Travis County Commissioners Court
Tuesday, May 25, 2010,
Item 16
16. Receive status report from travis county health and human services and veteran services on animal control services. Do we have the people here that we need?
>> yes.
>> nobody from the city? Okay, fine.
>> good morning, judge, commissioners, sherri flemming, executive manager for health and human services and veterans service. Where he do have a few slides that track verbatim to your backup. Even though we didn't provide you the slides, you will see the language is exactly the same as your backup. On october 13th, 2009, the court directed health and human services to work together with the city of austin to look at animal control issues throughout the county and what might be some different strategies to -- to address some of the issues that have been presenting across the county, but at the time primarily in precinct 3. And i will tell you that this issue is much like most of the issues that you deal with. There's not a magic bullet. But there are some -- there's information we gather and there's an ongoing process to move towards a recommendation in this area that you will probably see sometime during the summer in the budget process. But today the department was directed to make an update to you prior to the end of may, so that's why we're here. On january 29th, sheriff rick hamilton graciously allowed us to use his community room at the ruiz building to host a meeting with the law enforcement and various city officials from across travis county. At that time we conducted a process with them to have them talk about what -- what were the presenting issues related to animals across the county and within their jurisdictions. And we have taken -- you have in your backup a list of all of the issues that were presented but you will see that we have grouped them into a few large categories. So the primary issues that were identified by that group had to do of course with dangerous dogs. That's not surprising because we already had several comments regarding dangerous dog issues out in the county. Basically residents were reporting that animals were being abandoned in the unincorporated areas, primarily, forming packs and posing danger to humans, domesticated animals and livestock. The other issue had to do with policy because many of our cities are at various stages in terms of their being incorporated or their legal status. Many of them must follow the state law versus being able to act, enact their own ordinances to address animal control. The other issue had to do with facilities. Many of the -- many of the cities or townships even if they had animal control mall control program -- animal control program, they were faced with what do we do with the animals when we pick them up? Many had to pay for boarding at a vet's office before they could transport the animal into the city, for example. An increased need for more trained staff, especially after normal operating hours. Oftentimes animal control calls don't respect 8:00 to 5:00 schedules. So the availability of staff to respond first and foremost but then also to respond early in the morning and late at night we found that the response times were pretty unacceptable to residents who were experiencing some of these challenges. And then insufficient education and training for the law enforcement. Again those communities who had dedicated resources to this issue, still found they were challenged by being able to keep their staff trained and up to date on what was happening in -- with the equipment and services that were necessary to manage this problem in their area. So moving into status, we feel like based on the meeting that's we've had, since your directive at the start of the fiscal year, we believe we have opened the conduit for communication between the cities within travis county and the city of austin. They are our experts and so we have been able to provide some information to assist the cities in moving forward. Many of the incorporated cities in travis county have significantly more ordinance making authority than we do. However, they are challenged by resource issues, even know staff or attorney time that can pursue the ordinance creation then of course the -- the enforcement after that. Some of the incorporated cities do have animal control officers who are employing innovative strategies to many their areas of responsibility, but again that's a function of the availability resources within that community. We have had the opportunity for staff to visit williamson county. Where their sheriff's department is operating their animal control services, we gave you a control of that visit. The city of austin recently nownszed the appointment of an -- announced the appointment of an interim director of animal services as a part of a succession plan that will result in a new animal services director. We include that in our status report because we have not had the opportunity to discuss some of the challenges that we've had with our animal control program with this new leadership, so we anticipate being able to do that. You will be approving a new public health interlocal agreement with the city of austin which includes the animal control services program no later than september 30th, 2010 of this year. It is staff's goal to discuss with you during the budget process your options if you choose to invest or make any changes that might be different in your current management of animal control services. The travis county sheriff's office has expressed an interest in taking a greater role in the provision of animal control services and staff from the sheriff's department attended with hhs to visit williamson county to look at their program. At this point, the sheriff's department is offering more of a partial service mix, so not to take over all of the responsibilities of animal control, but just to have a program that will work in concert with the city of austin. We have still exploring that for the pros and cons. We do know that the sheriff's department has made a budget request related to their intent and hhs is still evaluating that in comparison with the data and the programs and -- and services that are offered within the interlocal. We do know that the sheriff's department anticipates that there will be a ramp-up time and that they would not be able to -- to implement the services that they plan until january of 2011. So in terms of next steps, hhs s wants to continue their dialogue with travis county sheriff's department and other departments may want to weigh in on this very critical decision. We will continue to meet with the city of austin to really be able to separate out the services that we're currently paying for in relationship to those that could potentially be transferred to the sheriff's department. The city has also requested additional funding for spay and neuter services in fiscal year 2011 so we will have to look at that also in the full context of this discussion. So at this time we would also seek any additional court direction at this time as we continue through the summer to work through this process towards a recommendation.
>> thank you, sherri, that was very thorough. I would like to point out just for the benefit of the rest of the court that the first animal control meeting that we had that you referenced in detail some of the issue that's came out of that -- issues that came out of that was really well attended, i believe we had between 50 and 60 people there from all over the county, every incorporated city austin of the city of austin and the dialogue was really concern and the concern -- really good and the concerns were high. I think we are really marching down a path of recognizing the true needs out there and coming up with some ideas to address them. One thing that i would like to -- to ask question-wise or suggestion-wise to pursue as you are looking further into the options that are out there, is -- is what -- one of the -- one of the concerns that i've had, i was looking back over the interlocal that we've had with the city of austin is the lack of detailed reporting. The -- that maybe something that you can address with the new -- new head of the department over there because what we -- we know that response time is averaging 107 minutes in the county. That's almost two hours. Most of the time the problem's gone away by then or the sheriff's department had to follow up and deal with it best they could. I know that's one of the reasons that the sheriff's department is very interested in seeing how they might facilitate better coverage because they get called anyway and they end up with it in their lap. So but what is a bit problematic is the lack of actual detail in the reporting even though it's outlined in our interlocal, i have yet to see any that gives dates and locations for calls and things like that. So if we're going to march down a path of continuing to work with the city of austin and interlocal, i think that we need to firm up that part of our relationship in the interlocal from a standpoint of reporting. Because i haven't seen -- personally haven't seen the breadth of services that my expectations would be under the interlocal that we've had.
>> and commissioner huber, i would reassure you that staff is a part of our continuing work is looking at that and being able to map. So the next time we're before you on this subject, we will be able to provide you with more detailed data, but also with -- with maps. Thank god for gis mapping. So we will be able to show you the -- the spatter, if -- splatter of calls across the county and then areas where they are concentrated as well. So staff is working on that at this moment.
>> that's great.
>> i figured that you would. I had one other question, which was -- another piece of information that i'm actually unclear on when i read the interlocal. And then look at the documentation we've received as -- we have got a budget relative to the interlocal with the city of austin. It's looks to me like there's some charge-backs to us on like the clinics, the spay and neuter clinic that's they hold. I've not seen any documentation relative to those costs. And so -- so -- so a question that i have is -- is that an expense that comes under the umbrella of the total budget that we have with them or is that an additional cost that we're paying from somewhere else? That goes into the overall expenditure that's we are looking at here.
>> the spay and neuter clinics are funded within the budget and this year particularly we are experiencing the -- the city funds those clinics with the combination of our general fund resources and donations. Interestingly enough, donations are down this year. We are problem solving right now a way to continue those services throughout the summer because their donations are down, but those costs are included in the interlocal, so there's not a -- there's not an additional funding source for that other than the donation that's the city will receive through their system. Ffers. I see.the budget that we have he that outlines our costs, those -- those figures are incorporated there?
>> yes, ma'am.
>> okay.
>> thank you.
>> commissioner eckhardt?
>> i had a question with regard to the difficulty in -- in having staff at the municipalities. I was wondering if -- if we might -- this is something y'all may have already done. But might explore with the county attorney's office in developing a model ordinance for utilization by the smaller municipalities regarding animal control. Because we do have a fair amount of expertise in the county attorney's office doing dangerous -- dangerous dog and dangerous animal cases and could probably crank that out pretty quickly. Of course i don't mean to speak for the county attorney's office. But it seems that at least at first blush that it would be rather easy to do a model ordinance for the cities. I also was wondering about any exploration with the other municipalities in possible interlocal agreements regarding the kennel issue and the and tcso picking up some amount of the dangerous animal response time.
>> i think part of -- part of their proposal includes the -- the dangerous animal calls. In terms of the kenneling issue, i think that we're still exploring that. I think the -- the concerns that we have about that and that we want to try to think through is -- is, you know, the pickup times from those kennels, where those kennels are located, how do we ensure that the animals are fed and watered and picked up in a timely manner, so that the -- the kenneling seems to be an easy solution. But when it comes down to ensuring that -- that dogs and animals are not, you know, sitting in a kennel when it's 100-degrees, that's a little bit more difficult for us to figure out. So, yeah, i think that issue has been predominant in the discussion about -- about strategically locating kennels so that those areas that do pick up animals could actually -- house those animals until animal control mall control officer could by or until that municipality could transport the animal into the animal shelter.
>> [one moment please for change in captioners] williamson county model of how they deal with this particular situation, do you know whether or not if williamson county have i guess across the board a relationship, and i guess it's something that commissioner eckhardt kind of hit at a little bit, as far as the relationship with the cities within williamson county to ensure that what they're doing is consistently done throughout the county. Looking at that -- can you answer that question for me first? Looking at -- because what we're looking at is some of the concerns which are staff representation as far as when people will be available to deal with this situation. You even mentioned the after hour type situation, which is a concern. And of course being that it is, is there something that we can maybe use from williamson county and also had there been a reduction in response time. Somewhere along the line there's something that has to be working and i'm looking at a model maybe that we can take a little bit here and a little bit from this, a little bit from that and at the end of the day we'll have something that we can maybe work from. And i know you're looking for direction and recommendation from the court. But if the performance of what williamson county has put in place actually reduced the response time and then also availability of staff, staff availability after hours, per se, is also may be part of the solution. And i understand that temporary kennels or something else may be part of this also, but if you would throw all of these in the mix, what can we actually take from williamson county that is working?
>> i think we certainly can. Staff did not spend a great deal of time talking about partnerships. I think the idea was because we were there with the sheriff's department, staff was to really look at the nuts and bolts of how it was being operated within the williamson county sheriff's department. But we certainly can visit our neighbors not so far away and get the detail of their performance as well as their relationships with other cities within their counties. So that is an ongoing conversation as well.
>> all right. Because if -- again, they're having a reduction in the pack of dogs type situation, for example, which appear to be running rampant in some part of the county -- in fact, we all -- the judge, the commissioners court in its entirety receive calls about wild animals and especially dogs attacking this and that. So the list goes on. So i'm really concerned about if their performance is where it -- where we can take something from it that's working, and then i think we need to -- may need to visit that. And if again, i think i still like this idea that commissioner eckhardt just brought up and that is making sure that every city within travis county has an involvement level because really they're not quarantined -- they aren't quarantined to the point they can't get involved. It happens all over the place, even in their cities. They have troubles with animals that are deserted or left or just end up forming packs of wild dogs and stuff like that. I think all the experiences across the board, whether you're within the city limits or you're out there in the unincorporated area of travis county.
>> yes, sir. And i would say, you know, as commissioner huber said earlier, we had tremendous attendance. We had follow-up meeting. We've had follow-up e-mails and conversations. And i really -- it was really endeering to see the willingness to work together as a team among these -- the cities and both elected officials and law enforcement. Everybody fully acknowledges that we have a role in trying to resolve this issue. So i really feel good about our ability to be able to work through this because we have people who are willing to do it. It's been really a pleasant experience to talk about a subject that might not always be so pleasant.
>> last question. A few months back we had several citizens that came here before the commissioners court that were actually experiencing a lot of wild dogs attacking their livestock, attacking -- just really misbehaving. And from that standpoint we looked at possible ways to try to to reverse that activity in that area. What has happened since then, since those folks have come down and testified, to at least tell us their experiences that they're having, having to deal with wild -- pack dogs and stuff like that?
>> well, the most severe case i recall was the gentleman who brought you the pictures and several of his animals were attacked. And i do know that the city of austin did go out, they removed about 30 animals at that time over a period of time. Also implemented in education type programs. They put out fliers or door hangers, i think, with information, but they basically concentrated some education in that area and i certainly can't tell you that that resolved the problem. I'm pretty sure commissioner huber's office is periodically as well as other court members are still getting calls, but there was sort of a swat attack on that particular area where it was a combination of removing the animals that could be identified, but also providing information about the county's dangerous dog ordinance and other pertinent information that the residents could benefit from to control their animals.
>> thank you.
>> mr. Reeferseed?
>> thank you so much. I want to thank sherri for an excellent, thorough report as always is the case with your work. Here in travis county, though, i believe we all failed big time when we demand all dogs to be leeshed at all times, there by guaranteeing a shorter life-span for virtually all dogs in travis county because dogs already don't get enough exercise. For example, from my own experiences in my nine months in peru they also have leash laws, however, there are many, many big packs of abandoned dogs that virtually avoid all human contact. And thus avoid hurting anyone. They're not a problem. They only care about other dogs, not humans. Again, these packs of dogs are many in lima peru and there's not a bunch of people getting killed and chewed up. Every now and then we get some flash thing in the press about somebody got bit, so that means we've all got to punish our dogs by putting them on alicia. Again, the packs of dogs are many in lima peru, and despite the leash laws, the packs are many. There's a whole lot of them and they're not killing people. So i'm just urging us to not overreact and not give into the press driven, somebody gets bit, so we have to make a law to put all the dogs on leashes 100% of the team. It's idiotic. All our dogs are living shorter lives as a result. So i'm on their side.
>> if i may, judge. May i?
>> ms. Fleming, can you and mr. Reeferseed get together?
>> i will, thank you.
>> anything else? Commissioner?
>> i just wanted to build off one thing that commissioner davis said a minute ago. And that's in discussion on the details of reporting that the city of austin does with the county. Another thing that is not being made -- not being made available to us is the time of day of the calls. And they have hours of seven a.m. To six p.m. And then on weekends they're not available, as i understand it, to respond initially except on emergency cases. So -- and i know that the greater majority of the calls we get in our office actually end up being in those after hours times. So it would be very helpful as we continue to work on this solutions to these problems to have a better idea of the times of day these calls go in. And the ability under the interlocal to respond in a timely manner because of that.
>> we have received the report that we are posted to receive. Why don't we, each of us, send ms. Fleming an e-mail sort of describing the program that we would like to see. Various components, each of which has a price tag. But i would love to see our dream, animal control program. I think we ought to do that, start from there and then try to figure out where we end up. It may be that we can do this better in-house. It may be that the combination of the sheriff and the city's animal control staff is what we need. So i'm really flexible, but we're kind of left with the impression that we can do better than the status quo. Why don't we do that? If we were to do that, could you compile --
>> absolutely.
>> -- a master list of all of our recommendations, eliminating duplication and kind of setting forth, maybe estimate what each would cost? It seems to me that would be a logical next step.
>> that is ms. Alma gale's specialty over there. She's been doing a fob fabulous job on this.
>> and a quick thank you to anna and our planning staff who always do a phenomenal job, but also laurie in commissioner hiewb irrelevant's office, the sheriff's department, everybody has locked arms to try to tackle this issue, the auditor's office, legal questions that came up. I can assure you that the team is on the job.
>> this is a fascinating area and i eagerly look forward to the next step.
>> shall we send the e-mails to you that the judge suggests?
>> no, you may send them to me.
>> she will forward them to me.
>> [ laughter ]
>> thank y'all.
>> thank you.
>> item number 24 -- by the way, we'll call the space item up next.
The Closed Caption log for this Commissioners Court agenda item is provided by Travis County Internet Services. Since this file is derived from the Closed Captions created during live cablecasts, there are occasional spelling and grammatical errors. This Closed Caption log is not an official record the Commissioners Court Meeting and cannot be relied on for official purposes. For official records please contact the County Clerk at (512) 854-4722.
Last Modified:
Tuesday, May 25, 2010 2:35 PM
