City of Fullerton, OC Animal Care preparing to Euthanize Your Wallet

Still have any money left over after the state gas tax increases (thanks, Josh Newman), the likely loss of SALT deductions in Congress (thanks, Ed Royce), plus all the state, local and national income, property and sales taxes, licenses, and fees we already pay? Well, too bad, because OC Animal Care and the City of Fullerton are cooking up a new scheme to take even more of your money. And it all comes down to the first law of holes, government style: when you find yourself in a hole, keep digging and hope nobody notices.

On Tuesday, December 19, 2017, the City Council will again be voting on substantial fee increases, this time for the services provided by OC Animal Care. If passed, the licensing cost for a neutered dog will be $51 per year, and the per day impound fee for any lost dog or cat will be increased to $136, plus an initial $205 impound fee on top of the daily fee, and so on; the full list is available here.

According to OC Animal Care, the fee increases are necessary because their current operating budget is only enough to pay for half of the services they provide (with the other half coming out of the participating cities’ general fund).

This shortfall is blamed on the recent decisions in Garden Grove, Stanton, Laguna Hills and Rancho Santa Margarita to contract with alternate animal care facilities. However, the problem is not that these cities left OC Animal Care, but that OC Animal Care’s services are already so expensive that it was in their financial best interest to leave the program in the first place. For example, the City of Garden Grove contracted with Orange County Humane Society in Huntington Beach after their annual payments to OC Animal Care increased from $729,000 to $1.3 million in just four years, and the City believes they will save over $8 million over the next ten years thanks to the switch.

So why hasn’t Fullerton joined these other cities? An opportunity did exist to opt out back in May 17, 2016, when OC Animal Care needed its members to commit to participate in the construction of a new shelter on the Tustin Air Base property.

However, the City Council squandered the opportunity in a 4-1 vote, placing the city on the hook for its share of the construction costs for the new facility without even placing an RFP out to private animal care providers. Even if we were to back out now, we might be on the hook for the cost of construction of this shelter. Oh, and Fullerton currently has an evergreen contract with OC Animal Care because, of course we do, so any effort to extricate ourselves from this failed government program will be complicated to say the least.

Keep the Evergreen Contract or the dog gets it!

But enough is enough. It is time to stop excusing poorly run government programs and to start demanding that we get our money’s worth.

17 Replies to “City of Fullerton, OC Animal Care preparing to Euthanize Your Wallet”

  1. FFFF is so pathetic! I’m not sure if more that 3-4 people actually read this lame a$$ blog! You would assume based on the comments or lack of comments that FFFF would just fold because NO one cares what you have to say!! It’s very pathetic, actually sad! I would bet that the same sorry a$$ 3-5 people will comment over and over again to make it look like there
    are actually more readers but we know that’s not true!! Enjoy you sorry pathetic FFFFers! 🙂

  2. We don’t need to raise fees or impose new taxes.

    The financial situation in Fullerton is excellent! In fact, we’ve accelerated our road repair program. We have excellent stewards who are the very best in the business.

    Everything is awesome when you’re part of our team.

    1. Jennifer, have you taken a trip up Chapman Ave (west of Euclid lately)? accelerated road repair? We’re just lucky it hasn’t rained in the last few months. Maybe your piece was just “tongue in cheek”?

  3. Say, isn’t that stalwart fiscal conservative Shawn nelson in charge of OC Animal Control? Is he asleep like Norby always was or is he just that incompetent?

    1. Shawn Nelson. A snail without a shell. Slug. I can’t think of a single accomplishment at the County (or in Fullerton) and he’s been there building up a huge pension for almost 8 years.

        1. He never cared about Fullerton at all. Remember when he tried to put a homeless shelter on State College right next to an elementary school? All he cared about was making himself look good to the bureacrats at the County. And get a big pension.

          1. His goal was to just get sompthing going on which was better than doing nothing when it came to the homeless issue. Unfortunatly the untimly demise of a homeless man in Fullerton is what really got the ball rolling on this. The city council had the right to vote State College down which they did. But the wheels had been set in motion on this issue which met Nelsons goal. He seemed to be the only one willing to make a move on this. It was also his goal to shut down the Fullerton Armory When Krammer Place shelter opened in Anaheim which hasn’t happened.

            1. That isn’t correct, Streets. Nelson just wanted to show up the housing bureaucrats with what an effective guy he was, and at the same time get Fullerton’s leftwingers like Flory and Keller on his side.

              He could not care less about the homeless.

  4. $51 to own a dog or cat? Have they lost their minds?
    So if my unlicensed dog gets caught I have to pay $392 to have him released. I might just as well tell the kids he’s moved to a farm.

    Time to get a chicken, at least until they take that right away from me.

  5. I have to wonder if those fees are even legal. A California government is not allowed to charge more in fees than it costs to provide whatever service is being provided. What does registering a dog cost? A couple bucks? You can cage and feed a dog for what, $10 a day?

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