Switch Fails; Pomona to Try Humane Society Again

After abandoning a plan to buy animal control services from an entrepreneur whose last venture was shut down by the Internal Revenue Service, the City Council voted this week to reopen negotiations with the nonprofit Pomona Valley Humane Society.

But the city and the Humane Society are still at odds over the cost of the service, and unless a new agreement can be reached, the society plans to stop serving Pomona at midnight on Dec. 31.

The society has been picking up stray dogs and cats in Pomona for 40 years. The City Council began looking for an alternative after the organization raised its rates nearly 30%. Last month, the council voted 3 to 2 to contract with a business that would incorporate animal-control services into a proposed one-stop pet center, offering pet supplies, a veterinarian clinic and other services.

The Companion Animal Care Center proposal would have cost the city $210,000 a year and the center would have kept an additional $180,000 in dog-license and other fees. Under that proposal, the city would have paid $85,000 less for animal-control services than the Humane Society had requested for 1990.

Philip Steward, head of Companion Animal Care Center, said the city lost interest in contracting with him after publication of stories that ignored “the good points” of the proposal and focused on the IRS in Denver shutting down his previous business over nonpayment of payroll taxes. Steward, who attributed the tax problem to mistakes by a bookkeeper, said he withdrew his offer after city staff members told him that the city was no longer interested in it. It was only after reporters questioned city officials about Steward’s tax problems that they began to back away from the contract.

Although the council unanimously instructed the city staff to negotiate a new agreement with the Humane Society, it also voted 3 to 2--with Mayor Donna Smith and Councilman Mark A. T. Nymeyer dissenting--to solicit other offers for animal control services at the same time.

Before considering the issue at its meeting Monday night, the council took the unusual step of refusing to hear any discussion from the audience. The council normally listens to anyone who wants to speak on any item on its agenda.

Nymeyer said the issue had already been thoroughly aired, and Councilwoman Nell Soto said she could not imagine that anyone would have anything new to say on the subject. The motion to reject public comment was adopted 4 to 1, over the objections of Mayor Smith, who said: “If this passes, I think it stinks.” She said that in more than four years on the council, she could not recall another occasion when public comment had been prohibited.

After the meeting, Councilman C. L. (Clay) Bryant said public participation was foreclosed because members of the audience were poised to attack Nymeyer, who is running for the state Assembly, and Bryant, who is the target of a recall campaign. “They were looking for a forum to cut up Nymeyer and me,” Bryant said.

Keith A. Johnson, attorney for the Humane Society, attempted to speak to the council, but was thwarted. Afterward, he said that he wanted to tell the council that the Humane Society is willing to talk about a new agreement but that the negotiating “needs to be from both sides--not the city dictating to the Humane Society.”

The council instructed the city staff to obtain an agreement that spells out the level of service to be provided and establishes a system for accounting for the expenditure of public funds. Until a new agreement is reached, the city will continue paying the Humane Society for service at its current rate, excluding the $66,000-a-year increase sought by the society.

But Johnson said the Humane Society has notified the city that it will not continue service at the old rate after Dec. 31.

The Pomona Valley Humane Society serves Claremont, Chino, Diamond Bar, La Verne, Montclair and San Dimas, in addition to Pomona.

Until this year, the society computed the cost of its animal control services, deducted the revenue collected from dog licenses and other fees and then divided the remaining costs among the cities.

This year, the society began calculating revenue and costs separately for each city, leading to major cost increases for Pomona. The society contends Pomona has so many stray animals that it requires more service than neighboring cities, and many of its residents are unwilling or unable to pay for dog licenses, keeping revenues low.

Under the new formula, Pomona is being asked to pay $294,900 a year for services that cost Claremont $31,735, La Verne $24,288, and San Dimas $28,661.

Councilman Bryant said the Humane Society arrived at its payment formula by “listening to these small pumpernickel towns around us.”

Mayor Smith said the city should immediately try to reach an interim agreement with the Humane Society to assure service after Dec. 31. But Bryant said he believes the Humane Society is legally obligated to continue serving Pomona under the 1950 agreement in which the city gave the Humane Society an acre of land for its animal shelter.

The 1950 agreement says that the property “together with all buildings and improvements” will revert to the city if the Humane Society “does not operate and function pursuant to the purposes for which it was founded and incorporated.” Humane Society officials said that, because the society plans to continue caring for animals, it will retain the property even if it stops serving the city of Pomona.

But Patrick Sampson, who recently retired as city attorney, wrote a memorandum last year saying that the city could regain the property, if the Humane Society stopped providing pound and animal control services to Pomona. Sampson based his opinion on a document that carried out the deed transfer two years after the 1950 agreement.

Bryant said the city could insist that the Humane Society live up to the terms of the 1950 agreement, which calls for it to provide animal control services in return only for dog license fees. But Bryant said neither the city nor the society have abided by that agreement and he is willing to give the society additional funding. The question is how much.

William Harford, executive director of the Humane Society, said it would be difficult to reduce the cost of service to Pomona, but it might be possible to offset some of the cost with higher revenue. Harford said he would not propose any increase in the city’s dog license fee, but he has ideas for other ways of raising revenue that he would like to discuss with the city.

Harford said he hopes an agreement can be reached soon. “It’s time to put this puppy to bed,” he said.