Palm Desert staff outline Riverside County animal-services contract, propose vouchers and data tracking ahead of Aug. 28 action

City staff on Tuesday laid out the details of a proposed three-year animal-services contract with Riverside County and outlined local programs meant to reduce shelter intake and give the city more control over billing and outcomes.

Assistant City Manager Richard Cannone told the City Council the county has moved from intake-based billing to an "outcome-based" model that bills a city for the entire shelter stay of an animal. "This makes much more sense if it's being billed on an outcome," Cannone said, while acknowledging it increases the city's costs.

Cannone said the county's new allocation or "piece of the pie" methodology assigns each city a proportionate slice of total system costs based on three factors: the municipality's impounds, average length of stay and population. He said the county considered an alternate full-cost-sharing model (option A) that would have cost Palm Desert about $331,000 annually but the Board of Supervisors approved option B, which staff estimated would put Palm Desert's sheltering cost in the roughly $200,000–$257,000 range.

Staff said the county is proposing 38 new positions to improve live outcomes and modernize care; Cannone reported the positions were estimated at about $4,560,000 and included that cost in the shelter-rate study rather than field-service rates.

The county's proposed shelter rates would rise about 38% over the three-year period, Cannone said; the first year of the new rates would be phased in for six months (Jan. 1–June 30).

Staff recommended the city adopt the standard field-services plan (Monday–Friday, 7:30 a.m.–5 p.m.) and proposed several local measures to reduce costs and impounds: spay/neuter vouchers through local veterinarians, a streamlined licensing payment system to avoid reimbursements by mail, expanded microchipping paired with GIS-targeted outreach in high-impound neighborhoods, and increased public education and senior-planning workshops. "If animals are microchipped, then we know where to return that dog before it even goes into the shelter," one council member said in support of the microchipping approach.

Cannone also said the county agreed to provide monthly electronic logs of all field pickups, address-level reporting and improved invoicing with trip sheets and ID logs so Palm Desert can validate charges and map where animals are coming from. He said the city had budgeted $620,000 for animal services this year and currently anticipates a surplus of about $100,000 versus earlier projections.

Councilmembers raised multiple questions during the study session: whether the county model removes downward pressure on costs, what options the city has if it declines to participate, and whether county shelters perform parvovirus or rabies testing and how euthanasia or adoptability decisions are made. One councilmember asked staff to require in contract language that the county demonstrate compliance with state requirements, specifically referencing SB 1785 (the Hayden Act) and humane-treatment guidance such as the Asilomar Accord. Cannone said the staff would seek clearer answers and bring contract language and enforcement options back for legal review.

No formal vote was taken at the study session. Cannone said staff will return to City Council on Aug. 28 with a formal action item to consider the three-year contract and that the county would provide representatives for that meeting.