Commission to vote on animal shelter contract

Monday, June 30, 2003 | 9:28 a.m.

The Clark County Commission is scheduled to vote Tuesday on a 10-year contract with the Animal Foundation that would probably end up being worth about $11 million.

James Spinello, county assistant director of administrative services, said the contract would probably save the county about $100,000 a year.

In February the commissioners chose the Animal Foundation to run a centralized shelter for dogs and cats in Las Vegas beginning in two years.

The Animal Foundation would begin taking animals for the county in June 2005, under the proposed contract.

The Dewey Animal Clinic now has the county contract to house, feed and either destroy or find adoptive homes for stray animals. Dewey had unsuccessfully sought an extension to its contract, which expires in 2005.

The county currently pays Dewey more than $1.2 million a year, Spinello said.

Under the proposed contract, the Animal Foundation would be paid $1.2 million a year for the first six years, then at least $800,000 a year for the remainder of the contract. The foundation would be paid bonuses of 3.5 percent of the contract for each year adoption rates are increased by 5 percent, Spinello said.

One of the conditions of the proposed contract is that the foundation build and open an addition to its Lied Animal Shelter by March 31, 2005, he said.

The commissioners' selection of the Animal Foundation in February drew fire from some who complained the foundation has a poor track record.

Spinello has said past problems at the Animal Foundation shelter, which has had the city of Las Vegas' contract since 1995, have been corrected.

The Animal Foundation is chaired by Janie Greenspun Gale, a member of the Greenspun family, which owns the Sun.