Pittsburgh City Controller Michael Lamb outlined nearly two dozen recommendations for improving the city’s Bureau of Animal Care and Control in a performance audit released Tuesday.
The last audit of the bureau, which falls under the Department of Public Safety, was released in 2010.
The bureau is tasked with providing a variety of services, including capturing stray animals, helping pet owners recover lost animals and removing wildlife posing potential threats to the community.
The 23 recommendations addressed several areas of the bureau’s daily operations, including collection of live and dead animals, the issuing citations for violations, different software systems the bureau uses, officer training and programs for city residents.
“The Bureau of Animal Care and Control impacts every citizen,” Lamb said. “Between accidents involving vehicles colliding with deer or a loose and beloved house pet, AC&C does work that benefits people who live in the city and those who visit.”
“We have reviewed each of the recommendations and have responded accordingly,” said Lee Schmidt, assistant director of operations and administration with the Department of Public Safety. “We always welcome these audits as it allows an outside perspective on our department’s performance and helps to improve what we do.”
The audit identified the bureau’s contract with Humane Animal Rescue as an area of “immediate concern.” Because the city does not currently have its own shelter, the nonprofit takes in stray animals and aids in the adoption process.
The city extended its agreement with Humane Animal Rescue over the past several years, despite slight increases in costs. Because there are no other organizations providing such resources in the area, “animals would almost certainly suffer” if the city did not continue to reach such agreements with Human Animal Rescue, officials said.
“As we mentioned in the previous audit of (the bureau), the city needs to evaluate the benefit and costs of building our own shelter,” Lamb said. “The services provided by Humane Animal Rescue are substantial. It’s imperative (that the bureau) does a comprehensive cost-benefit analysis.”
Humane Animal Rescue has partnered with the city for about 15 years, Humane Animal Rescue CEO Dan Rossi said.
“We have the adoption services. We have the ability to reunite strays. The city needed that side of the service,” he said. “They didn’t have the facility back then, nor do they still. It was a win-win. We had the extra capacity to help them and that’s how it was born.”
Some other cities about the same size as Pittsburgh have opted to build their own shelters, as the audit recommends, Rossi said. He said he was aware the city had been considering doing the same.
“It makes sense for the city to look at all their options,” he said. “If they would go down that road in the future, we would happily work with them, assisting them in any way we could.”
Evaluating the possibility of creating a city-owned shelter is “very much the responsible action to take,” Schmidt said.
“This is in no way a reflection on the current contract and relationship with Humane Animal Rescue, but simply ensuring the department is being as effective and responsible as possible with the tax dollars that are allocated to our program,” he said.
Right now, however, the Bureau of Animal Care and Control is negotiating a new five-year contract with Humane Animal Rescue to extend their partnership, Rossi said. He declined to give specifics, but said the contract would include slight cost increases for the city.
“I fully expect this to go through without any problems. There will be no service disruptions,” he said.
Several findings from the previous audit rang true in the updated one, officials said. The bureau’s reporting systems are “generally inadequate” and need to be updated, officials said, pointing out that there are multiple systems in place that do not communicate with each other, allowing for potential human error. The report suggested the bureau’s management work with the city’s Department of Innovation and Performance to update and modernize their computer software to streamline their work.
The department has been evaluating software needs for about six months and is working to meet the recommendations to improve that area of their operations.
The full audit report is available online.
Julia Felton is a Tribune-Review staff writer. You can contact Julia at 724-226-7724, jfelton@triblive.com or via Twitter .
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