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Animal Services to replace Chameleon with Shelter Buddy; city data to integrate with Power BI
Summary
Animal Services staff told the commission they plan to replace the Chameleon database with Shelter Buddy to consolidate volunteer, foster and shelter records. A targeted go‑live date is May 5 and staff training days are planned prior to launch.
Animal Services briefed the Animal Advisory Commission on a planned replacement of its shelter management software. Jason Garza said the department intends to retire the long-used Chameleon database and adopt a vendor implementation based on the Shelter Buddy platform.
Garza said the replacement is intended to consolidate multiple systems into a single database to improve data integrity and reporting. "Our go live date is targeting May 5," Garza said, and staff training and ‘‘super user’’ sessions are scheduled in the weeks before launch. The new system will integrate with the city's Power BI reporting tools.
Garza told commissioners the change should reduce inconsistencies in historical data, add prompts to ensure required fields are completed and allow the shelter to track medical costs more precisely. The new system is also intended to bridge existing tools that separately track volunteers (Logistics), fosters (GivePulse) and shelter records (Chameleon).
Commissioners asked whether the system would affect AdiPets photo sourcing and listings on external adoption sites. Garza said Shelter Buddy should integrate with AdiPets but he would verify photo-source configuration with the city IT lead. He also said Chameleon will be retained in read-only form for records-retention purposes and to preserve historical data required for public records and long-term records (for example, dog-bite files with statutory retention periods).
Garza said the department expects to keep Chameleon accessible during a transition period in case rollback is necessary but that the vendor migration should allow more consistent reporting and address prior audit findings about data inconsistencies.
Commissioners did not take a vote; they requested follow-up confirming AdiPets photo integration and to receive notice of the training schedule.
