City extends animal control pact

The city of Liberty Lake will continue its animal control contract with Spokane County Regional Animal Protection Service in 2013 after the City Council voted unanimously last week to include funding for the contract in the 2013 budget.

The city had been looking into contracting with SpokAnimal to save money. When Mayor Steve Peterson submitted his proposed 2013 budget to the council it did not include any money for animal control.

The $11,618 the city will pay in 2013 is the same amount SCRAPS proposed several weeks ago, but there have been a few changes in the contract. SCRAPS will now send the city a monthly activity report. “We already do that for the Valley,” said SCRAPS director Nancy Hill. “All they had to do was ask.”

Peterson said he wanted more information on what kinds of calls SCRAPS was handling for the city. “We wanted them to quantify all their responses and the activity they did for us,” he said.

The new contract also includes language calling for quarterly meetings to focus on increasing licensing revenue.

Peterson said SCRAPS initially just gave the city its terms for the contract renewal but they were willing to discuss amending it. “We saw a change,” he said. “We’re just a small piece of their operation. Believe me, no one wanted to switch from SCRAPS.”

Peterson said his goal was to control costs. “We’re all challenged with money,” he said. “There’s only so much property tax. It’s just not an open checkbook.”

There may be more changes in 2014 when Spokane is expected to join SCRAPS, Peterson said. “We’re on our way to get this full regional animal control model working,” he said.