The report breaks
the cost allocation method into two parts: Animal Shelter Services and
Animal Control Services. The methods were data driven, based on the number
of animal intakes, animal control dispatches and actual costs for both.
For the Animal
Shelter portion of the allocation, we ask municipalities to share in
$101,818 (30 percent) of the Shelter’s total $339,393 in variable expenses.
Variable expenses include hourly wages, veterinary costs, food, bedding, and
supplies that are directly driven by the number of animals that come into
the Shelter. The County did NOT ask the municipalities to contribute a penny
to the additional $360,910 in fixed costs of the Shelter’s operations.
Each municipality
was allocated a portion of the $101,818 based on the number of intakes that
came from each. Intakes include owner surrenders, seizures, animal bite
quarantines, public drop-off of strays, and strays collected by Animal
Control.
For the Animal
Control portion of the allocation, we ask that the municipalities share in
$59,223 of the total Animal Control budget of $233,363. The total budget
only includes salaries, taxes and benefits of three full-time Animal Control
Officers and a portion of the Shelter Director. It does NOT include the
costs of the purchase and maintenance of three animal control vehicles. The
$59,223 is the salary, taxes and benefits on one Animal Control Officer
position that we determined could be eliminated if the County did NOT
provide Animal Control services to the municipalities.
Each municipality
was allocated a portion of the $59,223 based on the number of Animal Control
dispatches to each. Animal Control dispatches are when an officer is
dispatched by the E911 Center or requested by a municipal police department.
The data used does not reflect the 948 phone calls received by Animal
Control that did not result in the dispatch of an officer.
The new data driven
cost allocation methodology is an extremely fair way to determine municipal
contract fees. By using this method, the new annual contract fee for the
Town of Chesterton is $27,347, a decrease of $3,773 annually, for a total
savings of $11,319 over the three year contract period.
The $27,347 that
Chesterton is being asked to contribute is only 2.9 percent of our total
annual $935,659 budget for both animal shelter and animal control services.
In comparison, the County pays $777,119, or 83 percent of the total annual
budget.
Additionally, we
now have a new state of the art shelter that our citizens can be proud of.
By combining a $1 million private contribution with $2.25 million in
hospital interest proceeds, this achievement was made without using taxpayer
funds or contributions from municipalities.
The Commissioners
believe that working together with our cities and towns in a collaborative
effort to provide animal control and animal shelter services better serves
our citizens in a more cost effective manner.