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Home My WebLink AboutMINUTES - 12102002 - C55 To: Board of Supervisors ,r , Centra 71 Costa From: Michael G. Ross, Director of Animal Services County Date: December 3, 2002 , Subject: Report on Shelter Public Hours RECOMMENDATIONS: ACCEPT report on Animal Shelter public hours and APPROVE the recommendations of the Animal Services Director to maintain the current public shelter hours of Tuesday through Saturday, 10:00 a.m. — 5:00 p.m., with extended hours on Wednesday until 7:00 p.m. BACKGROUND: Attached report includes information and statistics on the distribution of adoptions, returns to owners and euthanasia over two comparable periods, before the shelter was closed on Mondays and afterwards. In summary, more animals have been returned to their owners and adopted by new owners during the current shelter public hours than had been done in the previous period. The main impact has been a shifting of Monday activities to Tuesday and an increased activity level on all the days during which the shelter is open to the public. CON71NUED ON ATTACHMENTJ_YES SIGNATURE: _,Af!�—REcOMMENDAT*N OF COUNTY ADMINISTRATOR RECOMMENDATION OF BOARD COMMITTEE " .r APPROVE OTHER 7 i SIGNATURE(S): ACTION OF TH BO FD ON DECEMBER'.'10,2002 APPROVED AS RECOMMENDED'�. OTHER VOTE OF SUPERVISORS X UNANIMOUS (ABSENT - Z I hereby certify that this is a true and correct copy of an action taken and entered on the minutes of the Board of Supervisors on the date AYES: NOES: shown. ABSENT: __ ABSTAIN: - ATTESTED: DECEMBER 10,2002 JOHN S EE(EN,Clerk of the Board of Supervisors and County Administrator l L ''Lk. _Deputy ve Animal Services De art!'11entCJ�1�C Michael G. Ross -- Animal Services Director 4649 Imhoff Place Cost. Martinez, California 94553-4393 ��4..�JJJ/v��v{y�y (925) 646-2995 Coo t 651 Pinole Shares Drive Pinole,California 94564-2632 (510) 374-3966 Date: December 2,2002 To: Members of the Board of Supervisors From: Michael G. Ross,Director of Animal Services Re; Report on Change in Shelter Public Hours A year ago we were faced with a serious shortfall in our clerical staffing. We had 8 permanent vacancies and 2 Leave of Absence vacancies out of 18 positions assigned to our Shelter front offices. Our continuing staffing problem was illustrated by the fact that we had 14 permanent clerical staff leave in the previous two years. Our replacement strategy had been to hire from the County Clerk-Experienced Level list, but due to the number of vacancies and an inability to fill all our positions from the list,we had hired over 26 people (many of them temporary)in the previous year to cover the front office public contact positions. As a result, a special class of Animal Services Clerk was created to allow us to recruit and fill the positions without competing with other departments that had and still have "better" hours [ie. 8-5 Monday through Friday only or even better,9180 or 4/10 in the Monday through Friday period]. On this basis, the Animal Services Department reduced its public service Shelter hours by closing on Mondays and adjusting other daily hours to allow current staff to operate the Shelter on a five-days per week schedule. This provided our front office clerks with a standardized schedule where all would work together and all would have two days off together (Sunday and Monday). Monday Dispatch has been handled on the current Sunday schedule by the Sheriff's Dispatch Center with appropriate additional charges to Animal Services. Other Shelter and Field operations have continued in the same manner as previously with 24/7 coverage. No changes were made in the schedule of the Spay/Neuter Clinic. Administrative staffing continued on a Monday through Friday schedule. Results: The Animal Services Department filled all of its clerical positions, but several probationary employees were unsuccessful in bringing their performance of these difficult assignments up to a satisfactory level. We now have 4 clerical vacancies in the front office that we have not filled due to the budget considerations we have had to contemplate. While we initially anticipated that little overtime would be necessary, we have had to have one front office clerical employee come to work on Mondays in order to handle the high priority voice mail in relation to field activities that need immediate dispatch. Additionally, backup staffing had to be provided for the Spay/Neuter Clinic from the Licensing Department that resulted in overtime to complete the licensing duties not performed during the regular workday. Report on Change in Shelter Public Hours 2 December 2,2002 � While these relatively minor expenses were incurred as a result of closing the shelters to the public on Mondays,the impact on the public appears to have been absorbed without reducing the number of animal adoptions.In fact,the number of adoptions has increased,the number of animals returned to their owners has increased, and the number of animals euthanized has decreased.This is shown on the attached charts. Our telephone answering equipment advises the public of our hours of operation and directs our customers on how to get emergencies handled through the Sheriff's Dispatch Center or through our emergency voice mail response system. Over the last eleven months, the public has become accustomed to the shelters being closed on Mondays and few customers appear on those days. During this period, we have maintained our 'Wednesday evening hours of staying open until 7:00 p.m. Customer use of this "after work" open shelter hours has increased to the extent that the clerks who are scheduled for this late shift are often here until 8:00 p.m.closing up. On the basis that there has been no negative impact on the number of stray dogs returned to their owners or the number of adoptions completed, we ask for your support in continuing with this work schedule. If we were to return to public shelter hours of 6 days, per week, we would be required immediately to return to staffing of one year ago with all clerks scheduled for 6 days per week, with one day of overtime mandatory each week with commensurate increases in cost and reduced employee morale. cc: John Sweeten,County Administrator Tony Enea, Sr. Deputy County Administrator Rich Seithel,Budget Analyst \%-W-mtz\uwm$1sbftdle\4y Documauti\Smffl q\SwffShattW u d Public WumUpdatc&c i/ Cats and dogs Returned to Owners Eleven Months:12117-11117 800 ---- 7001- 600 00 a 500 Errsr.r.,� 6 S 400 _ � � I E z 300 = -•200i -2o6i] 200 _—_._ _. _ -_ .�— ____�� _____� 2000-2001 j 100 0 - 1-Sun 2-Man 3-Tues 4-Wed 5-Thurs 6-Fri 7-Sat Day of the Week 1-Sun 2-Mon 3-Tues 4-Wed 5-Thum 6-Fr4 7-Sat Total 2001-2002 27 26 740 577 345 454 447 2616 2000-2001 19 469 432 455 329 415 397 2516 Cats and Dogs Adopted to New Owners Eleven Months: 12117-11117 1400 1200 1000 _ m a w E600 x 400 ---- 200 00 — —200 —� 2001-2002 i 20002001 p 1-Sun 2-Mon 3-Tues 4-Wed 5-Thurs 6-Fri 7-Sat Day of the Week 1-Sun 2-Mon 3-Tins 4-Wed 5-Thurs 6-Fri `I-Sat Total 2001-2002 69 115 826 658 682 1124 1297 4973 2000-2001 27 594 579 648 654 724 975 4201 ell Cate and Dogs Euthanlxed Eleven Months: 17117-11/17 1600 - 1400 _ 1200 1000 ---- c 400 —c $ 800 -- S 00 �. ,� X2001-2002 l z 600 _ _ 200t1-2001 { �_ 400 ---- 200 ------- 0 . 1-Sun 2-Mon 3-Tues 4-Wed 6-Thurs 6-Fri 7-Sat Clays of the Week 1-Sun 2-Mon 3-Tues 4-Wed 5-Thum 6-Prl 7-Sat Total 2001-2002 409 189 898 1071 1069 1167 1239 6042 2000-2001 266 903 1263 1225 1183 1398 1141 7379