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Herriman consolidates community and animal services; contracts ALJ and seeks budget amendment
Summary
City staff told the council they merged community and animal services, opened a shelter, created an administrative law court and contracted Guardian Law for ALJ services; staff requested a modest budget amendment after ALJ costs exceeded initial estimates.
Herriman — City staff updated the council on Feb. 12 about a reorganization of community services and animal services, the opening of a shelter and steps to establish an in‑house administrative law process to handle code, animal and parking appeals.
S2 said the units were combined under a single community services brand and that Marcus Beckstead will supervise both areas while Chelsea Torres fills a new administrative role managing shelter operations and court case administration. "We've opened a shelter and we've added an administrative law court to our portfolio of things to do," S2 said, describing cross‑training so animal services and code enforcement staff can fill in for each other.
Staff reported they contracted Guardian Law to provide an administrative law judge. S2 said Guardian Law's Greg Christiansen provides the service at materially lower cost than other candidates and that the city’s initial ALJ budget of $10,000 was nearly exhausted early in implementation. "We set our first budget for the ALJ for $10,000…we spent $9,200," S2 said; staff later reported current ALJ spending was about $14,000 and estimated an additional ~$5,000 would cover the rest of the fiscal year.
Staff explained the ALJ approach is compliance‑focused: hearings aim to secure remediation rather than pursue criminal prosecution, and administrative fees and fines partly recover costs. S2 said the city has resolved roughly 50 of 85 encroachment matters and described monthly MDT (multi‑department) meetings to coordinate building, planning, licenses and enforcement to address cross‑jurisdictional issues more efficiently.
Staff requested a budget amendment to cover near‑term ALJ costs and said they will continue monitoring recoveries and discuss potential adjustments to administrative fees if needed. Council members acknowledged the efficiency gains from consolidation but cautioned about the perception of enforcement fees and emphasized outreach and communication with residents.
Next steps: staff will bring a budget amendment to the next council meeting to cover ALJ costs and continue to return compliance updates to the council.
