It looks like Kent city officials might extend for another two years an agreement with King County to provide animal services to the city.
The current three-year contract doesn’t expire until Dec. 31, 2015, but county officials want to know by the end of November how many of the 25 cities want to stay in the Regional Animal Services of King County program.
The Kent City Council told Parks Director Jeff Watling, who oversees the animal services agreement, to send county officials a letter of intent that the city wants to extend the contract through 2017. The city has contracted with the county for animal services since 2010. The county previously paid for all costs.
Kent pays between $250,000 and $300,000 per year to the county to provide animal control, sheltering and licensing services, Watling told the council at a Nov. 4 budget workshop. The King County Pet Adoption Center (shelter) is in Kent.
“They (county officials) need to get an understanding from all 25 cities if everybody’s in or if some that are out that changes the calculation of the cost,” Watling said. “They are asking cities to at least provide a commitment letter by the middle of November so that we can gage what negotiations will look like. Are we going to spend the next couple of months negotiating this two-year extension or are we going to be in the process of the next 12 months negotiating a new agreement?”
Watling said the city remains in talks with other South King County cities about whether to set up their own animal services division. The city of SeaTac leads that alternative search.
“I can tell you in the conversations I’ve had that a shelter remains the biggest question,” said Watling about a lack of a facility to house animals.
The city of Auburn broke off from the county to run its own animal services.
“I think the city of Auburn found that capital costs are quite high and I’m not sure they have reached a payback period quite yet because they are finding out the services are more expensive than what they projected,” Watling said. “I think animal services are best done regionally and not individually by jurisdictions.”
Kent signed a three-year extension in 2012 with King County. Under that agreement, cities are assessed charges based 80 percent on their use of services and 20 percent on their population, instead of the previous formula that weighted the charges 50/50, according to county officials.
Cities do receive credits for how many pets are licensed in their city.
“Countywide they (county officials) estimate 18 to 20 percent of pets are licensed,” Watling said. “The good news is we pay for a year the estimated costs and when we know how much revenue came in from city licenses we either pay more or get a credit and each year of the contract we have gotten a credit, we got a check back.”
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