Council kills pet license proposal

In a change in direction, the City Council Tuesday night killed a proposed ordinance that would have required owners of dogs and cats to license their pets with the city each year.

Two weeks ago, on a 5-3 vote, the council approved a first reading of the license ordinance.

However, minor revisions to the ordinance, which had been approved two weeks ago, were significant enough that the council was required to hold a new public hearing and to vote on the revised ordinance as if it were a new one.

On a vote of 4-4 Tuesday night, though, the council deadlocked on holding a new public hearing to take up the revised ordinance, with the tie vote killing the matter.

Council members Justin Shields and Chuck Swore, who backed pet licensing two weeks ago, changed their votes and last night opposed the licensing provision.

Meanwhile, council member Tom Podzimek, who voted against the licensing provision two weeks ago, voted in favor last night to at least conduct a new public hearing on the issue.

Council member Don Karr, who voted for licensing two weeks ago, was not at last night's meeting while council member Pat Shey, who did not attend two weeks ago, voted last night to at least conduct a new public hearing.

Diane Webber, the manager of the city's Animal Care and Control operation, wasn't sure after last night's vote what would come next. However, she took the vote last night as an apparent end for now to the effort to require owners to license their cats and dogs.

Shields said he changed his mind and decided to oppose the idea of pet licenses because the city had “way, way too many important things we need to do” than worry about requiring owners of cats and dogs to license their animals.

Council member Chuck Wieneke, who favored licensing because it would bring in some money to help run the animal operation, said he didn't want to hear his council colleagues opposed to licensing talking a different story in a month or two when budget meetings began.

Webber reminded the council two weeks ago that it told her a year ago during budget meetings to put together a license program to bring in some money for the operation.

The plan had been to charge a $10-a-year fee for altered cats and dogs and to charge $35 a year for cats and dogs that had not been altered.

Initially, the fees were expected to bring in at least $60,000 in profit to the city for use by Webber's department, with that annual amount expected to increase as more people got their pets licensed.

Two weeks ago, Podzimek said the initial revenue, about 10 percent of the department's budget, wasn't sufficient for the bother of licensing.

Mayor Ron Corbett and council member Monica Vernon joined Shields and Swore in opposing taking the licensing matter forward, with council member Kris Gulick joining Wieneke, Podzimek and Shey in favoring a new public hearing on the matter.