Animal Advocates Uncensored: The Contract and Bottom Line...74

In 2004, the City of Jersey City sent out an RFP (Request for Proposal) to qualified vendors for the management the Jersey City Animal Shelter. These were the city's objectives:

1. Leverage the City's ability to manage operations at a period when fiscal restraints have reduced availability of staff by selecting a vendor who has a demonstrable fund-raising capacity and a commitment to use that fund-raising capacity to augment both the City's annual operating appropriation for running the Animal Shelter and the City's capital appropriation for improving the Animal Shelter.

2. Improve the quality and efficiency of City's animal shelter services by selecting a vendor who has the demonstrable training, experience, and dedication to serve this important need; and

3. Increase the current animal capacity level to meet national guidelines by developing and implementing a Animal Shelter Facility Development Plan.

On May10, 2004, the Liberty Humane Society answered this request with a lengthy and detailed proposal, and subsequently entered into contract with Jersey City on November 1, 2004. Here is some of the information LHS provided Jersey City:

LHS requires an initial $250,000 per year in funding from the City
LHS is currently raising supplemental funds that will allow us to meet or exceed the shelter sizing standards set by HSUS and the ASPCA
LHS requests a contribution of $250,000 from the City to assist in the expansion of the facility

The core of Liberty Humane Society's proposal was not only to expand the facility to meet Jersey City's needs, but also to build a "state of the art, modern and model facility." That is not what you will see six and a half years later at 235 Jersey City Blvd.

Some background information and description of need that was included in LHS's proposal to the City:

In 2002, the City of Jersey City opened a temporary animal shelter in a partially renovated abandoned garage (LHS's current location 2011).
Jersey City is the second largest municipality in NJ, and it is estimated that there is a need to shelter approximately 2,600 dogs and 1,900 cats per year based on the 2000 Census (calculated through a comparison with the city of Newark. Dog to person ratio of 0.0109. Cat to person ratio of 0.0080).
The existing building/temporary shelter (LHS's current location 2011), is too small to accommodate the City's animal control needs. It's maximum holding capacity is 31 dogs, far below the projected need.

In response to inadequate shelter capacity "The proposed permanent facility will have 74 dog kennels, a cattery to house up to 25 cats in a cage-less environment, as well as separate cage space for 28 additional cats."

Space was not the only inadequacy LHS addressed in their proposal, staff and care was also lacking. The response:

The LHS strives to exceed minimum standards by having adequate staffing, superlative management, and offering pro-active programs to meet the needs of the community.

But back to expanding the facility, LHS included future plans for the shelter's expansion in their proposal:

"The Liberty Humane Society is currently drawing plans to expand the facility at 235 Jersey City Avenue. These plans will be based upon the Site Plan for shelter expansion drawn by Jersey City's architect Robert Cerchio."

Proposed plan for the expansion of the "temporary" shelter at 235 Jersey City Blvd.

Not only did they include a detailed list of programmatic elements to be included in this expansion, but they went so far as to include phasing for immediate increase of capacity, construction costs, and a construction timetable. The proposal also stated: