City staff meets with the county regarding animal control agreement

Stephanie Kash, the operations manager of Animal Services, spends some time with a dog that was up for adoption at the Marion County Animal Center in Ocala on Dec. 29, 2020. [Bruce Ackerman/Ocala Gazette] 2020.

According to Assistant City Manager Ken Whitehead during a City Council regular meeting on March 15, city staff met with county staff on March 10 regarding a previous agreement made nearly 12 years ago concerning animal control in the city. 

“We had a very good meeting,” Whitehead said. “We discussed the duration of the proposed agreement. We discussed the termination language and level of service. And county staff was conceptually amenable to some of our ideas—most of our ideas.”

The next step, he said, is for city staff to draft a revised agreement for City Manager Sandra Wilson to review, then negotiations will continue from there.

Prior to 2009, the City of Ocala provided animal control services to residents within the city limits. Then, the city sat down with the county and executed an inter-local agreement where Marion County would take over the animal control service in perpetuity. 

The city transferred all of its equipment and staff to the county, as well as paid it a one-time payment of $375,000, according Darren Park, director of Public Works for the city, during a city council work session on Feb. 8.

But recently, the county has circled back to the previous agreement, claiming that its costs to maintain the program have increased and that the previous agreement itself is no longer valid as there is no specified term listed in the agreement’s language.

Looking at options and costs, Park told the city council on Feb. 8 that the city had four options in regards to animal control and negotiations with the county. 

Option one would be to maintain the “status quo” and not do anything, just see what happens. 

Option two would be to assign a new inter-local agreement with the county, meeting them at their terms, which would require the city to pay $288,000 a year—half the first year, 75% the second and the rest by the end of the third year.

Option three would be to bring the animal control program back into the city, which would require the city to purchase equipment, vehicles and hire some FTE (Full Time Equivalent) to cover the service, as well as pay initial start back costs estimated to be about $250,000 (vehicles and equipment) to the bring the service fully back under the city’s umbrella. The annual estimated operating budget would be $580,000 ($300,000 operating plus $280,000 for personnel). 

Ultimately, city staff recommended option four on Feb. 8, which would be to attempt to negotiate revisions to the county’s proposal.