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York County SPCA director tells council shelter contract will rise to $150,000
Summary
At the Sept. 16 York City Council meeting, Steven Martinez, executive director of the York County SPCA, told council members the nonprofit will request a $150,000 municipal contract this year, explaining the service elements the city would be buying and asking the city to participate in municipal working groups.
Steven Martinez, executive director of the York County SPCA, told the York City Council on Sept. 16 that the organization will ask the city to increase its contract to $150,000 this year.
Martinez said the increase will push the contract above the council’s usual review threshold and said he plans to meet individually with council members to go through details.
He framed the SPCA’s municipal work as a government service rather than a donation, saying the organization houses animals for the county, enforces Title 18 cruelty and neglect statutes, conducts investigations in partnership with police, runs an aggressive spay/neuter program and vaccinates animals for zoonotic diseases such as rabies. “We provide an essential service that ensures public health and safety,” Martinez said.
Martinez said demand for services has risen sharply: “We had a 35% increase in stray animals three years ago, 22% the year before, [and] last year an 11% increase,” and that roughly one-third of the shelter’s intake comes from the city. He said the SPCA’s operating budget is “over $5,000,000” and that a $150,000 contract is a small share of total costs.
Martinez described municipal working groups convened to inform the fee structure and said those groups calculated a “bare bones minimum” cost of about $1,200,000 to operate an animal shelter at the most basic level, which he offered as evidence that municipal provision would not be cheaper. “There’s no scenario that anybody can conceive of where government can do it, like run an animal shelter for less than what our contract fees are,” he said.
He concluded by describing the arrangement as a public‑private partnership and encouraged continued city participation in the working groups as the SPCA finalizes its contract request.
The remarks were delivered during the meeting’s public-comment period and were not a formal agenda item. Martinez said he would provide more detailed materials in follow-up meetings with council members.
