King County Executive Kurt Triplett announced Thursday his intent to provide six months of funding in 2010 to help the county begin transitioning out of animal care and sheltering services. He also said Thursday that he had assigned staff to work with stakeholders to develop a new model for regional animal services that is humane and financially sustainable.

One of the county’s main shelters is located in Kent.

Under the proposal, Triplett would reserve $3 million in one time money in the 2010 budget to help transition both animal control and sheltering services to new contractors over the next nine months, starting Thursday.

Through a collaborative process with labor, regional cities that contract with the county for animal service, nonprofit groups and volunteers, the hope, he said, is that a new contractor and operational entity will be developed that can better serve the cities, residents and the animals, given the current fiscal and political environment.

“This is a transition or evolution for regional animal care and control, not an ending,” said Triplett said. “We must phase out the county’s general fund support for animal control and sheltering because although protecting animals and protecting people from animals are both important, providing animal care and control as a contractor for 32 cities is neither a required nor a core business of King County, nor is it self-sufficient.”

Currently, providing animal care and control services requires $1.5 million of the county’s general fund dollars every year above the revenues collected from city contracts for those services.

“In an era where we are mothballing parks, eliminating human services programs and closing health clinics, we can no longer afford to subsidize animal care and control,” said Triplett.

Instead, the executive budget provides the one-time subsidy to begin the transition process while prioritizing other funding for regional public-health services and critical public-safety agencies such as the Sheriff, the Prosecutor, the jail, the Superior and District Courts and Public Defense and better aligning King County services to existing King County funding authorities and state mandates.

Discussions are already under way with the 32 cities that contract with King County for animal-related services – a process being accelerated because of the flood threat to the current shelter from the Howard Hanson Dam. As a result, the county’s Kent animal shelter is already planning to move to a new location by Nov. 1 of this year.

Triplett stressed the transition must not leave the region without a shelter or animal control because both services affect budgets and the quality of life in cities countywide. In addition, the major infrastructure, staffing and operational changes that must be agreed upon to do this successfully as a region will take time to be agreed upon and put in place.

However, if active discussions and planning start now, the executive’s proposed transitional funding provides nine months to work with labor, shelter management, staff and volunteers, community animal welfare partners and the cities to craft a sustainable animal care and control model by June 30, 2010, when funding and King County’s current role in the shelter ends.

If the Council approves the proposal in its budget, King County will be no longer provide animal care and control services as of June 30, 2010. But the hope is that a new, better, entity will be in place to take over.