Agenda - Council - 08/23/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Police Chief Katers said that it was actually a price increase. North Metro Animal Control was an Andover business that went out of business, but Ramsey had to contract back with the City of Anoka to board animals that they contain and it is a higher cost. He explained they were saving around $4,000 a year by utilizing North Metro Animal Control. Councilmember Specht mentioned the capital requests and asked if Police Chief Katers had to choose between the officer versus the drone aerial requests, are there certain things he thinks could be pushed off that are not an immediate need. Police Chief Katers said there are some items in the capital requests that they do not have, but they would like to have. He said there is a use for drones but the department could get by without them. As far as the personnel, he would ask, based on the calls for services, that they continue to hire police officers. He said the CSOs help because they take calls from the officers so that the officers can attend to the calls that require a licensed police officer. Councilmember Howell asked how this compares to what surrounding cities do for their animal control. Police Chief Katers explained this varies greatly from city to city and cities that do have CSOs use them for animal control. There are some cities that contract out but there are drawbacks to this. If the animal containment service was in East Bethel, their residents would have to go all the way to East Bethel to pick up the animal. He added that there are not a lot of these contracted services available. He said that the City would have to pay for unclaimed animals with the contracted service. He went on to say that they try to limit the amount of time that an animal is in their containment service. With social media, they are able to get the information out about the found animal much quicker. They said that they have not euthanized an animal in quite a few years due to adoptions. The City would have to pay the euthanization fee if they did have to use euthanasia. Councilmember Woestehoff asked if the contract with Anoka was with the City or the County. Police Chief Katers said that it was with the City of Anoka. He said that they have kennels and Ramsey is the only city that contracts with the City of Anoka and the rest of their space is used by Anoka. Ramsey is able to rent two kennel spots from the City of Anoka. Councilmember Woestehoff followed up by asking if it was the County, could the sheriff's department be contracted to handle this. Police Chief Katers said that it is just the City. He noted there was a suggestion from the owner of North Metro Animal Control, that the County as a whole look at offering these services in some regional capacity. Acting Mayor Riley asked if Police Chief Katers could give the Council some number for justification. City Council Work Session / August 8, 2022 Page 10 of 19