Council presses Humane Society contract as city seeks 15% cuts; staff and HSPPR propose two options

City staff told the Pueblo City Council on Sept. 22 that negotiations with the Humane Society of the Pikes Peak Region (HSPPR) remain unresolved as the mayor’s office presses non‑departmental budget requests to a 15% reduction.

Melissa Cook, director of the Department of Housing and Citizen Services, presented the city’s financial review of HSPPR’s municipal contract and said staff and the Humane Society have held multiple meetings but had not agreed on revenue allocation and which services constitute core city functions.

Cook described the contract as a joint city/county venture that splits costs historically as 60% city and 40% county. She said the city owns the land where the shelter sits and the county owns the physical building. “The way that the city and the county would split the contract,” she said, “60% is to be paid by the city and 40% is to be paid for by the county.”

City staff said a central point of contention is that HSPPR retains adoption and shelter revenue on HSPPR’s books rather than crediting any portion of that revenue back to the municipal contract. “You can see that we were not credited back any of the revenue for that associated, expense,” Cook said, describing HSPPR’s fiscal year June 2024–May 2025 financials.

Staff pre…