By Karen Gleason
The 830 Times
A divided city council on Tuesday voted to take the next step toward improving its animal services facility.
Council members voted 5-2 to approve a resolution allowing the city manager to negotiate a contract for architectural services for the animal services building project.
Councilman J.P. Sanchez and Councilman Jesus Lopez Jr. voted
Tuesday’s meeting, telling them a new animal services facility is needed. Ramirez called
the city’s existing facility “horrendous,” adding it nearly did not pass its most recent state
inspection. (Photo by Karen Gleason)
against the measure, with Sanchez saying he believes the city needs to concentrate on the city’s water and wastewater infrastructure needs.
At the start of the discussion about the resolution, Sanchez said, “Mayor, I have an issue with this. The city is in a financial situation with our water and wastewater, and right now, it’s not the time to proceed with a new animal shelter.”
Sanchez added, “It would be financially irresponsible of me – and I’m just talking about myself – to go ahead and approve this project. . . We don’t need to be borrowing unnecessary money. I’m not saying that this is unnecessary, but this is more of a luxury. This is an animal shelter. We need to concentrate on the important issues, which is our water and wastewater at this particular time.”
Sanchez said he would like to see the city return the $4,266,200 it borrowed for the animal facility “to get it off the books and prepare ourselves for the more important issues that we have in front of us.”
“So with that said, I would like to make a resolution to authorize and direct the city manager to cancel this project altogether and to return the money,” Sanchez said.
Lopez seconded the motion Sanchez seemed to have made.
City Secretary Mari Acosta pointed out, “I’m sorry, but that particular topic is not on the agenda. It could be a recommendation to bring that back later. The topic is this resolution, and you can choose to deny this resolution, table it or approve it.”
“I will make a resolution to deny it,” Sanchez said, adding, “For the reasons that I stated.”
Lopez again gave the second.
Mayor Al Arreola then asked Scot Carcasi, the city’s operations and compliance auditor, how long staff had been working on a new animal services facility.
Carcasi replied he had returned to work for the city in October 2022, and one of his first projects had been to consult with the city’s animal services staff on facility needs.
Assistant City Finance Director Roxy Soto said the funds for the new facility, $4.2 million, had been borrowed in Fiscal Year 2022-2023.
Councilwoman Carmen Gutierrez, Carcasi, Assistant City Manager Manuel Chavez and Assistant Finance Director Roxy Soto then spent some time discussing the funds that had been borrowed for the animal facility and whether or not they could indeed be returned without penalty and whether or not the funds could be reallocated to another city project.
Chavez, who was sitting in for City Manager Shawna Burkhart, reiterated, “As Roxy mentioned, as long as it’s a property tax project, you could shift (funds) from one project to another. You can’t shift from property tax (-supported projects) to the water, because that’s funded from a different revenue source.”
Gutierrez said she recalled a council discussion in which direction was given to staff to reduce the cost of the animal services facility, and city staff members agreed those were the instructions with which they were working.
Gutierrez and Lopez also spent some time talking with City Purchasing Agent Luis Menchaca about procurement procedures for professional services.
DRPD Chief Frank Ramirez then addressed the council.
About five months ago, Ramirez was placed in charge of overseeing the city’s animal control department. He said he had no experience with animal control and immediately began researching and reaching out to various animal shelter organizations around the state.
“They started working with us and I realized pretty quick that they consider us – and they literally said this, in as nice a way that they could – that we were possibly one of the worst shelters in Texas,” Ramirez said.
He said he had visited several facilities in San Antonio and found “shelter designs out there that are more basic than the one we were looking at and a whole, whole, lot cheaper.”
He described his concept for a facility, a barn-type, insulated structure with indoor runs.
“I don’t think we can go without doing this. It’s already terrible over there. It’s only going to get worse. If we put this off again, it’s going to get worse. We almost didn’t pass our state test (inspection),” Ramirez said.
He said, “When the other shelters are trying to help us and give us money, there’s something wrong with that, and if you go in there (the city’s animal control facility), it’s horrendous. You can’t take the smell for three minutes. It’s just that bad. It’s an old facility.”
Ramirez said he believed the city could use the site of the old facility, building the new facility adjacent to it “for a fraction of the price.”
Ramirez told the council upgrading the city’s animal services facility will also make the city eligible for assistance from animal welfare groups from around the state and the nation.
“Once we get our kill rate down, and we’ve been doing well, we’ve been getting it down, we’ll be eligible for a lot more grants. . . Science Diet (pet food company) will (charge) us 18 cents a pound for food, as opposed to the way we’re buying it, for full (price). A lot of these retail stores, if we get our kill rate low enough, they’ll give us the food for free. There’s a lot of incentives out there, the only thing is, our kill rate is so high, they won’t touch us,” Ramirez said.
“I think we can get this price down. . . It’s not going to be $4 million,” the chief added.
Ramirez discussed additional details of plans he has formulated and afterward, Arreola asked Sanchez if he wanted to withdraw his motion and postpone consideration of the item. Sanchez said he did not wish to withdraw his earlier motion.
After some additional discussion, council then voted 2-5 on Sanchez’s motion, with Sanchez and Lopez voting for the motion and Arreola, Gutierrez, Mayor Pro-tem Jim DeReus, Councilwoman Ernestina “Tina” Martinez and Councilman Randy Quiñones voting against the motion.
Gutierrez then made a motion to proceed with the resolution as presented to the council.
Martinez gave the second, and the council voted 5-2 in favor of Gutierrez’s motion.
Gutierrez, Martinez, Arreola, DeReus and Quiñones voted in favor of the motion, and Sanchez and Lopez voted against it.
The writer can be reached at delriomagnoliafan@gmail.com.
