Health Insurance Savings Credit

San Angelo Mayor Alvin New's final task was recognizing elected officials for their contributions.  New cited Councilman Kendall Hirschfeld's saving the city $500,000 during budget preparation.  Although New didn't specify the source, Hirschfeld was clearly behind the health insurance move to an exclusive provider arrangement.  It's fitting citizens and employees recall Hirschfeld's expectation of no additional funds for employee or retiree coverage as new bids will soon be sought. 

This is the same City Council that sat on $343,000 in Early Retiree Reinsurance Program funds for three years.  During that time New and company raised employee and retiree dependent premiums by 36 to 58%.  I believe employees and retirees will clearly remember this City Council.  I don't expect it to be with fondness.

Health Insurance RFP to Reappear

The City of San Angelo should issue a request for proposal for employee health insurance in the near future.  The last RFP disappeared from the city's website, but the document can be found below:

   Health Insurance Request for Proposal City of San Angelo - Issued July, 2011

The last time around the city wanted cost reduction and specified a single provider option to lower costs.  Despite over 60% of city employees having Shannon physicians, City Council chose a plan exclusive to San Angelo Community Medical Center.  Council kept 75% of the total savings, passing 25% on to employees via a small premium reduction.  It was the latest blow to morale, following elimination of the pharmacy, passing on draconian insurance increases to employee and retiree dependents, and raising the cost to be seen in the employee health clinic for uninsured workers.

If history is a guide look for an RFP in the next two weeks.  It's specifications will be telling.  With Mayor Alvin New gone, will his "defined contribution" approach to health insurance continue?  Will Assistant City Manager/Chief Financial Officer continue his shell game on the city's health insurance fund?

Despite Council's approval of the Community exclusive provider arrangement which saved nearly $500,000, the budget was never updated for the public in the 2011-2012 FY.  The City stuck to its $7.9 health insurance million budget, only showing a $6.4 million when the final 2012-2013 budget was released.  Oddly, the Health Insurance Fund Balance is based on the prior 2012-2013 budget of roughly $8 million. The City Budget document shows $6.4 million for health insurance on page 122 and $8 million on page 91.  This is transparently bad financial management because it doesn't paint a consistent, much less clear picture.  

Like the City's Water Operating Fund it's impossible to garner a clear picture of the City's Health Insurance fund balance.  Michael Dane might as well be a magician, given the way these funds seem to bounce around, even disappear. 

MedHab Update Finally on City Council Agenda

After being ignored for two months San Angelo City Councilman Johnny Silvas will finally get his requested MedHab update.  It took Mayor Alvin New's stepping down for this to happen.  New is a longtime member of MedHab's board of directors, something initially misrepresented by San Angelo's economic development crew as an "advisory board" position.  MedHab has an advisory board and Alvin New is not on it.

Assistant City Manager/Chief Financial Officer Michael Dane will give Johnny Silvas his long awaited update.  It's the 14th item on the agenda.  It will be interesting to see the comprehensiveness of Dane's report.  The depth and quality of Dane's presentations have varied.  We'll see if Dane lives up the City's financial transparency Silver Leadership Circle award.

Standard Times Feral Cat Poll

The San Angelo Standard Times ran a poll on their website relative to feral cat colonies.  Feral cat colonies in San Angelo have citizen volunteers who spend time and money trapping, spaying/neutering and returning the cats to their home.  Over time these colonies have achieved dramatic reduction in the number of feral cats.

The question should read:

Should the city be more aggressive in intimidating local citizens volunteering their time and resources to address San Angelo's feral cat problem?

The City Animal Shelter had the whole town to begin trapping and exterminating feral cats.  They picked an area with an organized feral cat colony, one where volunteers had already reduced their numbers from 200 to 55.

The poll above shows 80% of respondents think the city should back off.  While Arlington, Texas and other U.S. communities explore strategies to deal with the feral cat problem, the City is driving away local partners.  For years the City Animal Shelter collaborated with feral cat colony volunteers.  City leaders should require Animal Services return to such a strategy.

Update 6-22-19:   The City will use the Pets Alive model to begin reducing the extermination of excess pets.  The public will regain access to Animal Shelter kennels, taken away under the rule of James Flores and the first two years of Morgan Chegwidden's term as Shelter Director.  There will be a community cat component but the city made no mention of community groups who've long done their part by practicing trap, neuter, return and maintain.

Arlington City Council to Consider Feral Cat Program

The Star Telegram reported:

Arlington is considering a more humane strategy to controlling its feral cat population.

Currently, the city euthanizes nearly all of the thousands of feral cats that are trapped and brought into the animal shelter. But under a new proposal set to be voted on by Arlington City Council in August, the city would allow nonprofit animal rescue groups to sterilize and vaccinate trapped feral cats and then release them back into their neighborhoods with the promise of long-term care.

Arlington has seen a 15 percent increase in the number of feral, stray or unwanted cats brought into the shelter over the past two years, said Mike Bass, Code Compliance Services assistant director. About 5,680 cats were surrendered last year, up from 4,451 the year before, and only about 40 percent of them found new homes.

“We are going to see a continue growth of the problem,” Bass said. “The procreation is happening on a very fast pace, and it is very difficult to control.”

Last week, an Arlington City Council committee recommended approval of a Trap, Neuter and Return policy, which has been pushed during the past year by advocacy groups such as the Arlington Feral Cat Coalition, Alley Cat Allies and Friends of Arlington Animal Services.

“We have trapping and killing [feral cats] for decades, and it hasn’t made any difference,” said Kathy Beeler, founder of the Arlington Feral Cat Coalition. “What we are doing is not helping the problem, and it’s time to try something else.”

The City of San Angelo Animal Shelter once collaborated 25 local feral cat colonies.  That fell by the wayside.  Nearly two weeks ago the City declared war on one cat colony. 

“Number one, there is free rodent control,” Beeler said. “The cats that will be in their neighborhood won’t be reproducing, so they won’t have cats having kittens in their bushes and them having to deal with that.”

Sterilization also addresses some of the feral cats’ nuisance behaviors, such as spraying and fighting.

Other cities have endorsed trap, neuter and release strategies to control the cat population.

Hopefully San Angelo's new Mayor and City Council will cause a change in practice regarding feral cats.  Threatening a local citizen, one who worked to reduce a colony of 200 to 55 cats, with arrest makes no sense.  If Council can't change the threats and intimidation, the City could lose the 13 feral cat colonies that remain.  That includes people voluntarily donating time and money to reduce the city's feral cat problem.  Arlington is a Texas story worth examining. 

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/06/23/4956866/arlington-considering-trap-neuter.html#storylink=cpy

Read more here: http://www.star-telegram.com/2013/06/23/4956866/arlington-considering-trap-neuter.html#storylink=cpy

City Aggravates Feral Cat Problem

The Standard Times ran a piece on the feral cat colony targeted for elimination by the City of San Angelo.  One can see the impact trap -spay/neuter - release had at this location.  The number of cats decreased from over 200 to 55. Yet, the City targeted a local volunteer working to address the problem, stating she needed to live by city ordinances, which are written for actual pets.

City Animal Control Officers claimed the Mejor Que Nada feral cats are a nuisance.  City ordinances have a clear procedure for designating an animal(s) a nuisance.  It involves a court with the complainant and pet owner present.

Villarreal said many of Animal Control’s complaints involve outdoor cats.
In this instance, she said, complaints are coming from businesses on Austin Street, Avenue N and Bryant Boulevard. The city has a policy of not disclosing the names of the business or individuals making the complaint to protect their privacy, she said.

It appears City Animal Officials can pick and choose which ordinances apply and which ones don't.

Right now, Villarreal said, the city handles complaints about feral cat colonies on a case-by-case basis. She said she has researched how larger cities such as the Dallas-Fort Worth area handle feral cats insofar as complaints and ordinance enforcement.

“At some point, we’ll have to figure out what it is we really want to do, or what the city wants to do,” she said. “We can only bring something in, and it gets voted in or voted out (by the Animal Services Board), and we still have to go through City Council. We have a lot of hoops” to jump through.

So Animal Shelter leaders and workers implemented a change prior to "figuring out" what to do?  There is no record of any changes made by the Animal Services Board or City Council in relation to feral cats.

The City should produce the names of the complainants and actually collaborate with volunteer citizens and local animal organizations on addressing San Angelo's feral cat problem.

George Randall, who owns Randall Motors on Avenue N and is on Concho Valley PAWS’ board of directors, also expressed concern about moving the cats.

"The city’s doing is going to create, in my opinion, more problems than they’re going to solve."

City Manager Daniel Valenzuela talks about partnering with the community.  Here's his chance to call off his hounds and actually work with people shouldering the load to create sound policies that make room for feral cats.  if the city continues on its current heavy-handed course it will have no citizen volunteers and no local animal organizations with which to partner..

Valenzuela can stop the creation of more problems with one phone call.  It's one he should make.

Feral Cat Picture Reflects Little Light

The City of San Angelo determined one feral cat colony warranted action.  For the last week Animal Control Officers intimidated a citizen volunteer for doing their part to reduce our community's feral cat problem.  Below is the memo officers distributed.

Animal Control Memo

The City has a new strategy underway, however it's not clear why or exactly what they wish to accomplish.  The most recent minutes suggest the city wants to approve feral cat colonies operated by area animal organizations and hold these organizations to local ordinances, many of which make no sense for feral cats.

It's been years since any local animal organization had anything official to do with feral cat colonies.  A number of citizens kept up their colonies or started new ones, despite the loss of grant funding.

For the city to achieve their objective, they'd need to partner with local animal organizations.  Their heavy handed approach this past week portends a less than collaborative relationship.  Who'd want to step up for that?