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HomeMy WebLinkAbout1985-11-18 City Council Summary MinutesCITY COUNCIL MINUTEs ITEM Oral Communications Regular Meeting November 18, 1985 Item 11, Resolution of Appreciation to Ann Tanner Stark Consent Calendar 6 5 3 6 Referral 6 5 3 6 Action 6 5 3 6 Item 02, interior Renovation of the Riconada 6 5 3 6 Swimming Pool Item 03, Consulting Services for the Study of Thermal Energy Sto age Options for the Utility Control,. Center Item #4, Resolution in Support of AD 2020 Item 15, 0ruinance Re Cable Television System (2nd Reading) Agenda Changes, Additions and Deletions Item 06, PUBLIC HEARING: Extension for 60 Days of the Existing Moratorium on the Processing of Appli- cations for New Office Uses of 5,000 Square Feet or More in the GM Zone Item 17, Policy and Procedures Committee Report Re Animal Services Adjournment: 10:00 p.m. PAGE 6 5 3.3 6 5 3 3 6 5 3 6 6 5 3 6 F, 5 3 6 6 5 3 7 65 3 7 6 5 3 7 6 5 5 4 6 5 3 2 11/18/85 Regular Meetinc November 18, 1985 The City Council of the City of Palo Alto met on this date in the Council Chambers, 250 Hamilton Avenue, at 7:35 p.m,. PRESENT: Bechtel, Cobb, Fletcher, Klein, Levy:, Renzel, Sutorius, Witherspoon, Woolley ORAL COMMUNICATIONS None ITEM #1, RESOLUTION OF APPRECIATION TO ANN TANNER STARK (PER 4-2) Mayor Levy read the resolution stating that City Clerk Ann Tanner Stark served the City of Palo Alto for 15-1/2 years, 14 of which were Council -Appointed Officer and City Clerk. She was appointed City Clerk in 1971, had worked with 10 Mayors, 26 Councilmembers, elected and appointed officials from other agencies, and hundreds of dedicated City staff. Ann served the public well, attending over 650 City Council and Committee meetings. She pursued her duties as City Clerk with enthusiasm, thoroughness, and an excel- lent sense of diplomacy. Ms. Tanner Stark aas active as a Director of the City Clerks Association of California, the League of California Cities City Clerks Department, and as Chair of a committee of the International Institute of Municipal Clerks. Ann retired on November 15, 1985, and the Council gratefully recorded its appreciation and the appreciation of the citizens of the com- munity for faithful and excellent service rendered to the City and extended to her its sincere appreciation and best wishes for a healthy and prosperous future. MOTION: Mayor Levy moved, seconded by Sutorius, approval of the resolution of appreciation to Ann Tanned Stark. RESOLUTION 6445 entitled °RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF THE CITY 1)F MO ALTO EXPRESSING APPRECIATION TO CITY CLERK AN TANNER STARK UPON HER RETIREMENT" Mayor Levy said there were many meetings that week to say "good- bye" to Ms. Tanner Stark. Ann was an excellent "ser'':ant" of the City of Palo Alto, worked closely with the City Council, directed all of the elections held over the past 14 years, and also worked as the City Council's liaison with the public. In all of those efforts, she handled her position with distinction., a sense of humor, and diplomacy. As . further evidence of her excellence in running the City Clerk's department, the Council was fortunate in being able to promote from within an excellent new City Clerk: Gloria Young, who had served as Assistant City Clerk for the past four years. For all of those reasons, there was no question in his mind the resolution deserved unanimous approval. Vice Mayor Cobb said he received a call from the State of Washington that day from a former colleague, Gary Fazzino, who asked the following statement be read into the record on the occa- sion of Ann's retirement from the City of Palo Alto. Former Counci lme;sber Fazzino apologized for being unable to par- ticipate in honoring Ann Tanner Stark at that evening's Council meeting, but he had attended the dinner in Ann's honor two week's ago, panned by former.. Councilmembers to personally thank her for many years of service. In many co amenities, only the City staff. and Council determined policy direction for the City; however, in Palo Alao, citizens played as important a role as the Council and staff in establishing policy. Since Ann was oftentimes the first contact at City. Hall for an individual wishing to influence policy, she deserved a lot of credit for Palo Alto's outstanding, reputation as an organization which was accessible to its;, 6 5 3 3 11/1,8/85 citizens. Each person who phoned, vieited City Hall, or wrote a letter was treater by Ann and her staff as an important customer deserving immediate attention. Ann made their jobs as Council - members much easier because of her outstanding efforts. He was delighted `Gloria Young was carrying on the great tradition of service. Vice Mayor Cobb said when he was a new Planning Commissioner, then as a new Councilmember, and throughout his activities with the City, Ann always made his life easy and made him look good in everything he tried to do. She must be the best at her business. He knew Gloria would carry her torch 1-gh and do as well. Ann did a wonderful job and the Council would miss her. Councilmember Sutorius said everyone with whom Ann Tanner came into contact was able to say, "Hey, I discovered Ann Tanner. I'm the first one to note she is so marvelous, so outstanding, so remarkable." It was a gift Ann imparted to all of them. He did not believe anyone would be able to equal oe emulate it. That evening at dinner eight of the ten prior Mayors with whom Ann served, spoke about their recollections of her service to the community and the personal service each of them received from her. it dawned on him why in Palo Alto they, unlike many other cities, chose the office of Vice Mayor to serve with the Mayor, and ignored the title "Mayor Pro Tem." He realized it was because Ann was their Mayor Pro Tem and was there each and every day to pro- vide that . service to the community, to her colleagues on the staff, to the full Council and, as each of the Mayors had attested, to each and every one of them. City Attorney Diane Lee said it hardly seemed possible the time of Ann's departure from the City of Palo Alto had arrived. :here were so many things she had not had a chance to say. She thanked Ann for sharing her wisdom and humor. She was invaluable. When she came to the City of Palo Alto four years ago, Ann offered her friendship and ,professional assistance and was constant in giving both. It meant a lot to be able to work closely with a City Clerk of Ann's character and caliber. Her expertise in election law was especially valuable. There were not many City Clerks in California who had such breadth and depth of expertise in con- ducting municipal elections. She thanked, Ann for sharing it with her. Over the years they served together, she came to admire and respect Ann's patience, kindness, and loyalty to the ,City. She yave Palo Alto the best of her mind and heart and the staff of the City Attorney's office would miss her. They all wished her well in the succeeding chapters of her life. City Manager Bill Liner said it was a special privilege to be able to publicly ackncwledge the contribution Ann made for many rea- sons. He and Ann were friends for more than 20 years, long before she arrived in Palo Alto. When he agreed to take the position in Palo Alto and learned she was there, he knew he was in for a special treat. In a real sense Ann turned his job over- to him; she was the Acting City Manager and really his predecessor. Whee he arrived in Palo Alto, he found things in good hands, and in the opening months as he began to learn about the job. it was Ann Tanner to whom he turned many times to ask her how things worked and were done, and she always had the answers and showed great patience. He was privileged to have the opportunity to speak on behalf .of the 854 regular empl oyeei who worked for the City every day with enn. There: were many opportunities in the last few days._ for :people to say "Goodbye" to Ann in the building, and he noticed a common theme through ar l of the little talks given and the com- ments made to Ann, which was Ann seemed to be a stabilizing influ- ence in the organization They were - c ; ng to miss - her and hoped she ,would return to City Hall from time to time to let them have a chance to sea what kinds of things she was doing with her life. 6 5.3 4 11/18/5 City Auditor Michael Northrup also felt privileged to have worked with Ann for i.he past year. He had probably known_ Ann Tanner a shorter time than anybody else, but during the time 'she generously shared with him the wealth of knowledge she accumulated and was a real friend and sounding board during the many times he spoke with her over the past year. He agreed she was held in high esteem throughout the organization as witnessed by the numerous parties and comments made by other people. He wished her luck in her future, and thanked her for the support over the past year. City Clerk Gloria Young said Ann Tanner was honored by 26 past Councilmembers, 9 past and present Mayors, the present Council, the City staff and citizens. She had had two songs written and sung for her, and a dessert named after her. She believed that spoke of how much Ann would be missed. She had known Ann for 12 years and little did she know then she would be Ann's successor. She admired her pleasant personality, professionalism, and sense of humor. Ann was highly regarded by fellow City Clerks through- out the State. In her spare time, Ann edited'Gloria's campaign statements and speeches, and she hoped she would continue :.o do so. With regard to the position of City Clerk, she asked the Communications Department to set up a red phone at Ann's home so she could be contacted on a moment's notice. She could not think of walking into the City Clerk's office and not finding Ann there. From that point the roles switched; instead of Ann wondering what she was doing on Monday nights, she would be wondering what Ann was doing.', It had been a pleasure to work with her and to be her friend. The City Clerk's office joined her in wishing Ann all the best. MOTION PASSED unanimously. Mayor Levy presented Ann Tanner Stark with a framed Resolution together e.th a plaque containing a copy of the embossed City Seal. Ann Tanner Stark believed after Ms. Young's speech she and the public could see why the Council had selected Ms. Young as her successor and she thanked them for that. She thanked the Council for honoring her with the Resolution and plaque and for the per- sonal comments from each of them. She had.; asked the Mayor to not spoil her that evening with flowery speeches, but wanted them all to know she appreciated their words and thanked then e'eryone from bottom of her heart. She also wished to thank the former City Councilmembers who had honored her, and all of the citizens of Palo Alto. Working in this community was an exceptional exper- ience and she felt privileged to have been in the front line at City Hall for the past 15 years. She was proud to know the people there and to have been part of an extraordinary period of growth and history, not only in the City itself but also in the City Clerk's office, which had changed{; as had the other offices in the City. The past 15 years had been the most rewarding and mean- ingful years of her life and she would always remember the his- torical events and the many evenings she spent in the Chambers as history unfolded. She would certainly be wondering what they were all doing on Monday evenings. the City Clerk's office dates back to the Old Testament and is mentioned in Isaiah 36, where the scribe and recorder are referred to. In Palo Alto there has bee r. Town Clerk or City Clerk since 1894, providing' an interface between the public and their govern- ment. Technology continues to change the way in which the Clerk's office processes and provides information >to the public, but she strongly believed there was a need for, and it was important that the office be maintained as, a separate Council- appointed office. The City Clerk's office provided a neutral starting point for citizens wishing to have a say in the affairs of their local goverrrment. It protected the sacred rights of initiative, referendum, and recall procedures provided for in the City Charter. This City Council had demonstrated its . commitment -to Ln� } FR �.w which � she thanked J • n�- zeep r the office. ice separate, for which [tanked them. She hoped they and future Co►ticils would continue to support the City Clerk dS a separate Council -appointed office and would keep the office .separate, as it should be and had been for over. 100 years, under their City Charter, a separate office, not administered by any official charged with recomme^:.ig policies to the City Council. 1 1 The Council's confirmation of Gloria Young as her successor was well justified. Ms. Young was ready to start another chapter in the history of the City Clerk's office and she assured the Council that Ms. Young would serve it well. She thanked them again for honoring her and for everything they had said. She would always remember the City Council and her time in Palo Alto. Mayor LevyNthanked Ann Tanner Stark and said she exemplified some- thing which, while not necessarily unique to Palo Alto, made Palo Alto a special community. It not only had what he believed to be an outstanding and involved citizenry, but people who served the City. CONSENT CALENDAR MOTION: Vice Mayor Cobb moved, seconded by Klein, approval of the Consent Calendar. None Referral Acti on ITEM 12, INTERIOR RENOVATION OF THE RIMCONADA SWIMMING POOL CLUBHOUSE (PAR 4-4) (CMR: 580: 5) Staff recommends Council: 1.. Authorize the mayor to execute the agreement with Goodwin B. Steinberg Associates Architects for S21,000. 2. Authorize staff to execute change Girders to the agreement of up to $3,200. AGREEMENT RINCONADA PARK SWIMMING POOL COMPLEX CLUBHOUSE. INTERIOR RENOVATION JOB 18609 Goodwin B. Steinberg Associates, Architects ITEM #3, CONSULTING SERVICES FOR THE STUDY OF THERMAL ENERGY STORAGE: OPT Nt FOR THE UTILITY CONTUL. CENTER (L 'I 3) (CMR:5 1:5) Staff recommends Council approval of the contract with Syska and Hennessy, for a fixed firm fee of $12,500 plus a ten percent con- tingent fund of $1,250 for a total of $13,750 as out! i ed in CMR:592:5. AGREEMENT Syska and Hennessy ITEM # 4 RESOLUTION I N St PPORIT OF AB 2020 (LEG 3) RESOLUTION 6446 entitled 'RESOLUTION OF THE COUNCIL OF ALO ALTO IN SUPPORT OF AS 2020, THE SEWERAGE CONTAINER REUSE AND RECYCLING_iCT6 ITEM 15t ORDINANCE RE CABLE TELEVISION SYSTEM (2nd Reading) OR�D 1 K ONCE 35148 entitled 'ORDINANCE OF THE COUNCIL OF THE ALTO GRANTING A NONEXCLUSIVE FRANCHISE TO CONSTRUCT, OPERATE . AND MAINTAIN A CABLE TELEVISION SYSTEM TO CABLE COMMUNICATIONS COOPERATIVE OF PALO ALTO, INC," (1st Reading, 11/4/65, PASSED S-0, Witherspoon absent) 6 5 3 6 11/18/85 Mayor Levy asked about the savings the _City was likely i:3 _see from the engineering services to be studied in connection with the Utility Control Center. Director of Utilities Richard Young said the study was designed to identify any possible methods the City could use to .transfer the demand for energy from a hot period to a colder period --from day time to night time. The concept was reviewed and utilized in some areas in different ways . Staff was looking at a pilot project to identify whether was feasible for Palo Alto to be used to reduce capacity growth requirements. Dollars and cents were not really tied to it until completion of the itudy. Mayor Levy clarified staff was confident $12,500 was reasonable in light.of what possibly might result in savings. Mr. Young said the City could be looking at hundreds of thousands of dollars in capacity costs. - MOTION PASSED unanimously. AGENDA CHANGES, ADDITIONS AND DELETIONS None ITEM #6, PUBLIC HEARING: EXTENSION FOR 60 DAYS OF THE EXISTING MORATORIUM ON THE PROCESSING OF APPLICATIINS FOR NEW OFFICE USES OP 5,000 SQUARE FEET OR M N L -16 R: :5 Mayor Levy declared the public hearing open. Receiving no re- quests from the public to speak, he declared the public hearing closed. MOTION: Councilmember Klein moved. seconded by Renzel, approval of the staff recommendation that the City Council adapt the ordi- nance, including the environmental f i ndi ngs t to extend the mora- torium on office development over 5,000 square feet in the GM zone district for an additional 60 days (to Marche a1, 1986). ORDINANCE FOR FIRST _READING entitled "ORDINANCE OF THE tbinie'L OF -THE C1t1 -OF PALO ALTO tXT€NDING THE EXISTING MORATORIUM ON APPLICATIONS FOR NEW OFFICE USES OF 5,000 SQUARE FEET OR MORE IN THE GM ZONE" MOTION PASSED unanimously. ITEM #7 POLICY AND PROCEDURES COMMITTEE REPORT RE ANIMAL V1 is S - Chai rperson Woolley for the Policy and Procedures (P&P) Committee said there were two P&P Committee meetings on the subject and four actions. It was a difficult issue because there seemed to be no middle ground. The Advisory Committee presented the P&P Committee with one set of information .and staff presented another.. She believed it was not so much a matter of truths and untruths, although the words were used, -hut more a matter of point of view. The Animal Advisory Committee had_a focused cause, and staff was simply running the City as a .business and Animal Services was one operatlon in that total 'picture. The P&P Committee tried to take a moderate approach and the four recommendations involved some charge, but not total change. Regarding priorities, the P&P Committee unanimously recommended the monthly animal population count -be :continued through April, 1986, so the performance targets for the Animal Services could be °reviewed by the Finance and Public Works (F&PW) Committee in greater .detail. As part of the first nonthi's meeting when the P&P Committee first made the motion, the data should be posted at the Animal Shelter. The P&P Committee believed the setting of priorities_ w*$ a proper subject, for Council to be concerned with. The subjects of personnel and management were brought up, but personnel was ,. not a . subject 6 5 3 7 11/18/85 Council was allowed to enter into, and was prohibited in the City Charter. The day-to-day management decisions were of necessity left to etaff, but it seemed priority setting was appropriate. In reviewing the priorities, she referred Council to either the staff report (CMR:473;5) of August 22, Attachment C, or the letter received from Mr, Stein (which is on file in the City Clerk's office). Mr. Stein's chart did not have Palo Alto on it, but in the percentage of live animals adopted, Palo Alto's was 37 per- cent,. and looking down the column, only the San Francisco SPCA exceeded it. Most cities were considerably under the Pa1c,Alto percent of\live animals adopted. According to the budget for 1984-1985, the actual attained percentage was 37 percent of live animals adopted; the target in the budget for 1985-1986 was 40 percent. The P&P Committee did not take any action on changing the target; all it did was to ask for a report of the monthly targets. She suggested perhaps the 1985-1986 target should not be 40 percent. The P&P Committee's second recommendation had to do with the accuracy of the records. There were several charges that the record keeping at the Animal Services Center was not accurate, so the P&P Committee recommended the City Council direct the City Auditor to: 1) Examine the animal receiving and disposition records at the shelter to determine that adequate records were being kept; 2) To determine whether the _records accurately reflected what happened to each animal; -and 3) To report back to the City Council within four months from the date of the Council's direction to the City Auditor that the -examination be made. She pointed out to embers of the public the City Auditor was a Council -Appointed Office just like the City Clerk, which meant the Council directly appointed the person and the person was only responsible to the Council? so the City Auditor's Department was independent from the City Manager's Department under which the Animal Services -Division was located. Although Council did not have an outside auditor, it did have an independent auditor. Regarding, volunteers, she believed volunteers could provide an important service at the shelter. As it was discussed over the months, she came to appreciate the variety and worthwhile things volunteers contributed to the shelter. For example, they took a dog for a run in the Baylands it probably would not have other- wise, or spent half -an -hour giving kitty a really satisfying chin rub the kitten would not otherwise get. It was important for the City to take good care of its volunteers at the shelter. Regarding improvements, the Finance and Public Works (F&PW) Committee authorized a half-time paid volunteer eoordi.nator, and since Beverly Wilets did" it as kind of a temporary position until a permanent person could be found, she already made specific jobs for the volunteers at the center with specific: job descriptiono. There were improvements in the training programs; there was an. orientation program for new volunteers and training programs after a volunteer started work. Themotion made by the P&P Committee had- to do with the handbook. The Committee recommended. City Council direct staff to prepare. a formal. Animal Services Center Volunteer handbook to be ti led' on the Library's and the Cultural Center's,- _ . k. In researching what other volunteer organ .- zations htdl,, Oe' P&P Committee: found the tone of the shelter's handbook, whmc :eras really just pieces of paper, was quite dif-- -fereht from that of the Cultural Center's and Library's handbooks, and also the information was not as thorough, so the P&P Committee believed it was a good idea to provide a handbook,, Finally, the last motion was the status quo be maintained. In other words, the City continue to have Animal Services . Center under, the City management.:. The. Committee did not recommend the formation of any kip' of an advisory committee. She did not believe the Advisory Committee wanted it themselves. The Advisory Committee said in their own report try really wanted to be a watchdog organization. They requeste;y to repurt directly to Council, not to staff, which was not w tan advisory committee 411)1i/25 J 18/25 was. An advisory committee reported to staff, and if the recom- mendations were accepted, it was fine, but if not, they went on. She believed the Animal Services group wanted to make policy and be able to hire and fire staff. In order to do that they needed to be an executive board, and it could only happen if the Humane Society contracted for the operation of the center. She opined the P&P Committee did not chose that alternative because the organization did not have the depth nor had it undertaken the necessary investigation to successfully handle a budget of $475,000, or a staff of eleven and one-half employees, but it did not necessarily mean it should never change. The path for greater involvement of the Humane Society was through the Humane Education contract. She had, through the Palo Alto School District, good reports of what the Humane Society did in terms of humane educa- tion. The F&PW Committee expanded the contract that year to include not only the education of elementary school children, ,,but people of all ages. She saw how it could be expanded in the future to include presentations about adoptable animals or how to take care of pets on public access channel of the area's future cable TV system. Palo Alto already took animals to Mountain View for presentation. She intended to make a motion regarding euthanasia, which was the other major subject Council heard a lot about. The task force recommended all medical euthanasias be approved by the City Veter- inarian. Presently, euthanasias at staff discretion were approved by the Superintendent. She wanted to see approval required by both the Supterintendent and the City Veterinarian for the eutha- nasias at staff's discretion. Most of the euthanasias were judg- ment calls which were pretty hard to make and two heads were probably better than one. MOTION: Councileesber Woolley tor the Policy and Procedures Committee moved the City Councils 1. Direct staff to prepare monthly reports for the next six months to April. 1986, seed to post the report at the Animal Shelter. The data shall be similar to that found in the per- formance reports and arranged so that all the animals are accounted for except for those animals involved with the Spay and Neuter Clinic only. 2. The City Council direct stuff to prepare a formal Animal Service& Center Volunteer handbook to be modeled on the Library's and the Cultural Center's `.handbooks. as The city Council direct the City Auditor to, a„ Examine the animal receiving and disposition records at the shelter to determine that adequate records twice being kept; Determine whether the records accurately reflect what happened to each animal; and c. Report back to the City Council within four months from the date of the Council's direction to the City Auditor that the examination be ansoa 4. The monthly animal population comets be continued through April, 1984 se the performance targets for Anibal Sere&wes can be reviewed by the : Finance and Public Dirks Committee in greater +beta i l; -amd 5 The City of Palo kite continue to run the Animal Servicess Prcgras. Councilsember Klein asked City_ Auditor Michael Northrup about his estimate as to the amount of tine it would take his office to comply with the P&P direction. As co racted 1/40/86 City Auditor Mike Northrup said with the narrow direction proposed by the recommendation, it could take between 30 aiid 50 staff hours from Lhat even i ny to prepare a report to be returned to Council within one to four months. Councilmember. Klein asked for a value of the staff time on a per hour basis. Mr. Northrup said it was factored at roughly $55 to $60 an hour,. or between $2,000 to $3,000. Vice Mayor Cobb read the P&P Committee minutes, but asked if the Police Department was the proper place for the Animal Services Department if they were starting from scratch. City Manager Bill Zaner said his answer was, a' qualified "yes." There were other ways to organize the service. It could be totally independent service, but it was rare. Normally the ser- vice was placed within one of the existing departments, usual one with 24 -hour response because of the nature of the Animal Control service. Public Works' services at times had 24 -hour response, although usually on a "call out" basis. The most logical for many cities was the Police service or the Public Safety service. He said Police Chief Jim Zurcher, Animal Services Superintendent Greg Betts, Assistant Police Chief Chris Durkin, City Veterinarian Linda Miller, and the City's Volunteer Coordinator Miss Wilets were available to respond to questions. Vice Mayor Cobb said there was such a gulf between the staff's view and that of the public, which was characterized by Council- member Woolley as a difference in attitude. He asked staff to address the gulf to help Council understand how the same set of facts came up looking so different to two different grows of eeopl e. Mr. Zaner believed °the data provided to Council was accurate. Staff was careful in providing statistical information to Council because it was subject to verification. It was possible to look at data and derive a different conclusion from the same" pieces of information, but from his own investigation, and as far as he could determine from the independent task force, the City asked to look at the operation, the data provided to Council was correct. His suspicion was when Mr. Northrup looked at the data, he would find what staff provided to Council was largely accurate. His guess also was Mr. Northrup would find an occasional error or two which always crept into any kind of statistical report involving counting up numbers, adding, and doing percentages; but by and large, he believed Council would find the data was accurate. Counc i lmember Suturi us understood the City Manager's comments and acknowledged some of the data he looked at in the staff and public materials was subject to extremely cautious analysis and probably took a lot of in-depth probing and direct contact with the various organizations who reported the data to understand whether the reporting process was the same from entity to entity. Because of Councilmember Woolley's commenter,y on performance objectives identi.fled in , the budget process," and because of subsequent monthly reports Council received for the months of August, September, and October, he wanted to ensure that as he 1= stened to his colleagues, staff, and the public, he did not misunderstand any sieta. Re ding the material in the current budget for the year, 19&541.986 which identified targets, and particularly percent of adoptable animals adopted, using it as a case for his own understanding, he saw the target for 1985-1986 as being 60 per- cent. He asked whether the record keeping and shaping of the target WAS related to definitions established at the beginning of the budget period and whether there were any differences in what the definition comprehended, and how data was accumulated for the August, September, and October ,reporting materials received. If the answer was no, he wanted to review the formula used for the Au ge t, September, and October definitions ;o he was clear as to where Council stood relative to the F'at gets . Superintendent of Animal Services Gregory Betts said the budget figure of 60 percent was incorre.t, and should be corrected to read 40 percent. Councilmember Sutorius asked Mr. Bets to amplify. Mr. Betts responded the target at mid -year was 40 percent and was intended to stay the same. The original budget draft had 60 per- cent which was corrected on his copy. ire was not sure whether the Budget Depart, -it noted the change from 60 to 40 percent. Councilmember Sutorius asked if the correction referred to applied also to the target and the year-to-date for 1984-85 wherein the target year-to-date 1984-85 expression was 58 over 70. Mr. Betts said that was also an error which he believed should have been 40 percent. He; discussed it that afternoon with Councilmember Woolley. Councilmember Sutorius said Councilmember Woolley said it was 40 over 52, and he asked if that was Mr. Betts' understanding. yr. Betts said yes, Councilmember Sutorius clarified in August, September, and October, and the materials Council had for those months., if measured against the categories of dogs plus cats plus other, and for the benefit of those who might not have the materials, "Other' animals included wildlife, small mammals, poultry, birds, and fish, if he did the summary correctly, there were 233 animals adopted in the three -mouth period out of an adoptable population of 597, and the percentage of adopted to adoptable was 39 percent. He asked if that was correct. Mr, Betts replied that was correct. Councilmember Sutorius said based on the corrected target for three months of the year, absent the July material which he could not calculate because it was reported in a different fashion, the City was close to the 40 percent. Mr. Betts said that was correct. Councilmember Sutorius spoke to what he perceived to be one of the areas (If paramount concern which was how effective and successful the adoption process was. He meant it 1n the broad sense of the umbrella of adoption servicee. He asked about the components of an aggressive, successful adoption service; the resources: such a program required if one did not then exist; the probable asso- ciated cost, or if the associated, costs in total were unknown, he asked about the incremental costs which aright be involved beyond the present cost of the program; and the projected performance results that might be obtained by an aggressive, successful adop- tion service.'' Mr. Betts believed the Animal Shelter had an aggressive adoption service. They had a clean and attractive facility which promoted animals in;. an attractive , manner for adoption, and unqualified, they had one of the best adoption rates going. When a person adopted an anf'mal fr al the sh&ter, they got a bargain. The person received a healthy, attractive animal a prepayment of the spaying and neutering, a free physical examination of any animal on the peninsula, the, aart!v a' had all ' of its vaccinationv; an identification tag, and id many cases a s}mp1e of pet food and some handbooks on pet ;care, which was all essentially for $5 over the cost of what' someone normally paid at the Spay Clinic, which was a low-cost fee to have the animal spayed or neutered,. If one 6 5 4 I 11/18/8f 1 1 got a cat free from a newspaper, fog= example, and took it to a veterinarian to have it spayed, provided with identification and shots, one totaled up about $80. The same cat adopted out of the Shelter would costabout $30. In addition, the Shelter had a staff well trained to help people select a pet which would be a good and permanent addition to their family. Part of the adoption service tried to insure the pet found a good and permanent home. It was not the goal .of the Animal Shelter to simply pass out an animal to any home, but to find the animal a home where someone really cared for it andmade a commitment for the animal's entire lifetime. He believed the Shelter accomplished it. The rate of animals returned to the Sheltee was low and, as importantly, the compliance rate of people . who spayed or neutered their airimal s after adoption was more than 90 percent, which was something he was proud of. The Shelter took many opportunities to promote animals up for adoption. Just recently, the Shelter took part in the Neighborhood Crime Prevention Fair to give away pet identifi- cation tags. Just as identifying children was important, identi- fying pets was as important, and pets were there for adoption. Palo Alto promoted animals for adoption on Viacom in Mountain View, to project animals in the Times Tribune as a featured pet, and beginning that Saturddy, pets would be featured for adoption at Hobee's Restaurants on El Camino and at Town and Country Village. They were special fairs downtown which showed the type of animals the Shelter had for adoption, and it would continue to do so. Mayor Levy asked regarding Attachment C, which listed the compari- sons between Palo Alto and other agencies regarding adoption and euthanasia, if staff was comfortable` -the data was accurate. Mr. Betts said yes. Mayor Levy asked how staff obtained the data. Mr. Betts said the names listed under each agency were the repre- sentatives of each agency who answered some standard questions Or. Miller ma<e by telephone inquiry regarding the number of animals handled, animals adopted, and destroyed. Mayor Levy asked about the comparability of data. In looking at the comparisons, Palo Alto looked almost too good in terms`of per- centage of live animals adopted. On the other hand, San Francisco looked better. He asked to what degree the data was comparable, and where Palo Alto stood in staff's judgment. Mr. Setts said Palo Alto was extremely fortunate in having its own Animal Shelter, which only accepted enimals from a limited popula- tion base of just.Palo Alto, and -yet it adopted out •snirnals all over the Peninsula and Bay Area, which accounted for.. its large adoption rate. The Shelter al so, attracted_ people who were either visiting the Santa Clara Humane' So.:iety or the Peninsula Humane Society who stopped off inbetween to look at animals for adoption. He believed the Spay and Neuter Cl_i n i c helped attract people too because an average of .25 to 30 people went through the Spay Clinic duei dig the week. on a daily basis. Mayor Levy clarified Mr. Betts believed the figures were accurate, and Palo Altets rate was a- l.ot _higher, then surrounding shelters. fiithough it might partfallyabe because Palo Alto had an attractive facility for adoption,At was also --partially because of the for- tunate location and .the extended market area - Mr, Betts said that was. correct. Many people looking .to adOet aeimials in. Santa .Clara might just as well go to Palo Alto. Santa Clara did not turn away anyone ieecause of jurisdiction or reste dentyeand accepted -animals from all over ; Santa Clara County, but probably di`d not attract people freit Gil roy-- or same 0f_ the out- lying areas to go to Santa Clara to look at their shelter; whereas, because of Pate Alt.o's location,, he believed --their shelter did. 6 5 4 2 11/18/85 Counc i l member Woolley referred to the budget chant on Page 313 of the large budget, asked if they were actually talking about the same group of animals in those budget targets as they were in the monthly reports. She asked because the total number of animals handled up at the top was 4,500, which included wildlife. She believed it might b -e more meaningful to Council if the total target given in the budget did not Include the wildlife because their primary concern was with the dogs and cats. It would help to focus just on those animals because there were a large number of wildlife brought into the Shelter. They were all turned over to Wildlife Rescue, which could distort the picture. If Council could be given just the number of adoptable cats and dogs adopted-, .it might be more meaningful. Al Stein, 1304 Pebble Drive, San Carlos, Co -Chairman of the Citizens for Humane Treatment of Palo Alto Shelter _ Animals, pres- ented a petition containing 600 signatures which requested the Council remove the Palo Alto Animal Services Division from the supervision of the Police Department and to consider placing. it with the Palo Alto_ Hemane Society. The Citizens for Human Treat- ment of Palo Alto Shelter Animals was committed to the concept of removal from the Police Department, and would not rest its efforts until it was accomplished. The otter issues were summarized in July and the Citizens believed they were entitled to answers, and :stood on their well -documents reports and testimonies before the P&P Committee. Although staff was asked by Mayor Levy to respond to their committee's May 6 report, by July 16, staff failed to comply and still had not responded. Meanwhile, their committee responded to City staff's untruths and misstatements presented in its August 22 report to Council. Several members of the Citizens Committee volunteered to go before the full Council and/or a Grand Jury under oath to document their charges. Up to the present, no one staff meimber was willing to go under oath. He invited any Councilmember to question him on the fabrications which existed in the staff report. In addition to the detailed reports of February 19, 1985 and May 6, 1935, the Citizens Committee presented the Council with hard evidence of animal abuse from the former 'volun- teer coordinator who was fired from her position because she spoke out and went public with her concerns, and from a former paid Shelter staff member. Council was also presented with an article by a Palo Alto Animal Control Officer criticizing his employer, the Police Department, for the invalid manner in which It policed. itself and handled its own complaints and pointing out the need for an Animal Advisory Committee.- He had a corrected analysis of a comparative adoption figures from the August 22, 1985 staff report. Each Councilmernber was mailed a copy (which is on file in the City Clerk's office) , and in every city, the fi gu$ es were understated. In one instance, there was an errof of 375 percent in the adoption rate. He noted it said 266 percent. There was evidence of continued problems at the Shelter since August. At the August 27, 1985, P&P Committee. meeting, Councilmenber Klein said he believed staff had to look at what people's motivations were. Councilmeraber Klein said he asked himself why Mr. Zaner, Chief lurcher, and Assistant Chief Durkin would engage in a cover- up on the Animal Services program. The Citizens Committee be- lieved the answer was to cover-up their own total lack of super- vision over Director Betts until the now deposed and badly needed Advisory :,Committee alerted them to the sad goings on. Regarding motivation, Council should ask about the motivations of the 30 people on the Citizens - Committee, plus the 622 signatories of the petition in wanting : the changes made. Does - one accept their volunteered opinion's, or those of three City'employees with vested interests. The Citizens Committee believed City government was elected by a majority, and the petition contained a majority of 643 to 3. He urged Council listen to the will of its con- stituents* mayor Levy asked where Mir. Stein_ would place the Animal Services Division within the City of Palo Alto if it was removed from the Police Department, 5 4 3 11/18/85 Mr. Stein said the petition requester; removal of the Animal Services and Pl acemeet Custer of the City of Palo Alto from the jurisdiction of the Palo Alto Police Department and placing them under the direction of the Palo Alto Humane Society. Mayor Levy clarified there was no other place within the City appropriate to have the Animal Services Division. 1 1 1 Mr. Stein said the,, matter was explored, but because of the Palo Alto Humane Society's reputation in the community, and the fact 70 percent of shelters nationwide were run by the Humane Society, and in cities like Palo Alto, the percentage was greater, the Citizens' Committee believed it was the most logical place to be. Councilmember Woolley asked if Mr, Stein's statistics used the same contact person staff listed on their sheet. Mr. Stein said his statistics were gathered by a letter, a copy of which was sent to the City Council, which said, "Recently the staff from the Polo Alto Animal Shelter prepared a report showing adoption and euthanasias figures for your shelter for fiscal year 1984-85 compared to Palo Alto's figures. Our Committee has been workiny very hard to improve conditions at our Shelter, and would find it most helpful if you would verify or correct the figures given for your Shelter. Simply write verify by your name and sign your name or put in the correct numbers underneath the original numbers and sign." Counc i l member Woolley asked if the contact person ended up being the same person, or did the Citizens' Committee speak try a dif- ferent person. Mr. Stein said in some cases the contact person was the same, and in many cases, the Shelter advised it had no idea where the figures were obtained from. He assured in every case he compared "apples and apples," which he doubted the City staff did. Counci lmember Woolley said because of a conversation she had with Mr. Betts that afternoon, she asked about the difficulty in getting "apples and apples" in order to compare the statistics from one city to another. Mr. Betts said part of the problem staff found in trying to com- pare was there was no standardized statistical format rom shelter to shelter since each shelter was a separate .organization. Some of the shelters gave statistics which included dead animals, some did not keep statistics on the total number of animals euthanized, or how many were put to sleep at the owner's request. Some animal shelters in their adoption statistics included animals redeemed by the original owner and called them adoptions instead of redemp- tions, and some animal shelters qualified their euthanasias by saying an euthanasia at the da screti on of staff was only that animal which was kenneled and could not find a home. If an animal was received and staff determined the animal. was "unadoptable" because of behavioe or temperment, then it was not included in the statistics necause the animal was "never adoptable." Courc i l member Wcol l ey said she and Counc i l member Sutorius : had trouble getting the statistics to -reflect exactly what was meant for Palo Alto. A lot of definitions seemed to enter into it, and it was not easy to know exactly what was reflected in the numbers. Counc i l member Sutror l us asked Mr, . Stein for a reasonable objective for percent euthanasias at discretion of staff, percent euthana- sias requested by pet owner, and percent of live animals adopted. When live .animals adopted was expressed, he wanted to understand whether it related to adoptable animals or how it ;could be classi- fied. 6 5 4 4 11/18/85 Mr. Stein said it was difficult because there -were different ways of iriterpretir j things which was why the Citizens Ccermittee took the time and asked for documentation from the shelters in order to yive a fair picture. The report was an effort to make Council feel the committee was doing a great job and it was coincidental - all errors occurred in understandiag the other cities. The appro- priate figures for any of the cities on the list were inappropri- ate because the closest city to Palo Alto in size was Hayward, which was double. The report he sent to Council showed cities the size of Palo Alto had a higher adoption rate, handled more animals and had a lower budget --in one case, approximately 10 percent of Palo. Alto's, and in another case, at least 25 percent under Palo Alto's budget, which was why,,he believed the -report was improper. Counciimember Sutorius understood the thrust was to point out some perceived inaccuracies in the data previously reviewed by the P&P Committee. He presumed Mr. Stein believed his data was better than the staff data, and that Council should at least be aware of the inaccuracies in the data Mr. Stein reviewed. Mr. Stein said yes. Ccunci1my±mber Sutorius referred to the data collected, reviewed and presented to the City Council by Mr. Stein, and asked if he would be concerned if the total live animals reported by Mr. Stein for Fremont at 7,329 compared to 8,187 animals either adopted, euthanized at staff discretion or euthanized at rei»iest of owner. In other words, there was some action on 111 percent of the total anima,ls received, which to nim did not seem reasonable. Mr. Stein's data presented a range, and it was important to understand the data received because Council was asked to rely upon data, and he found a:, would be properly expected, they were different agen- cies with different administrations and different recording pro- cesses. and he believed it was fruit salad because there was too great a range in the data presented. Mayor Levy clarified Councilmernber Sutorius questioned the validity of Mr. Stein's data. Mr. Stein said the data was not his. He questioned the City of Fremont and spoke to a Leonard Mat' an. He was advised his numbers did not add up, but Mr. Matlan said the one thing he was sure of was the adoption situation, which was what was pertinent to Palo Alto. Sometimes live animals were received at the beginning of the month, and were already in inventory, etc., and he understood how some shelters could miss in that regard, In every other shelter the "totals were there, and Councilmember Sutorius picked the one that did not total, and it was astute of him to notice. He had information to show it was not his data, it was Mr. Matlan's data and his problem. He was trying to show that all the figures were wrong. Counciimember Sutorius asked for further response on an adoption objective as a percentage; a euthanasia on a discretionary basis. and a euthanasia as far as an owner request. Mr. Stein said the general idea was Palo .Alto's record was not good enough. He did not believe the 37 percent figure, According to shelters the size of. Palo Alto, it should be above the 37 per- cent figure, but should be documented as the other figures were. Lynn Anselmo, 160 Holland Court, Mountain View, said if the City Council could not help, they world rove on and explore other, channels. The Citizens Committee believed they were right and would hang in there until the last minute to achieve their goals. Harrison Otis, 57 -year resident of Palo Alto, said his family was always interested in animals. He made drop in visits to the Animal Shelter, and he:, believed the Police Depa stment tried to clean up a mess. He urged Council to work with the people. 6 5 4 5 11/18/85 Mary Cordon, 2896 Emerson Street, said regarding the recommenda- tion that euthanasia be done only with the approval of the super - intent and Dr. Miller, she pointed out Dr. Miller arrived in the early morning and left at 1:30 p.m. Siie was not there or Saturday. or Sunday, which uiedirt if air airiFnal was in great pain and should •be put to sleep immediately, it meant an animal might have to wait from Friday afternoon to Monday morning. In theory, it sounded like a good plan to have two people approve a euthanasia, and she wes all for it where it was not a matter of the animal suffering. There should be some type of provision to take care = of suffering animals immediately. Lisa riraud, 2200 Byron, urged Council to reject the recommenda- tion of the P&P Committee to continue the status quo and leave the Animal Services Division in police hands. The P&P Committee meeting at which the recommendation -was formulated was not only counter to the considered opinion of those members of the com- munity best informed, it raised in the minas of many a disturbing view of the governance of the City itself. She asked why the P&P Committee members were ready to accept without hesitatation a staff report by the City Manager and City .department that were under constant criticism for well documented infractions of proper procedure. She asked why the P&P Committee members were so totally ready to accept the veracity of City staff when there were obvious contradictions. She asked why Mr. Zaner told four wit- nesses in his office, "I fired the previous Shelter superin- tendent," and why Police Chief Zurcher said the man was never fired. She queried who told the truth. She asked why Chief Zurcher was constrained to say the public never had a hand in the Creation of the Spay and Neuter Clinic when there were five oresix people present who toiled mightily to bring the clinic about. There was a report by Mr. Betts on a City- employee who was actually observed swinying a cat by the tail and was heard to say he hated dogs anc was subsequently promoted to become an Animal Control Officer. She queried why the P&P Committee was so ready to accept Mr. Betts' response which was, 'The case has been investigated." Although Council pointed out many times the City Manager was among the few employees Council appointed and presum- ably also supervised, she confessed there was a disturbing impression that perhaps the relationship drastically changed. On many counts, there was a lot of community unease about police direction of the shelter. In a City which prided itself on citi- zen participation, it seemed unbecoming to reject, as completely out of hand, the earnest counsel of a group of informed citizens not one of whom had so much as a penny to gain. The citizens spent thousands of hours of their time and mountains of energy and their only concern was fnr the welfare of the animals and whose recommendation should command a good deal -of credibility. The citizens of Palo Alto were convinced they were not getting their moneys worth from Animal Services. She seconded the editorial recommendation of the Palo Alto Weekly of August_7, that Council consider -taking the shelter out of police hands and turn it over to the Humane Society which was . in line with about three-quarters of the communities in the United States. There was an excellent chance that under Palo Alto Humane Society direction, Animal Services could be run without the many disturbances which plagued it for years at a sum greatly _reduced from the almost $500,000 it presently cost the City. She believed it was a chance worth investigating. She echoed Ms. Anselmo's comments the issue would not 9o: away. It was a case where preserving the status quo would not contribute to stability, but would only promote Continued unrest. Kay Bushnell, 775 Northampton . Drive, said the mark of a t; my civilized community was it cared about those helpless and vulner- able beings that could not speak or represent themselves. The -Animal Services Advisory Committee was valuable to Palo ° Alto because it fulfilled the function of .acting as trustee for the animals' well being, and existed at no cost to the City. Dis- banding the Animal Services Advisory Committee seemed to be a cold thing to do, and demonstrated a lack of concern for the well-being 6 5 4 a 11/18/85 of the animals. Because Palo Alto's shelter was under the Police Department whose concern was primarily controlling animals, the Advisory Committee was especially essential for it was concerned with helping the animals. Having the Advisory Committee showed Palo Alto was an enliyhtened community and .it was concerned for animals as vulnerable beings. She would be proud to know her shelter had such a committee, Palo Al tans wanted to be proud of their shelter and know it was truly a shelter and not merely a jail for animals, The Animal Services Advisory Committee should be reestablished and its role should be to assure the well-being of the- animals. It seemed clearly sensible, just, civilized and noble to have such a body of citizen volunteers. Agnes Kirkeby, 4147 Park Boulevard, was active in the animal rescue movement for 15 years in Palo Alto, and was astounded at the last meeting to hear Chief Zurche, declare there was little citizen participation when the spay clinic was approved. It was contrary to her recollection so she went to the City Clerk's Office and reviewed the minutes of those meetings. On July 6, Mayor Comstock accepted the petition with 928 signatures. On August 16, Mayor Comstock accepted the signatures of 2B3 citizens, and said, "there was a large number of letters from Humane Societies, citizens-, a report of what was going on in Los Angeles Spay Clinic which was recently adopted..." She did not know what was in Chief Zurcher's mind when he provided the misinformation to the Council and the public, but it would be halve of the Council to take on faith any statement made by City staff no matter what the level of responsibility, Pearl Hannah, 2632 Elmdalc Court, said on September 5, 1985, Animal Control Officer #595, from the Palo Alto Animal Services, issued a citation to her in her yard because he said her dog'e license had expired. /f the dog was running on the street, it seemed she would have deserved the citation, but since she was always in her yard, which was boarded by a six-foot wooden fence, she believed a simple notice would have sufficed. He said, "lady, don't get hostile with me." She was 86 years old and recovering from severe irjuries suffered in a car accident, so getting a citation for such a minor offense shook her up. She did not believe her dog license had expired, but did not argue with him. The next day she checked her records, and provided copies to the City Council. She found the receipt from the City of Palo Alto, dated April 5, 1984, for the amount of $8 in payment of her dog's license for two years, which was 50 percent of the $16 fee because her doq was neutered and it was so stated on the receipt. She also had the veterinary statement of her rabies shots, dated March 27, 1984, which expired in M ,rch, 1986. In due time, she received a notice from the Traffic Court to appear and plead her case or mail in $46. She went.to the court with the citation and her document. The official°, immediately cleared her case saying her documents showed her dog license would expire in April, 1986. Tha incident profiled the Shelter management under the Police Depart- ment.which a growing number of Friends of Animals protested the entire year to the Committee on Policies and Procedures. Yet, the P&P Committee gave no credence to the complaints. They might as well talk to deaf ears. Her recent experience pointed up the shoddy record Keeping of the Shelter -management, its mistakes and cursory double checking. The taxpayer's paid Officer 4595 a;pprox- iCately $24,000 a year to run around town ringing doorbells and passing out citations for expired dog licenses which .could as well be mailed with far less cost to the taxpayer. The ponderpus handling by the Shelter management of her- dog's license with. its overtones of police action was at best harassment, and at worst, invasion of privacy Hwith gestapo tactics. It squandered tax- payer's _money and was an unnecessary waste Ofettme and energy for the Shelter staff, the dog owner, and the courts'. It ilighlighted. the Shelter. management's lack of :efficiency eand -to,apassion while portraying its spirit of vengeance and retaliation because they knew she opposed the- present set-up of "the -Shelter. She urged Shelter -management -be put in the hands of the Humane Society. 6 5 4 7 11/18/85 -Councilmember Woolley asked for elaboration that Animal Control Officers called on ,pet owners whose licenses expired. Mr. Betts said when time allowed and if an officer was in the neighborhood, they would do dog license follow ups on old, expired dog licenses. He believed Officer Steele's record showed Dr. Hannah's dog license expired in 1983. He pointed out the license expiration date as shown on the sheet was March 27, 1984. Andrew Michael , 2357 Hanover Street, was also a volunteer at the Animal Service Center since June, 1984. Since his overwhelming positive feelings about the Shelter's operation and staff were already part of the public record both to the P&P Committee and in a letter to Councilmember Fletcher, he said there were some who were not part of the City staff and who were intimately involved with the Shelter who had positive feelings. Although Council was presented with a petition that evening, there were people in the community who felt the same way. The Shelter often received test- imonials from the community about how nice the Shelter was com- pared to the other local shelters. He praised the City staff and said he enjoyed working with them. He hoped the City Council would see fit to continue the present operation. Helen Hooper McCloskey, 580 Mountain Home Road, Woodside. spoke as an individual and not as a member of the board of the Humane Society. The Palo Alto Humane Society provided services including ec.ecation programs, referral services, financial aid for people who could not afford certain unexpected large veterinary bills, and sometimes some as small as spaying and neutering, as well as handling temporary special care cases with its dedicated volun- teers, and some adoption services. Because the public sometimes linked the term "Humane Society" with animal shelters, they occa- sionally heard complaints or comments about the City Shelter which involved some of the areas in which they worked. However, they had no way to address the concerns when they reached the Humane Society since they were after the fact aod it had no official con- nection with the Shelter except through the education program. It seemed to her both the City's Animal Services Division and the Palo Alto Humane Society could benefit from having an individual from the Humane Society also be a City employee specifically handling placement, referral, and special care cases. Such an individual would be with both the Humane Society and the City could handle cases where an animal was definitely special care and who needed around the clock care that o City employee might not be able or willing to take on. Such a joint position would logically involve using the community volunteers and could be part of the volunteer coordinator position. By sharing resources between the two organizations, a more aggressive adoption program could also be pursued and might lower the euthanasia rate. Working together and consolidating expertise would promote the well-being of the animal population, which was what they were all supposed to be about. The kind of positlen she sketched otA would be filled by someone not only able, but willing -to go the extra step. In many instances, the extra steps were large ones and were -not ones an employee of the Police Department or Shelter might feel desirous of taking. She believed hiring a person with his feet "in both camps," might lessen the cold war which seemed to presently exist and which reached a point of stalemate for months, which did not do the animals or people of Palo Alto any good. Sharon Pro i etti , 973 Embarcadero, said the Palo Alto Animal Services had no aggressive adoption program on a continuing .basis. The, "Pet of tne- Week" had not been in the paper for several...'eeks, and in fact, the past week there was a picture of the Santa Clara "Pet of the Week", and not Palo Alto's. Over the past two years, several individuals tried to find homes for shelter animals and used a. lot of time and money to do so. The people asked friends 6 5 4.8 11/18/85 and neighbors to adopt animals from the Shelter. They placed ads in the Palo _ Alto Weekly and the -Peninsula Times Tribune and in the Woodside Country Almanac. They took animals out themselves, asked, through the Palo Alto Humane Society,._that the Shelter show pets on the Mountain View cable television. In the past two weeks, one person took out a small older dog so it would not be euthanized. The man found the dog to be deaf and blind and had a tumor. It suffered at the Shelter for several weeks, but no medi- cal information was on the adoption card. The person we pro- viding medical help and paying for it himself. The Palo Alto Humane Society fostered four puppies et its office one weekend. An ad was placed in the Palo Alto Times Tribune to try and place the dogs in loving homes. Four people paid for the ad, but individual efforts, were. not enough to save animals from eutha- nasia, and it was not their job. She urged the City Council to direct the Palo Alto Animal Shelter to start an aggressive adop- tion policy, and queried why it was not done before. Councilmember Witherspoon was not sure of the chronological his- tory, but said it went full circle because just before she became a Councilmember, the City of Palo Alto Pound, which was located at the site of the present Holiday Inn, was run by the Palo Alto Humane Society for many years under a Mr. Oalmage. It was a one- man show, and there was a lot of feeling in the community the City should take over the facility, expand it, build a new facility, and have the opportunity to have a Spay and Neuter Clinic included in the new facility. Palo Alto was the first municipally funded Spay and Neuter Clinic, and it was at the urging of citizens. She was disillusioned ,at the "tactics," used by the citizens to try and persuade Council to their points 'of view. She was not per- suaded by accusations, name calling, personal remarks about staff, and dissipation of a great many peoples` efforts and nitpicking. Although there were probably some procedural things that could be corrected and was always room for improvement in adoption of animals, which was a difficult thing to do especially if fussy about the people animals went to, which was equally as important -- she was proud of Palo Aito'.s program. Over the years and with the help of many people, the program was made very effective. She remembered the Animal Faire, it was an educational event, and raised money for those groups in the community helping animals, In thee_} days, eeeryone worked together. She was persuaded if the people were_, of goodwill and wanted to help animals, the kind of performance in the Committee meetings and before the -City Council would lot accomplish it. She knew the people had unlimited good- will toward animals, but she requested patience in exercising the goodwill towards people because she believed they all had the same goal. She bel ieve1 the , City budget for animals in Palo Alto was carefully scrutinized by' the Committee on which she sat, but it was yezerous, She believed Palo Alto ,had as good a program as the citizens of Palo Alto were willing to fund. She heard no com- plaints that tong much movee was spent on animals, but she was not persuaded .the Palo Alto Humane Society was the organization:over all others. There were other nonprofit humane groups in the vicinity and in the community, and there was the. option of placing the Animal Services Division under some other City department. To her, the Police Department was. the --:logical place. Many staff hours were spent enforcing the lass in terms Of animal control and/or licenses, and law enforcement was a logical .place for the Animal Services Division. She was not persuaded Palo Alto's Police Department was any more insensitive to animals than to people. She believed the P&P Committee fairly heard all _sides' of the issue and arrived at some fair sugyeselons-._ She had her problems with spending the City Auditor's time reviewing records of Sheller animals when she believed his time would be better spent reviewing stock records and other --things which financially affected the City a- greet deal More than whether the cat records - were kept correctly, but that was her only'.quibble with the P&P Committeei recommendation, and she urged Council support. 6 5 4 9 11/18/85 Councilmember Rer±htel Reid Councilmember Witherspoon stated her concerns well. In the years she worked for the County and dealt with the Santa Clara Shelter, Palo Alto's shelter was the model. She did not believe things changed that much in the past `five years. Occasionally, City staff made mistakes, but she did not believe it meant everything was wrong. Everyone wanted to work for animals and for people, in Palo Alto. For the library, there were the Friends of the Library who helped with book sales; for tte Childrens' Theatre there were the Friends of the Childrens' Theatre who helped raise money for their anniversary. She wanted to see Palo Alto work together with the Humane Society, the people and staff for the animals. Councilmember Sutorius associated himself with the commentary car- ried in the minutes of the P&P Committee by Councilmembers Klein and Woolley. He attended the first_ of their two meetings and had the opportunity to hear first-hand the presentations before them and their deliberations, and read the minutes of their second meeting. He appreciated and valued the comments made by Council - member Witherspoon with her long history -of association with the care and concern for animal protection, care and control in the City of Palo Alto. He endorsed her concerns and conclusions. He also wanted to see staff profit from the long considerations, many analyses, outside investigation conducted of the Center, and the input received from the public. He was concerned there=not be an overreaction to some of the negatives, but rather an acceptance of the constructive commentary and suggestions. He believed in -the spirit of those commentaries and suggestions, there was further benefit to the Center and to the care of Palo Alto's animal popu- lation. .He commended to staff the comments by Helen McCloskey and the further opportunities for shared use of resources, ideas and concern to further the adoption processes. He commented to the members of the Advisory Council and those who advocated for a certain course of act ion, he believed the Animal Shelter service was operated with an array of remarkably high performance. He carefully studied the data provided by staff and the Advisory Council, and it seemed to him not only was the adoption rate satisfactory, but one which staff acknowledged could and would be improved upon as indicated by the objective that was higher than the current perforrmance. He looked at the flip side and requested careful consideration of the data provided. whether in the staff report or in the data solicited by the Animal Council, on the euthanasia subject, and consider what the euthanasia performance was in the Palo Alto Shelter, particularly the staff discretionary determination on euthanasia. In the materials collected by Mr. Stein by going to the various agencies identified in the list he provided which paralleled the information previously provided by staff, the range of euthanasia performed by staff ranged from 41 percent to b4 percent of the live animals received and the average in all entities. excluding Palo Alto, was 60 percent. Palo Alto's data in the year 1984--85, ran in the 18 percent range, and for three actual months, August, September, and October,` it aseraged 23 percent. Those figures were all animals, and if dogs and cats were separated out, the performance was 'comparable. He believed that was important to know, understand and relate to the kinds of concerns expressed because the focus was tiseportantly on adopt- ables. He suggested consideration- of the •euthanasia rate else- where, .And believed one had to believe it was a easefully a,dm3n- istered and cautiously pursued progrcm. He supported the P&P Committee recommendations, Vice Aayor Cobb said earlier in the process Councilmember Fletcher sent.oue- a letter to various volunteers and received many positive responses from those people. He believed Council was faced with a situation where it :waae difficult to understand how different groups of people could see' things so differently when they theo- retically were 7.osoking at the save facie, --He associated himself : With many of the' points made by Cour:oilmeMber Sutorius, and , labo- rated that whether. Council used City staff data or Mr. Stein's 1i, 8,8g data or some average in between, Palo Alto still looked good compared LO most uthel- p4opiti in Liiu at+esci. He believed i'4 Hccioskey's suggestion to the extent the Humane Society could be involved in a more adoption process of some sort, it should be pursued. He did not know the best mechanism for pursuing it, but hoped staff would pursue it; that it would be discussed in the next budget process; and that Council might pursue it in some constructive way. If there were a group of people who could help Palo Alto do more with adoptions and without extra cost to the City it should be done, and it would have the beneficial side effect of reducing euthanasias. It should be pursued vigorously. Councilme tuber Renzel believed one of the big problems Council. faced was the concerns of many dedicated people who assisted with the Palo Alto Animal Shelter program for many years and who invested a let of their personal energies on behalf of the dogs and cats of the community and other animals. She.agreed with her colleagues that Palo Alto's performance in the Animal Shelter in terms of adoptions and minimizing the number of euthanasias was far better than most of the other shelters. She believed part of the conflict was people familiar with the animals in the Shelter, the volunteers who were there felt personally about the animals who were part of the statistics of euthanasia and wanted to see the adoptions increased as would everyone. Part of the heart of the conflict was as public policymakers, the City Council had to strike a balance in terms -of what the City was able to do and what other communities were able to do. She would vote with her colleagues to support the P&P Committee recommendation, but believed everyone needed to recognize the animals did not have people to advocate for thee, except for the volunteers and the people in the Humane Society and people who devoted many hours of their lives to do so. Hopefully, as some of her colleagues stated, some of the energy could be channeled to ensure Palo Alto improved upon its already relatively good statistics so those animals who were the statistics had a better chance to live out their lives, which was a goal for everyone. It was not easy to achieve, and she believed everyone involved with the animal protection movement wanted to be certain the families who adopted pets were qualified families and people who would care for, and not abuse, the animals. She knew many of the volunteers very well and appreciated their strong feelings, but believed in the`many times she had occasion to use the Shelter, she observed no abuses and rather found it to be one of the best types of facilities of its kind. She hoped -it could Jae turned to a positive effort to ensure the goals and objectives of minimizing euthanasia, maximizing adoptions, and ensuring all pets in the community had some humane opportunity to continue on in life and they could all work together to achieve it. Councilurember Klein associated himself with the remarks of his colleagues, but would not support the request to direct the City Auditor to examine the accounting records of the shelter. In the time since the P&P Committee made the recommendation in August, he was concerned the request would produce basically meaningless data to the Council. He did not believe it was the focus of the dis- cussien over the past several months before . the -iP Committee. Council was asked to make some basic decisions and clearly it was being done. The City Auditor's report, even if it showed signifi- cant error_ s in record handling, would not make Council change its mind. He was also persuaded the likelihood of finding any - sig- nificant differences was remote. Choices always had to be amide as to where to spend staff time, and for him, the recommendation was not a high priority use of Lae Auditor's time given the basic insignificant a of the data and that Council would make no use of it. He did not believe tho data would be meaningful to those who were critics of the Shelter of the Auditor returned and said everything was precisely as staff said. He was dubic .a of the record of outaide consultants being brought in, and there seemed to be no way to make anyone believe, who was a critic of the Shelter, that someone else could look at it objectively. For all thosereasons, he would vote "no" on that part of the motion. 6 5 5 X11 As corrected 1/20/86 Mayor Levy said the animal services issue was different from any other issue faced on the Council because there was agreement aeith regard to policy and generally Council dealt with policy. There was no disagreement -the policies which governed the Shelter should be maximization of =adoptions and the minimization of euthanasias except the euthanasia policy should he enlightened. The issue was not whether to change the policy, but rather whether the implemen- tation of the policy should be changed. During the year Council worked on the matter, it gave him an opportunity to do a personal investigation and audit of the situation. He reviewed the objec- tives in terms of policy and found no problem He looked at the data reflecting the achievement of the objectives and was well satisfied with 'oa37 percent adoption rate and euthanasias below 25 percent, if the data was accurate, it represented good per- formance. One of the communities held up- as a standard was the community of Oshkosh, and it was noted their adoption rate ran about 45 percent per year which was not all that much higher than Palo Alto's. and Palo Alto was much greater than the si'rr-ounding communities. He read all of the reports and correspondence with regard to the item, visited Palo Alto's facility on several occa- sions each time unannounced. At times the Superintendent was there and at other times he was not, and he freely wandered around and looked. He discussed Palo Alto's facilities and other facil- itiestwith many others, spoke with veterinarians and individuals who adopted at the facility and with individuals who worked at the facility. He spoke to members of the Animal Advisory Committee, and read from a newsletter from the Humane Society, of which he was a member. He read the report of the independent consultant and approved calling in an independent consulting group. He talked with administrators and employees and_, was not naive as to believe the employees of the City were not without their own self- interest, but was not so naive as to believe the members of the Humane Society who wished to have the facility placed under the egis of the Humane Society were not without their own self- interest even though it might not be pecuniary. He found the City's objectives were generally being met, the =a:il ity was an attractive one both in its own right and compared to others. It was conducive to adoptions; that staff was adoption -oriented. He found in the community many supported the facility and spoke highly of it, and many others did not. There was a mixed response in that regard. The independent consultant report was favorable, and he put aside the substantial criticism that everyone who favored the facility and the current management had a bias which should render them incapable of participating. That was no more true than to say those who found the facility not up to standard also had a bias which also rendered their opinion to be set aside. Interestingly, he found himself in agreement with some of the things he read by members of the Humane Society and others who ' in general were not favorable to the shelter. Charlottes Gaul, in her letter to the City ,Council (which is on file in the City Clerk's office), said "ther•'e is no dispute the Palo Alto Shelter is as yood as, or better than, many animal shelters, but what is dis- putable is that the quality of care given to the animals cannot or could not be improved." He agreed, but if the Palo Alto Shelter was as _` good as or better than many animal shelters, and it appeared to be, he did.not-believe drastic surgery was called for. He. agreed it cou ei be improved, but it seemed to operate et a high level. He also found himself uncomfortable with the recom- menditions- that the only sol_tion was to take the facility ,com- pletely out o'' the eels of the City _and put .it somewhere else.- . It Might be true the Police Oepartaent was not the best rOverseer of the facility within the City, but no one recommended abetter overseer.. As was_ stated by many, they ran :as good a a facility as goad a.s, or -bettert than, many. The Humana Society's aecertt news- letter An summarizing the shelter situation was confusing to him as he compared it to what he heard because they briefly summed up the Animai °-Services; Adr1 spry Committee's. _views and did not say-- it should be' removed from:the City. " They said the first priority of the Shelter, sr,.du1d be the welfare, of the animal$,- second, poten- tially -"adoptable .animals should not-, be euthanized, third, eolun- teers should be treated with respect- by City personnel; and four, 6 5 .5 2 11/18/85 1 1 there should be sane citizens grnup to speak for sheltered animals. Based on the foregoing, he concurned with the P&P Committee recommendations. He reserved judgment on the motion discussed by Councilmember Woolley about requiring the approval of both the Veterinarian and the Superintendent for euthanasia because what he heard that evening indicated it might not be a good policy. He believed the audit was needed because a lot of the conclusions he arrived at were based on the fact the City's euthanasia levels were so low and the adoption levels were so high, and he saw a positive benefit to having the City Auditor look at those numbers and confirm them. If thay were Correct, he was satisfied and they, could move on as far as he was concerned. If they were not as purported, he would reconsider. Mayor Levy said the portion of the motion .which related to the City Auditor would be voted on separately. MOTION RELATED TO POLICY AND PROCEDURES COMMITTEE RECOMMENDA- TIONS EXCEPTING THAT RELATED TO THE DIRECTION TO BE GIVEN TO THE CITY AUDITOR PASSED unanimously, MOTION RELATED TO CITY AUDITOR DIRECTION TO DETERMINE WHETHER RECORDS ACCURATELY REFLECT WHAT HAPPENED TO EACH ANIMAL AND REPORT BACK TO CITY COUNCIL WITHIN FOUR MONTHS PASSED by a vote of 7-2, Klein, Witherspoon voting "no. MOTION: Councilmember Woolley moved, seconded by Bechtel, that all euthanasias at staff discretion be approved by both the City Veterinarian and Superintendent of the Animal Shelter an duty except in cases of emergencies or extended absences` over 72 hours of either the Superintendent of the Animal Shelter or the City Veterinarian. Councilmember Woo11ey said her thinking was exactly the same as expressed by Ms. Cordon. She knew the veterinarian left at 1:00 p.m. on Friday afternoon and an animal might need attention before Monday morning. She also learned from talking to Superintendent: Botts that day that the City Veterinarian had been with the City for a long time and received a full month's vacation so during that period of time, a euthanasia decision would need to be made. Mayor Levy assumed there was an acting City Veterinarian when the City Veterinarian was not present, and he asked if the :notion would apply to the veterinarian on duty, Councilmember Woolley said if someone was actually at the Shelter, the answer was yes, but it was not always the case. During Dr. Miller's recent absence, she believed there was a veterinarian two days out of five. There would not necessarily be an acting veter- inarian on dpty. Councilmember Fletcher asked if staff had any comments. Mr. Betts said although there were not a lot of ani mat s which needed to be.euthanized:on weekends, staff wanted to have some provision if an animal needed care either to contract- with a veterinarian or discretion of either the _Superintendent or the City Veterinarian to allow euthanasia in an emergency situation --with en: emergency situation to be left to the discretion of the veterinarian if the animal needed care As presently provided by_ law, Staff was also concerned with vacations, but if that *as covered by extended leave, It , was satisfactory, He had no problem with " the wording of the motion. Staff ,supported the -Motion Potion so long as staff was -able to make arrangements. to contract with. veterinary services on weekends in the event of an emergency euthanasia. 6 5 5 3 11/18/85 Couricili►ieiiiber Klein asked about the definition of extended care. He clarified Dr. Miller left at 1 :00 p.m. on Friday afternoons, and he asked if by extended absences if by noon an Saturday, her consent was unnecessary. Co"ncilmeinber Woolley meant in that case there would be no eui:hanasias over the weekend except in a medical emergency. Councilmember Klein suggested an extended absence meant more than 72 hours. 1 1 Councilmember Woolley said that was fine. Mayor Levy asked if it would be more appropriate to use the term "veterinarian on duty" rather than "City Veterinarian" so if the City Veterinarian was not there, but another was on duty, it would apply. Mr. Betts said that would be appropriate. MOTION RESTATED: ALL EUTHANASIAS AT STAFF'S DISCRETION BE APPROVED BY, BOTH THE SUPERINTENDENT AND VETERINARIAN ON DUTY, EXCEPT IN THE CASE OF AN EMERGENCY OR ABSENCE OF MORE THAN 72 HOURS OF THE VETERINARIAN OR SUPERINTENDENT Mayor Levy believed the motion should be supported as it gave an added element of safeguard to the City and the public. MOTION PASSED unanimously. Vice Ma. -or Cobb asked regarding finding a way to involve the Humane Society in a more active adopt i or, program, if it was Councilmember Woolley's perception any proposals to that end mic,ht come forward during the budget process possibly as an extension cf the Humane Education program. Councilmember Woolley said yes. Mayor Levy hoped the .appeal made by members of the Council to move forward together would be heeded and they could move toward the objective of treating Palo Alto's animals fairly and humanely and to encourage the maximum number of adoptions to good homes. ADJOURNMENT Council adjourned at.1O:OO p.m. ATTEST: APPROVED: 6 5 5 4 11/18/85