in that area.

Uh one of the other facilities is the don't quote me on the name of the bank, but it's over on Broadway.

It's been vacant for quite some time.

Um, it's about 5,000 square feet, it's got good parking close to the shelter, so that would be really great transporting pets back and forth.

Um, it is a little pricier than some of the ones that are out a little bit further.

Okay, well, that sounds promising.

And then um a question totally unrelated.

Have you continued transfers of animals out of state in August and September?

Um, have those continued, and if so, how many and what states?

We'll have to get back with the team.

We did a few, and then we have one scheduled here for the beginning of October to Oregon Humane again.

I'm sorry, to Oregon.

Yes.

Okay.

Thank you.

Oh, I did.

Sorry, I did have one.

Which was um, I know we've got uh October 1st is when you expect to get a uh uh final estimate on the safety repairs.

What's the plan for the animals while that stuff is going on?

It's gonna be loud, it's gonna be boisterous, it's going to be tricky.

Yes.

Uh it comes to mind.

Yes.

So when we met with the actual contractor that's gonna be doing the work, um, I let him know that we are limited on space.

So you will have to do one building at a time.

Um that's already gonna be problematic because we're you know longer that way.

Yeah, and we have a lot of animals, and it does take longer.

Um totally they understand uh the what we're up against.

So um I haven't asked them yet, but one of the my ideas was to ask the SPCA if we could house our adoptable animals there temporarily if they have you know the capacity to do that.

Um if not potentially a thought big foster push, temporary foster push.

Um for obviously animals that can be placed into foster care.

Um so it'll it'll definitely be a challenge.

Thank you.

Uh member Christie, did you have the last one?

Yes, I did, thank you.

Um the potential off-site veterinary clinic.

Um is that gonna be a capital campaign, or how are we expecting to approach that?

So yes, we the the shelter um is is waiting on a bequest um that we are receiving.

Um it wasn't specifically left for a capital campaign.

Um I worked with the um executor of the trust, um, and I wanted to assure him that um we would use this for capital campaigns so we can eventually honor um the family that left us this generous amount of money.

Um so we have a nice good little place to start.

Again, we know how much a new shelter is gonna cost.

We don't know how much a spainator clinic, but it's it's gonna be some additional funds that need to be raised.

Okay.

And it'll be a permanent, it's the idea is that it'll be an indefinite home to this clinic.

Yes.

Okay.

Yeah.

Um, and I I want to mention, I think um you've probably seen what Citrus Heights has just added with the Field Haven um coming in.

And I don't know that that's a fit for Sacramento, but I just think it's worth mentioning or sharing with other commissioners that this really creative solution that they came up with, which was um Field Haven Feline Center is a is a 501c3 rescue that does uh specifically cats, and they um seem to be doing really well and they do a lot of spay and neuter and uh Citrus Heights is an area that seems to have a lot of community cat population and very low on spay neuter resources, and the city has actually leased them an old school building for I think it's like a dollar a year or something, and Field Haven is able to come in and make that space into a clinic for that first year for almost no cost um to uh to be in the property, just their cost of coming in and renovating it and running it, which is tremendous.

But um, in order for them to do that, they have to provide a certain number of surgeries to the city um or to Citrus Heights, and then if the project is successful, that project will continue on.

And I just think that that is a very cool out-of-the-box kind of idea, and things like that would be probably a great addition here.

So yeah, and one of the reasons you know, we would like to make one make it a high volume Spain neuter clinic, so someday when that new shelter hopefully gets built, this can then be used by some other organization to again increase the capacity for the overall community.

So, yeah.

Very good.

All right, we have the hour of 719 having arisen.

We do have a little bit of time for uh comments and questions from members, but we would the chair would very much appreciate the ability to stay within our two-hour time limit.

So folks have questions or comments for at this point.

Commissioner Morris.

These are the things are on to raise.

Um is Commissioner Morris for thirty.

I want to thank Commissioner Garcia for the translations of the brochure.

Those who've had a chance to read through the draft of the annual report, we'll see that uh Chris Commissioner Garcia has had worked with the team to get those translated into five or six other languages.

I think uh Russian, Spanish.

Tell us Hmong Chinese, Hmong Chinese.

Yeah, I think we got them.

I think the Hmong is the last one we're waiting for.

So all of that has really been effort that Commissioner Garcia has taken on, and I wanted to really publicly thank you for doing that.

Um, just a silly reminder to team members here.

Our next meeting is October 15th, which happens to be the third Wednesday, not the second Wednesday.

So I had it wrong on my calendar, and I'm letting folks know to double check your calendar, it's October 15th.

In which case, just for people to understand how this agenda gets created, Paul and I have to get the materials together by 929 for that October 15th.

So uh we basically have about 10, 11, 12 working days between now and when we have to send the things to the city clerk's office, who takes the pleasure of rearranging things on the agenda sometimes, but just so that folks know by 9 29 is when things get in.

And that's my last comment.

Commissioner Treat.

Uh yes, uh, on behalf of the uh Hayes and myself, we'd like to see Jenna Topper with HOAP come and give us a uh uh the HOAP coordinator give us a little presentation.

I'd like to see that on the request list.

I'd like to see that other qu comments.

Oh, we might we might just make it.

Um I'm gonna I'm gonna take with it myself, uh, which is to just talk about I wanted to let folks know that uh uh we had a couple people here at the last meeting who um had been spending quite a bit of time, energy, and resources uh uh visiting um and looking after animals in one of the uh homeless encampments.

Uh at their invitation, I I have now made a couple of visits to the to that camp.

I will tell you that um you know I found those conditions to be exactly as described.

Um food, no water, um, you know, chained to fences and trees and that sort of thing.

Uh Mr.

Zimmerman was kind enough to put together a meeting that we had earlier with with Jenna and when the um and with a representative from animal control, uh, and I know um Commissioner Hayes is interested in this topic generally.

Uh you know, I I don't begin to even have an idea of what the best answer is, or I I think it's but it's it is certainly a situation that that is that that one little spot that I was in is probably just the tip of the iceberg, and um you know it's probably going to need um a great deal in terms of time energy and resources if we're gonna take a close look at that, and I I think that's something that we need to add to our future agenda as well.

Any other okay moving on to comments from uh members of the public not on the agenda?

I have three speaker slips for their matters on the agenda.

First speaker is Julie Verga.

Thank you, Paul, for going out there with Debbie.

I got a phone call for her, and she greatly appreciated it.

And I think it's the first step in the right direction, so thank you.

Um just a couple miscellaneous things I wanted to bring up with the commission members here, and I think it's important that you understand your role and that you really can make a big difference for animals and and have an impact.

And and I appreciate you being here.

I know it's a lot of time and energy.

Um, and but I think it's important for you to understand that per the uh commission or per the handbook on commissions and the Sacramento City Code, that it's clear that um it is up to this commission to set the agenda.

It is up to the city staff to uh provide support in preparing that agenda and making sure that it gets published, but it is up to this commission to set the agenda, um, and I think that's really important thing for you to understand.

Um talked about with Spain neuter that's so important is how do we get here?

Um, and I know it's a crisis uh across our region and across our state, but when you are turning away literally thousands, probably over 15,000 animals that are unaltered, as we know.

Most animals that come to shelters are unaltered, and you're turning them away at the door.

Guess what happens?

You know, you have out-of-control breeding, and so we are fighting against that right now, and that's why the increase of spay neuter, not status quo, but increase is so important.

One of the things we have done is we have initiated a conversation with community spay neuter about bringing in high volume spay neuter surgical teams to their facility to increase spay neuter for the region and potentially for shelter animals.

Those are the kind of conversations that are huge to have happen.

And so if you can help with that, um, that's that's that's very important.

There are you if you have that many animals.

Thank you for your comments.

Next speaker is Elise.

So the ASPCA has almost a half a billion dollars in their coffers due to sadvertising.

Um I also advertised when I started a networking group specifically for the animals on the uh rescue slash euthanasia list, which was highly affected effective.

Uh Bradshaw works with their volunteers every single Wednesday, they bring in their group of volunteers to network their at risk animals.

Those network, those networkers then are able to go out and specify these animals are going to be euthanized on a specific date if we don't get them out of here.

The sadvertising is not just for the people coming into the shelter.

You have a whole network of networkers that all they do all day long is post these animals at risk on social media.

They coordinate with rescues, they coordinate with the public.

Sadvertising is honesty, it's not a bad thing, despite what the data says.

She then worked with the city of Citrus Heights to work out a deal with Field Haven.

That's all it took, a phone call.

And now Citrus Heights is going to have it's going to be specific for cats currently, um, high volume span neuter.

Um it's they're getting the um facility for a dollar a month for the next 18 months.

It's gonna take them about a year to put it in place, and then after that, it's gonna be $30,000 a year for their um rent.

So all of these things, one phone call.

Thank you for your comments.

The last speaker I have is Jamie.

Uh just to partially uh answer Commissioner Treat's question, Bradshaw on their pet finder will put the deadline of X date at 2 p.m.

for any animals that are at risk.

So I don't know if they necessarily have a click list, but they put on there because if there is somebody who's interested in an animal and looking at that profile on Pet Finder and they are want to think about it for a while, but they see that deadline, it motivates them to go, which is also feeds into these advertising.

I do like that phrase, by the way, of the networkers that are out there that are working constantly to really market these animals that are at risk.

And this is this is a a resource that Front Street is missing out on by hiding the animals that are at risk, and it's really something that needs to be capitalized on instead of ignored.

Um, as I do Commissioner Snell like the list, the list of of the length of stays.

There also could be a list of senior animals, because there are the people who do prefer the older animals.

Um as far as as UC Davis, yeah, when you have the them come in for surgical, they're there just for surgical, but as we all know, animal people are a little bit different.

I work a lot in my other capacity with the people out of VMTH at Davis.

Those people volunteer constantly.

It's a resource you can tap into.

Um, I know we do that Front Street will advertise for the the week or the occasional spay neuter clinic on the weekends.

Hit up the UC Davis folks, the AHTs, the they have a lot of animal animal specialists that can help.

Thank you for your comments.

That's all the public speakers I have.

And with that, we are adjourned with one minute to spare.

I like that.

Thank you for your help.

Oh, here's my fault.