Will Beverly Hills Feral Ordinance Void Their Contractual Agreement With LAAS and the CITY?

LETTER TO LAAS STAFF AND CITY:

Dear Kathy Davis, Linda Barth, Mayor Villaraigosa, Jim Bickhart, Jim Blackman, Carmen Trutanich,

I understand that as a condition for Los Angeles Animal Services to take over the animal care and control function for the City of Beverly Hills, that the latter had to remove an ordinance prohibiting feral cats.

On Tuesday, July 7, Beverly Hills City Council is considering adding on a new ordinance prohibiting feeding feral cats because it is a claimed health problem. This would allow them to enact it immediately on an emergency basis.

They are doing this because a woman, Katherine Varjian, was cited for feeding feral cats in an alley off Palm Drive. At the time cited, apparently the ordinance was still on the books. She is going to court within two weeks and in order to stop her from feeding, Beverly Hills staff has decided to make this a public health issue.

But be advised, it is only because 30 residents want to stop one feral colony manager.

If Beverly Hills puts that ordinance back on their books, will Los Angeles continue to provide animal control services for Beverly Hills even though they would be in violation of preconditions for LA assuming that function?

I send this to you because they have notified you of this measure and you do provide animal control services for Beverly Hills.

This is from their "staff" report:

In January of 2009, the City of Beverly Hills established a contractual agreement with the City of Los Angeles for field services and animal sheltering in their West Los Angeles facility. A requirement of this agreement was to adopt the City of Los Angeles animal related codes by reference.During that process, the existing section of the Beverly Hills Municipal Code dealing with feeding of certain animals was inadvertently omitted; adoption of this ordinance will simply reinsert this omitted code section.

As mentioned, the adoption of the Los Angeles City Code relating to animals was required as part of the agreement with the City of Los Angeles Department Animal Services prior to their provision of field and sheltering services. During the adoption process, the Beverly Hills Municipal Code was reviewed, renumbered and reorganized with the intent of eliminating redundant or duplicate language. During this process, the section dealing with feeding of certain animals was inadvertently omitted.

Staff finds that this ordinance is necessary for the preservation of the public peace, health and safety because the placement of food on public property and in publicly accessible areas attracts not only domesticated animals, but raccoons and coyotes, vermin such as rodents, and insects. This Ordinance prohibits the feeding of certain animals on public property, including but not limited to, stray dogs, and feral and stray cats. Staff finds that the Los Angeles Municipal Code does not adequately address the health and safety issues that arise from feeding of animals on public property.

Adoption of this Ordinance will prevent the proliferation of predatory mammal, rodent and insect populations, thereby reducing the spread of disease and prevent expansion of non- domesticated mammalian predator populations by limiting their access to food. The Ordinance will take effect immediately.