Council to respond to grand jury report

By Donna Beth Weilenman
Staff Reporter

Benicia City Council will respond Tuesday to a Solano County grand jury Report that criticized elements of animal control in the county and specifically in Benicia.

The report was sent May 28 to Sheriff-Coroner Tom Ferrara, Benicia police Chief Andrew Bidou and the mayors of each of the county’s cities, including Benicia Mayor Elizabeth Patterson.

Each has been required to write a response to Presiding Judge Paul Beeman.

Benicia must address two of the report’s four findings, Bidou wrote City Manager Brad Kilger July 2. The grand jury found that animal control functions in Solano County “are fragmented and confusing to the public.”

It recommended that the sheriff’s office provide all animal control services for every city as well as unincorporated areas in Solano County, using money from dog licensing and funds being paid by cities to private companies for animal control contracts.

Another finding stated that the Benicia’s Corporation Yard on East Second Street has inadequate holding pens for housing animals. The grand jury recommended that no animal be housed at the corporation yard.

Besides Solano County Sheriff’s Office, which operates in the unincorporated areas, Vallejo contracts with the Humane Society of the North Bay for animal control, Benicia has one animal control officer, and the other cities contract with a private agency for those services.

“The public has expressed confusion over who provides animal control services, where animals are sheltered and who to call to claim lost pets or retrieve deceased pets from public thoroughfares,” the report said.

In a letter dated July 17, Kilger wrote Beeman that Benicia disagrees with the grand jury recommendation that the sheriff’s office handle all animal control services for all the county’s cities and the unincorporated areas.

“The city of Benicia has its own animal control officer and does not believe that its residents are confused about animal control functions,” Kilger wrote.

“Animals rarely end up in another city. Having the temporary canine kennels in the city of Benicia allows residents to recover their animals easier than having to drive to Fairfield as proposed by the grand jury,” he wrote.

The Benicia Corporation Yard has temporary holding pens, the report found. Those cages are “inadequate in size and lacking proper shelter from nature’s elements,” it said.

Animals usually are confined there no longer than 48 hours, after which they are taken to the Humane Society of the North Bay shelter in Vallejo, and are not under the control of the Solano County Sheriff’s Office.

Kilger replied that the city disagrees that animals shouldn’t be housed at the Corporation Yard.

He wrote that the confinement kennels there were improved last May: a new corrugated aluminum, insulated roof covers both kennels, turbine roof vents provide circulation and eliminate hot air, and lattice walls allows additional air circulation. Shade on the kennel’s west side has been installed, he wrote.

Additional protection for the dogs’ food area has been added, Kilger wrote, and each kennel has a dedicated watering system. Dog houses are elevated off the concrete floor, and each dog house has clean bedding, he wrote.

Of the two other findings, the grand jury noted that 54 percent of Solano County’s veterinarians don’t report rabies vaccinations to Solano County Animal Care Services through its contractor, Pet Data. That violates one of the county’s ordinances, and the grand jury recommended that the sheriff enforce that law.

The other finding that doesn’t require a Benicia response is that 72 percent of dogs in Solano County aren’t licensed, another ordinance violation as well as an estimated $1.5 million hit to the Solano County Animal Care Services budget. Again, the grand jury urged the sheriff to enforce county law.

Solano County Animal Care Services was a division of its General Services Department prior to July 2011, after which it was shifted to the sheriff’s responsibility.

Solano County Animal Care Services operates a shelter at 2510 Claybank Road, Fairfield, and it’s responsible for tracking rabies vaccination, dog licensing and enforcement of state and county laws about animal control, as well as care and housing of stray, quarantined and impounded animals.

In 2012, the sheriff’s office issued an administrative order that set as a goal the adoption, rather than euthanization, of as many abandoned animals as possible.

The shelter needs to be renovated and expanded, in part so it’s less confusing to the public, the grand jury report noted. The county Board of Supervisors has earmarked $5.4 million for that purpose. The shelter will have 54 new inside and outside kennels, upgrades to existing kennels and expansion of the spay and neuter clinic. Construction should begin this year.

The sheriff’s office also will examine its contract with Pet Data to assure that its data reporting meets county regulations.

In other matters before the Council Tuesday, the panel will decide whether to extend a contract with Bureau Veritas for building official, plan review and inspection services connected with the proposed Valero crude-by-rail project.

The resolution on which the Council would vote limits the cost to $160,000.

A portion of the building permit fees for the refinery’s crude-by-rail project would underwrite expanded contract costs. According to the report by Community Development staff members, $182,000 would be used to cover the increase in the contract, according to a community development report.

Benicia has used contract staff from Bureau Veritas since 2004, and its annual contract for services normally doesn’t exceed $75,000 each year, the report said.

The rail project is one of the reasons for the request, because the plan review and inspections would cost more than the usual annual amount the city pays its contractor, according to the report.

The Council also will consider accepting work done for a raw water transmission line cathodic protection system rehabilitation project.

Public Works Director Melissa Morton wrote July 5 that the transmission line project extended from Lopes Road in Cordelia to the Benicia Water Treatment Plant, and replaced two of the six rectifiers that protect buried water pipelines from corrosion.

The final cost is $119,923.61, and there’s enough money in the Major Capital Projects Fund and Water Capital Connection Project to pay for the work.

All these topics are on the consent calendar, and may be decided in a single vote, unless a member of the public or the Council requests further discussion or a separate vote.

The meeting starts at 7 p.m. at the Council Chamber of City Hall, 250 East L St.