Committee advances ordinance to create Metropolitan Animal Care and Control Commission with narrow amendment

The Rules, Confirmations & Public Elections Committee voted to advance BL 2025-1061, an ordinance to amend Title 2 of the Metropolitan Code to establish a Metropolitan Animal Care and Control Commission.

A committee member moved a narrow amendment that removed two words from the draft to ensure the new commission would not be involved in the “operations” of the Board of Health. The amendment’s mover said they had discussed the change with Dr. Franklin and that the language needed to come out. The amendment was moved, seconded and passed. “We were not supposed to be, as a commission, involved in the operations of the board of health,” the amendment mover said.

After the amendment was adopted, committee members discussed the ordinance and the sponsor’s outreach to the Board of Health. One committee member who had attended a recent Board of Health meeting described a four-member quorum that provided feedback to the director and produced a letter from the board chair that informed committee deliberations.

The committee then voted on BL 2025-1061 as amended. The chair recorded the final outcome as a pass. The ordinance will move forward to the next stage as the committee recorded it “passes 6 to 0 to 0.”

No changes to the ordinance’s stated effective dates were provided during the committee discussion. Questions raised in the debate focused on the commission’s intended role and its relationship to existing public-health structures; committee members asked staff and the sponsor for clarifications to ensure the new commission’s responsibilities would not duplicate or improperly assume operational control of the Board of Health.

The chair indicated the ordinance will advance consistent with the committee’s recorded vote.