For now, there won’t be any change to Seal Beach’s contract with Long Beach Animal Care Services.
This week the Seal Beach City Council looked at options for animal control. However, the consensus among council members was that the city needs to find revenue to pay for either increased service hours from Long Beach or having the Seal Beach Police Department provide animal control services. According to Commander Steve Bowles, Long Beach ACS currently provides 20 hours a week of service. Cost: $120,300 a year. To increase services to 40 hours a week, the cost would be $280,190 in the first year and $226,190 in the second. Re-establishing Seal Beach animal control would cost $602,960 in the first year and $391,960 in the second. Resident Robert Goldberg suggested hiring a code enforcement officer and including animal control services in that person’s duties.
District One Councilwoman Ellery Deaton said, “I personally would not want to pay for it out of savings.”
Police Chief Joe Miller said police officers would work with ACS, but he could not commit an officer to enforcement because he doesn’t have enough people.
