10/26/1977 Meeting - Laserfiche WebLink

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. than Springfield's, but not on the issue of legality. He said the philosophical issue is how City Council wants Tri-Agency to operate. . Mr. Delay wondered about the recently adopted resolution; Assistant Manager said it was an attempt to say the spay-neuter program was part of the original agreement, but did not include a sundown clause. The request before Council today was to authorize Manager to exercise option on property for the pound and a spay/neuter facility. He said the basic question was whether Council wanted to stay in the Tri-Agency. The financial success partially depends on Springfield participating, noting if only Lane County and Eugene built the pound, 30 percent of the financing, which would come from Springfield, would not be available. He noted Council should recognize separating the pound from the spay- neuter program. If Springfield withdraws from Tri-Agency, then in building the pound, Eugene would have to change its budget process. Mr. Obie expressed concern regarding Springfield's lack of cooperation in this matter. He felt Eugene and Lane County should proceed without Springfield, unless Springfield wants to participate financially. He did not feel Eugene should be involved if Springfield were partici- pating administratively but not paying their fair share. He said the only alternative he could see would be for Lane County to take over the pound and the spay-neuter clinic itself. Mr. Williams said he had the impression the spay-neuter clinic was a small budget portion of the operation. He wondered if the spay-neuter clinic were eliminated from the pound, whether the jurisdictions could still go ahead. Assistant Manager said the budget allowed for $300,000 e for the Tri-Agency and $60,000-$70,000 for the spay-neuter clinic. He said the difficulty with Lane County and Springfield in this pro- gram is the lack of commitment for the spay-neuter clinic. He noted at the time the service was provided only by Lane County, it was very unsatisfactory, and that led to the establishment of the Tri-Agency. Manager noted there was more to the issue than the dollar figures. He said the future expansion or decline of the animal population and how much the citizens pay for spay-neutering under this, as opposed to private veterinarians were also considerations. Mr. Williams wondered if Council were to decide to go ahead with the pound and eliminate the spay-neuter clinic, whether that would have any significant influence or change any decisions as to how the pound was going to be built. Assistant Manager replied it would change the building design and would delay construction because of the costs. Ms. Smith expressed concern that a bigger question was involved than just allowing Springfield to participate in the program. She said there was a question in terms of the relationship between the three jurisdictions of other metropolitan programs that would be coming up. She felt it would be a mistake to break down communications between the three. Mr. Bradley said that was the understanding of the Policy Board and the reason the commitment was made to allow 10/26/77--12 - gn