Animal shelter may get new operator by month’s end

Palo Alto’s ailing, city-run animal shelter could see a new operator before the end of the month.

Pets in Need, a nonprofit that runs a no-kill shelter for cats and dogs in Redwood City, is crossing its fingers that documents it is delivering to the city by next week will lead to a three-year agreement before the City Council goes on summer break. Deputy City Manager Rob DeGeus said the agreement is tentatively scheduled to be discussed and possibly approved by the council on June 25.

Outsourcing most of its animal services could save the city $200,000 a year and possibly result in a $1.8 million revamp and expansion of the shelter and, ultimately, a complete rebuild. Animal control would continue to be overseen by the Palo Alto Police Department.

The city has already committed $800,000 toward the nearterm expansion and is expected to have a plan for funding the additional $1 million by the council meeting.

Pets in Need has been talking with the city about taking over services since late 2015. Al Mollica, its executive director, said he’s not sure how much longer the nonprofit will continue to support the effort if the issue isn’t resolved soon. It would be “demoralizing” to have to wait until fall to go before the council, he said.

“I would say, yes, I am concerned, because our board has dealt with this issue for a long time, and some board members wonder what opportunities we have missed while we dealt with this,” Mollica said.

It is the first arrangement Pets in Need has pursued outside Redwood City since it was founded in 1965.

Palo Alto’s shelter, built in 1972, is outdated and doesn’t meet modern standards for animal care, according to an April 2015 city audit, which also said refurbishing the shelter isn’t a viable option. The city since 2003 has spent upward of $1.7 million on critical repairs.

“Kennels are cramped and some have sharp edges that are unsafe for the animals, there is insufficient space to separate incompatible animals, porous flooring cannot be cleaned to recognized standards, there is not a separate receiving and intake room and some types of small animals are housed in the staff lunch room,” the audit said.

Meanwhile, a staffing shortage has forced the closure of the shelter’s public spay and neuter clinic and shortened visiting hours on some days. The shelter won’t be open to the public at all until June 23, shelter superintendent Cody Macartney said.

The shelter has eight full-time staffers and two part-timers, but is budgeted for three additional full-timers and one additional part-time worker. Prior to budget cuts in 2012, when the city lost a contract for animal services to Mountain View that brought it $400,000 year, the city had two other full-timers and another part-timer.

The staff shortage also means the shelter isn’t accepting animals from overcrowded shelters in other cities, even though it has space for them. Just two dogs, two bunnies, two pigeons, one cat and about 10 kittens were available for adoption during a shelter visit Monday.

“Also, we are not accepting new volunteers because we lost our volunteer coordinator, and because we don’t know what is happening with the shelter as a whole,” Maccartney said.

Mollica said Pets in Need is ready to immediately fill staffing vacancies while keeping everyone who wants to stay. There was concern last year that Pets in Need would not continue all of the shelter’s existing services, but Mollica said that is not the case.

“Nothing is going to change, but we hope to provide better services, broader services,” he said, such as providing educational programs and animal rescues. “We plan to keep the medical team that exists, and three current (Redwood City) animal shelter employees will transfer over.”

Pets in Need intends to begin refurbishing the site while it remains open to the public. It would bring in modular units to expand the footprint and increase the medical area and add kennels in the existing facility. The nonprofit may need to perform surgeries out of a mobile van while the medical area is being revamped.

“It’s not ideal, but it gives us a fully functional facility for us to operate out of and I think we can make the city and community proud,” Mollica said.

If it gets the contract, Pets in Need would over the next three years evaluate the need for a new facility, which could be built at the existing 3281 East Bayshore Road site or at the former Los Altos Water Treatment Plant near the Baylands.