10/23/2024
Another Update on TLC’s Bid to Manage the Conroe Animal Shelter
We were under the impression that the bid had already been rejected due to a conversation with the PD. Evidently, the vote is tomorrow, and they held a workshop today. We didn’t attend the Council Workshop this week because the last time we attended, we were told they couldn’t speak with us because we are a vendor. The entire interaction was very awkward, so we didn’t think we were welcome at this meeting. We did watch online though and another 3 items came up today. These items were never brought to our attention to discuss with anyone.
They claimed that TLC required that we have no oversight. This statement is 100% false. TLC welcomes oversight. We will not have a municipality dictate private, internal policies meaning adoption policy, transport policy, etc. We never stated anywhere in the proposal that we would not welcome inspection of the shelter. Oversight to us means, the animals are being cared for properly and we are breaking no laws, but the city should not intervene with other policies. The statement was taken totally out of context.
Here is the statement from our proposal: “TLC’s policies are set up for maximum life-saving efforts. The City will not intervene or dictate TLC policy unless it is in violation of a law.”
They also brought up that the ordinance changes may violate state law, and we put a timeline on them. First, the ordinance changes have already taken place in other parts of Texas. We are not worried about them violating State law as they have already been tested. The timeline was in the proposal if they wanted us to take over the shelter by December 1st. The City’s RFP asked for whoever was bidding to take over immediately. There is some important groundwork that needs to be done before we could take over. Because they have dragged their feet for so long, we would likely have to push back until January 1 anyways. It takes time to hire and train employees. TLC does not make rash decisions without thinking of the consequences.
Here are the ordinance changes we are asking for in the proposal:
“The establishment of a Community Cat Program.
The allowance of finder fosters after a found pet has been photographed and input into online websites for reuniting pet owners with missing pets.
No stray holds on medical cases or injured animals.
No stray holds on animals under 4 months of age.
No stray hold on visibly pregnant animals.
Incorporate breeding licenses if puppies are to be sold.
Change the rabies tag/collar rule. Cats lose collars. Add micro-chip.”
The Council insinuated that TLC would abuse funding. Since there are no programs at the shelter, we asked for us to be able to shift funds between programs as we develop them. For example, if we were to get grant funding for free services to TNR cats, we would use that money for another program to help the shelter. All funds would be used for shelter programs. We also intend to write grants, and we had intended to run some low-cost public services to offset the cost. Grants will take a year, and we don’t know what kind of revenue a clinic will generate. There’s a lot of catch up we will have to do on the shelter animals, and we don’t know how long that will take. We may be so busy with the shelter animals that we may not be able to get to public animals for some time. We offered to reevaluate the contract in a year and hopefully reduce the cost to the City.
Here are the statements concerning funding from our proposal:
“Through no fault of the City or the PD, we are not confident in the data provided to Texas Litter Control. We have based our budget on averages. It will also take about a year to establish “credit” with funders in the sheltering world. I would like to revisit the budget in September 2025. My hopes are that we can lower the cost to the city and increase funding through services, grants, and donations.”
“Texas Litter Control reserves the right to shift funding within the above provided budget. Funding will be used to create programs, provide enhancements to the shelter, provide lower cost and free services to City of Conroe residents, etc. as we see fit. As we decrease intake numbers, funding will be shifted to programs. For example, as the cat intake goes down, these funds will be used for spay/neuter of Community Cats and targeted spay/neuter.”
“Texas Litter Control will be responsible for the operating costs. We will retain any adoption fees, intake fees, and revenue from public spay/neuter and wellness services to offset the difference between what is contracted with the City of Conroe and the actual costs. Texas Litter Control will also administer any grants awarded to our organization for helping the community and shelter pets.”
It would have been really nice to have been able to sit down with the committee and go through the proposal with them so they could better understand it, but it feels like minds were already made up. We received one phone call from one member of the PD and he brought up only the 5 points we explained before.
The impression we got today is that the City is not willing to get with the times. They will likely put the ACO who was in charge of oversight for Care Corp over the shelter and it will be business as usual.
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