TITLE
Title
ADD ANIMAL SERVICES POSITIONS TO SUPPORT SHELTER OPERATIONS
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SPONSOR
Sponsor
Jorge Ortega
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BACKGROUND
Background
Guilford County Animal Services is requesting the addition of five new positions and funding for contract security at the shelter to support operations and improve the security/safety of staff and patrons. These positions are anticipated to cost an additional $90,147 annually ($67,610 in FY 2019-20) including reductions from contract services (Malachi House, est. $305,000) and the reclassification of an existing FTE.
The new positions requested are:
1) One Shelter Veterinarian ($81,436 annually) to provide additional medical treatment capacity and 7 days / week medical coverage; this additional veterinary medical capacity is anticipated to reduce the amount the shelter spends for outside medical services, especially for initial evaluation and treatment of animals brought into the shelter, and maintain the current level of care provided.
2) One Customer Service Manager ($58,563 annually) to provide additional management coverage for customer service functions including adoption and checkout as well as opening and closing the cashier stations, assisting other staff, and generally ensuring a high-quality customer experience. Currently, other managers must work significant additional hours to ensure coverage when the shelter is open to the public and are beyond their capacity.
3) One Senior Office Specialist ($47,926 annually) to provide administrative office support for current staff including assisting with tracking and receiving orders, managing invoices and other payments, receiving public payments for animal control citations, and generally provide additional administrative support capacity for the shelter.
4) One Foster/Placement Coordinator ($44,704 annual) to improve placement and management of animals in foster care. Currently foster availability exceeds the capacity of current staff to place and manage animals in foster.
5) Contract security staff ($46,679 annually) to provide security for the shelter to protect staff and the facility, and to ensure guests have a safe, positive experience. The need for security has been demonstrated by past instances of inappropriate behavior in the shelter lobby and other parts of the building.
6) One Animal Cleaning Technician to provide additional full-time animal care and cleaning capacity to help bring the staffing capacity and ratio of staff per animal in line with best practices for animal shelters. The cost of this additional cleaning position will be covered by staff reclassifying the existing Shelter Operations Manager position to an animal cleaning technician position for a net addition of two animal cleaning technicians with no additional funds required.
Animal Services also anticipates hiring part-time staff to cover 8-10 shifts for animal and kennel cleaning at an anticipated cost of approximately $122,270 annually ($11.05 per hour plus the County's tax contributions; same rate as full-time staff in the same position), work that is currently being done under contract by Malachi House personnel. These part-time staff plus the two full-time positions being added through board action (1 position) and reclass (1 position) will allow staff to both improve capacity for cleaning and animal care, and to get closer to the animals to staff ratio recommended by shelter best practices.
The cost of these additional positions will be significantly off-set by the unexpended funds originally budgeted for the contract with Malachi House II for facility cleaning and animal care with approximately $305,000 annually shifting to fund these new positions plus additional county part-time staff as needed. The anticipated annual net cost of the new positions including savings from reclassification is $395,147 annually for a total annual net cost of $90,147 after the reduced expense for Malachi House. For FY 2019-20, the total net cost will be reduced to $67,610 (including one-time costs for security radios) because the positions are being added three months into the fiscal year. This additional cost will be managed in FY 2019-20 by the routine reallocation of lapsed salaries funds from vacant positions across the county.
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BUDGET IMPACT
Budget Impact
NO ADDITIONAL COUNTY DOLLARS REQUIRED
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REQUESTED ACTION
Requested Action
Approve the addition of 5 positions for Animal Services, including one veterinarian, one customer service manager, one senior office specialist, one foster/placement coordinator, one animal facility cleaning technician (to be funded by lapsed salaries from the reclassification of the existing operations manager position), and the addition of contract security coverage to provide on-site security resources for the shelter and staff; and acknowledge that Animal Services will hire additional part-time staff to supplement these full-time positions, especially for animal care and cleaning, to achieve or move closer to best practice standards for animal shelter staffing.
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