Panel reveals high cost, low workload for Kane Animal Control

The first meeting of Kane County's Animal Control Task Force raised a series of questions about what benefit taxpayers actually see for the $692,000 the department spends.

County board Chairman Karen McConnaughay set the stage for determining the future of the department in a revealing session with local customers of animal control on the task force Monday night. The scope of the department's services is already narrow.

“Disease control is the No. 1 thing that we do,” McConnaughay said. “Plus, we provide recovery of stray dogs in the unincorporated areas and in the incorporated areas of municipalities that we contract with.”

But input from a panel of county board members, village presidents and local veterinarians cast doubt on the degree to which the county performs either of those services.

The county contracts with a private veterinarian, Jane Davis, for vaccinations and the examination of the general health of animals for about $24,000 a year. But questions on the panel revealed Davis puts in only about five hours of work for the county each week.

That works out to 260 hours in a year, or a wage of about $92 per hour.

Moreover, Davis can't touch any animal not legally possessed by the county. That means an animal might sit in the shelter for several days while its owner is sought until Davis can treat it. An exception is made only once the animal becomes severely ill.

Because Davis works only a few hours, the county pays several other animal hospitals about $15,000 a year for veterinarian services needed in her absence. Records show the primary recipient of that money is Yorkville Animal Hospital.

As to the rounding up of stray animals, questions revealed the county concerns itself only with dogs, but even the municipalities that contract with the county for that service try to avoid it at all costs.

St. Charles Police Chief Jim Lamkin said the fee the county charges for the service often results in the police addressing an animal problem themselves or not at all.

“When the cost of this went up on the county end, the municipalities began working really, really hard to not have to call,” Lamkin said.

Neither animal control nor municipalities bother with stray cats because the law considers them “free domain” animals, said Sharon Verzal, interim director of the county's animal control department.

The result is animal control typically houses only about 500 animals a year.

That relatively low workload raised the question of why the county paid an administrator more than $92,000 a year to run the department while also contracting out all the veterinarian services for an additional cost.

“If we can't justify a full-time vet for 500 animals, how are we justifying an administrator for that high price?” county board member Jackie Tredup said.

The task force will continue its review of the department.