Hamilton health department proposes 33% animal-control budget increase to add part-time attendants, staff say

The Hamilton health department on April 16 presented a 2025 animal-control budget that staff said includes a roughly 33% increase driven largely by salary step increases, added part-time attendant funding and a newly budgeted volunteer coordinator.

"The vast majority is gonna be contractual: raises and steps," said Chris, a health department staff member, explaining the largest drivers behind the increase. Staff also said the budget adds roughly $27,000 for part-time attendants on top of previous part-time funding and includes funding for a volunteer-coordinator position that has been filled this year.

Council members repeatedly pressed staff for a clearer accounting of how the part-time and overtime lines add up to a $221,000 overall increase in animal-control salaries and wages. "There's a $221,000 increase. I would just like an answer because 3 part timers doesn't add up to that," a council member said during the discussion.

Staff answered that part of the increase reflects across-the-board salary and step adjustments that finance prorates into the salary-and-wage totals, and that some last year's budget lines were understated because of vacancies and partial-year budgeting. "Sometimes we pull out monies from the budget. We don't budget for the full year because we have a vacancy," Thomas, a finance staff member, told the council.

Health staff described an operational plan to use new part-time attendants as a flexible pool to free animal-control officers (ACOs) for field work. "The idea is to free up some of the ACO time... right now they currently have them doing a lot of that attendant work as well mixed in with all of the other duties that they do," Chris said.

Staff also said the part-time attendants can perform dual roles: their primary title may be attendant but some have ACO licenses and can be paid at the ACO rate when filling ACO shifts. "They get paid at the ACO rate. During those hours, they're functioning as... an ACO," Chris said.

Council members raised concerns about ACO coverage, on-call hours and overtime, and asked staff to provide a clear reconciliation of last year's budget, the requested numbers, and the recommended 2025 totals. Kathy, a recreation/senior-services staff member, and Thomas acknowledged a missing requested-amount line for the salary-and-wage printout and said staff would follow up with a detailed explanation.

Shelter operations and adoption effort improvements were discussed as part of the animal-control review. Council members asked whether the new hires and volunteer coordinator would increase dog-walking and public visibility of adoptable animals. Chris said the goal is weekly walks for every dog and better community outreach once the volunteer coordinator and part-time pool are fully operating.

Staff and council also discussed increasing social-media posting and using paid advertising to boost adoptions. "We have a small advertising budget that we can work with as well," Chris said, while noting administrative billing requirements for some ad platforms can be cumbersome.

The meeting did not include a formal vote on the animal-control budget; staff said they would supply the requested salary-line reconciliations and additional detail to the council before final budget adoption.

What happens next: staff committed to provide a line-by-line explanation of the salary-and-wage changes that produced the 33% increase and to return with numbers that reconcile last year's actuals, last year's budget, and the proposed 2025 request.