City of Crestview severs ties with PAWS, will create independent animal control division

CRESTVIEW — A long simmering dispute over an animal control services contract has resulted in the city severing its relationship with the Panhandle Animal Welfare Society.

Negotiations over a renewal, which Crestview City Manager Tim Bolduc said had been ongoing through the year, broke down Dec. 23 when PAWS officials told city staff they could take or leave a new contract that included a greater than 100% rate increase.

The abrupt end of the relationship has left the city scrambling while it works to stand up its own animal control function. Bolduc said he hopes to have something in place within 45 to 60 days.

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Until then, animal control calls are being fielded by the Crestview Police Department, no drop-offs are being accepted and emergency situations will be handled by Walton County Animal Control.

"Up until the 23rd I thought there would be a resolution," Bolduc said. "We're having to make a transition pretty quickly."

In a news release announcing the decision, Bolduc was quoted as saying, "We don't feel that PAWS is serving our citizens at the level they deserve."

PAWS Executive Director Tracey Williams, however, disagreed with just about everything Bolduc had to say in his statements to the public.

"It's just crazy," Wiliiams said. "I'm still in shock over how this is coming out and how they're making it look."

In the news release, Bolduc cited two examples of what the city considered a lack of service from PAWS.

"Between their withdrawal from the North Okaloosa shelter in Laurel Hill and their lack of response in helping deal with feral cats, they are asking us to pay for services that aren't available," he said.

A now closed facility in Laurel Hill had been established as a holding station for animals until they could be moved south to the actual PAWS Humane Society building in Fort Walton Beach, Williams said. It was never intended to be a second shelter, as Bolduc implied.

While Williams said no discussions about feral cats in Crestview had been brought up by city officials before this week, Bolduc said the issue arose at a public forum when Williams told residents that no problems with feral cats would be addressed until PAWS was able to hire a veterinarian.

Williams said the contract between Crestview and PAWS had actually expired two years ago and the city, rather than renewing it "just kept letting it limp along by refusing to engage."

"We should have stopped providing services, but that wouldn't have been good for the animals," she said.

While it is Bolduc's contention that PAWS officials have refused to engage in good faith contract talks, Williams said it is the city that has turned its back on PAWS' efforts to raise its fees across the board to a level at which the nonprofit can effectively operate.

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Crestview had been paying $3.46 per capita when it quit the PAWS contract. Earlier this year, PAWS offered a plan in which the city would initially raise fees over three years from $5.50 to $6.50 and finally $7.

The other Okaloosa municipalities with which PAWS works, as well as the county, have agreed to that funding schedule, Williams said.

The annual fee schedule was presented to Crestview about three months ago, Bolduc said, and the city made a counteroffer to up its animal control fees to $4.

Williams said that had been a non-starter.

"First and foremost we need to get you to pay for the services you get. Crestview has been getting 20% of the services and providing 8% of the income. It was completely upside down," she said. "With Crestview we were losing $100,000 a year. Just with Crestview."

In December, with Crestview three months behind in its payments to PAWS — a development Bolduc termed an oversight — the nonprofit's board of directors, armed with a financial breakdown of a year's worth of expenses, voted to no longer offer a sliding scale of fee increases and insisted that any new contract extensions would require municipalities to pay $7 per capita for services.

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Bolduc said that while he's not sure exactly what a Crestview Animal Control Department will look like, he's confident the service it provides will be better than what the city is getting now.

An animal holding facility on the grounds of the city's public services facility, which had been used prior to Crestview entering its contract with PAWS, is being renovated to serve the city's animal control needs.

Both Bolduc and Williams confirmed that the city had initially approached PAWS about bringing animals to its facility during the transition period. Williams said that request had to be rejected due to the liability issues it could create.

"I just think they don't understand what all is involved with this," she said.

As for PAWS, Williams said it will benefit from saving the $100,000 it was losing serving Crestview, and the stance it has taken with the city should serve as evidence that the nonprofit is no longer willing to be "subsidizing the taxpayer service of animal control."

"We're no longer going to be at the mercy of what city officials are dictating," she said. "We're taking control and making strong decisions in the best interest of the nonprofit, the animals and the staff."

Starting Jan. 1, Crestview citizens should contact 850-682-2055 for animal control.

This article originally appeared on Northwest Florida Daily News: Crestview cuts ties with Panhandle Animal Welfare Society (PAWS)