Animal License Fees Reduced:

In March of 2007 I proposed an amendment to lower the animal license fees that was subsequently approved unanimously by the City Council.

Read Mark's February 26, 2007 presentation to the City Council below.

"The resolution on tonight's agenda to lower animal license fees did not turn out the way I had planned.

The intent of my motion from the C.O.W. meeting was to lower the fees and to get more people to license their animals. The proposed resolution changes the fee effective date for the decrease to July 1, halfway through our license year and does nothing else.

The animal license ordinance runs from Jan 1 to Dec 31st with March 31st as being the deadline to renew without penalty. Why would we change the rate in the middle of the year? The only reason would be so we don’t have to issue refunds.

It took 10 months from the time in April 06 that I brought up the issue of so few licenses being issued, before the Finance Dept. came back with any information in Feb 07 with regarding what other cities were charging.

This proposed resolution the way it is worded without the amendment makes us look stupid like the sewer tax issue. We are penalizing the public for us (the city) being slow to make changes. And does nothing to encourage people to license their animals. After all I believe we are all in agreement that licensing is for public safety and not be used as a revenue producer for the city. We’ve seen what has happened when you raise rates the licensing drops off dramatically.

As I will propose in the amendment our rate change should be retroactive to 1-1-07 and anyone that has already paid their license would be entitled to a refund if they come to City Hall to claim it before March 31, 2007. And we should have a 60 day amnesty period from 3-31-07 to entice those individuals to license their pets that have not done so in the past.

If we approve this amendment to the resolution I feel we are taking a positive stop to encourage pet owners to license their pets for their own safety and the safety off all the citizens of Clinton."

Here is the exact amendment as proposed to reduce fees for licensing animals.

“To amend the resolution to read:

That said fees and late fees shall be effective January 1, 2007, and that any resident that has paid their license fees in advance of the date of this resolution shall be entitled to a refund of their overpayment by requesting such refund in person at the City Clerk's Office at City Hall no later then March 31, 2007. Furthermore, in an attempt to encourage owners of any non-licensed animals to license their animals there will be an amnesty period of 60 days after the normal due date of March 31, 2007 for owners of animals that have not been previously licensed, to obtain their license without penalty. Owners of animals that have been licensed and are due to be renewed by March 31, 2007 are not covered by this amnesty period.”

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