Long Dogfight Over Animal Control Ends in Pomona

After months of controversy and an abortive attempt to transfer its animal control contract to a private businessman, the City Council has approved an agreement that will keep the nonprofit Pomona Valley Humane Society picking up the city’s stray animals through June, 1991.

The price of the settlement is a sharp increase in the fees that will be paid by pet owners who violate the city’s leash law, refuse to buy a dog license or turn their animals over to the pound.

The court fine for leash-law violations will be increased from $10 to $25, for example. The fee for picking up a sick or dead dog or cat will climb from $10 to $20. Those and other new fees are expected to go into effect over the next few weeks.

The agreement also calls for the society to ask other cities it serves, including Claremont, Diamond Bar, La Verne and San Dimas, to impose similar charges.

The new revenue from fees and court citations will enable the Humane Society to serve Pomona for the next 18 months without increasing the amount it receives from the General Fund. Last summer, the Humane Society triggered the dispute by trying to obtain $66,000 more from the city. The city refused to pay, and the Humane Society threatened to cut off animal control services by Jan. 1.

At one point, the City Council voted to take the animal control contract away from the society and give it to a private company but dropped that plan when it was disclosed that the company’s owner had been in trouble with the Internal Revenue Service over failure to make payroll tax payments in Colorado.

Mayor Donna Smith and Councilman Tomas Ursua praised new City Administrator Julio Fuentes for resolving the problem, as did William Harford, executive director of the Humane Society.

Ursua said Fuentes was able to resolve in days a dispute that had been simmering for months. “Everybody wins in this case,” he said.

Harford added: “I’m extremely happy with the agreement. . . . It’s a very creative agreement.”

Harford said the contract is based on the principle that people who require a service should pay for it, instead of adding to the general tax burden.

However, the agreement does not settle all of the issues between the city and the Humane Society. They disagree, for example, about who holds control over the animal shelter building and property. That issue came up after society officials threatened to stop serving Pomona but insisted that they would remain in the same location. Another matter in dispute is a permanent formula to govern future costs to the city.

But the interim solution will give the city and the society time to develop a long-term agreement, Fuentes said.

The Humane Society began providing animal control services to the city in 1950 under a contract that called for it to be compensated by revenue from dog licenses. But over the years, such revenue failed to keep pace with rising costs and the city began making supplemental payments from general tax revenues.

For the current fiscal year, the Humane Society budgeted $473,910 to serve Pomona and estimated that it would derive $179,000 of that amount from dog licenses and other fees. It requested $294,910 from the city’s General Fund.

The General Fund subsidy request was 30% higher than the previous year’s because Pomona and other cities had agreed to revise the formula for computing their share of costs. The revision would have raised Pomona’s rates while lowering those in other cities. When City Council members saw the size of the increase, they balked, even though a previous city administrator had agreed to it.

Under the agreement, the Humane Society will withdraw its request for the 30% increase, asking instead for the old amount--$228,373 a year--while a new cost-sharing formula is developed.

Fuentes said the cost to Pomona will be no higher than it has been in the past year and could be substantially lower. If revenue from fees and licenses exceeds expectations, he said, the Humane Society will permit the city to reduce its subsidy. In addition, he said, officials over the next three months will negotiate further discounts to compensate the city for use of its communications system to relay calls to the society.

To help resolve future problems, the city will establish a “Humane Commission,” which will consist of three people from city government, three from the humane society and a seventh chosen by the six appointees.

HUMANE SOCIETY FEES

Fees for humane society services in Pomona will increase dramatically under a contract adopted Monday.

Old Fee New Fee Accepting dog or cat $ 0 $10 Accepting litter of puppies or kittens $ 0 $15 Making house call to pick up infirm or dead pet $10 $20 Court fine for dog license or leash law violations $10 $25