Three months after the Auburn animal shelter opened at 4910 A St. SE, the number of animal licenses sold has fallen behind where the City had expected them to be by now— far behind.
In plain speak, that means the City should have sold about 1,000 licenses by now instead of the 630 it has actually sold, not even halfway on any month so far.
The news that Darcie Hanson, the City’s administrative and business services manager, brought last Monday to members of the City’s Municipal Services Committee, was a stiff reality check.
“Wow,” Committee Chair Bill Peloza said under his breath. “Holy smokes.”
As everyone at the meeting, knew, the numbers need to be higher because pet licensing covers the cost of the City’s contract with the Auburn Valley Humane Society (AVHS), which runs the shelter on behalf of the City. To cover the cost of AVHS’ contract, Hanson said, the City would have to have a total of about 8,400 to 8,500 licenses by the end of the year.
Without some sharp turnaround, that goal could be slipping out of reach.
To date, the City has taken in $18,000 and paid AVHS about $120,000.
“We are behind now … and this could get more expensive to the City than we thought,” said Mayor Pete Lewis. “That’s where we are right now. We’re doing all we can. We’ve been working on the marketing site, and doing some other things … but the red warning flag is up right now.”
As the City’s contract with PetData doesn’t require it to provide one month’s numbers until the 15th of the following month, Hanson said, she didn’t have the first full three months of numbers, and won’t until Monday. She will present the complete first quarter at the second meeting of the month.
That means there is time for a March uptick as residents with pets, perhaps unaccustomed to the new system, begin in higher numbers to license their pets with the City instead of the county.
In addition, PetData’s numbers represented a comparison with the county’s 2012 numbers, a particularly active, aggressive year for King County Animal Control licensing.
“We do have a total of 6,844 licenses on record, which is an uptick from the end-of-year King County number, so we’re up a tad bit, but not nearly where we want to be, obviously. We don’t have March data yet, so that number will be higher,” Hanson said.
City Finance Director Shelley Coleman suggested that the City ask more of PetData per its contract, that is, have it sell licenses at veterinary clinics and follow up on rabies’ vaccinations.
The AVHS has sold about one-sixth of the total number of licenses sold, at the shelter.
Hanson said PetData sends a notice to pet owners 30 days before the license expires, and after a second notice it sends the information to code enforcement officers for followup.
