Flagler County officials held a workshop this week to discuss the future of animal control services in the area. The discussion covered several potential scenarios, including renewing a contract with the current provider, the Flagler Humane Society, having the City of Palm Coast take over services, or Flagler County bringing the services in-house.
During the meeting, Deputy County Administrator Heidi Petito provided an overview of the options. She explained that renewing the contract with the Flagler Humane Society would likely result in a slight increase of around $16,000 per year due to market rate adjustments. This contract would include animal control services, shelter services, and a spay/neuter program.
The option of having the City of Palm Coast provide animal control services was also explored. Petito noted this would cost an estimated $392,660 per year for the city to handle domestic animal control, with an additional $17,000 needed to cover non-domestic animals that the city would not be able to handle.
The third scenario discussed was bringing Flagler County’s animal control services in-house. Petito estimated this would cost the county around $350,000 annually, plus an additional $106,000 for shelter services and the spay/neuter program.
One key issue that was debated was the potential for Flagler County to have representation on the Flagler Humane Society’s board of directors. County Attorney Sean Moylan explained some concerns that having an elected official serve on the board could jeopardize the organization’s nonprofit status due to public records laws. An alternative option of having a county staff member or commissioner serve as a liaison was proposed instead.
Commissioner Joe Hanson expressed his preference for the county to take over animal control services, stating, “I am okay with bringing animal control under the county. I’m, so do we want to bring this decision back for the July 2nd, pending some further numbers, because I think one of the things we’re missing is what I would like to know what the year two numbers are for the City of Palm Coast, just to see if that number drops so I can compare it to year two for Flagler County.”
The commissioners agreed to have the additional information provided at the July 2nd meeting, where they will further discuss the options and potentially make a decision on the future of animal control services in Flagler County.
