2022 06 09 WS Minutes MINUTES OF THE REGULAR WORK SESSION OF THE
CITY COUNCIL OF THE CITY OF BAYTOWN
June 9, 2022
The City Council of the City of Baytown, Texas, met in a Regular Work Session on Thursday,
June 9,2022, at 5:37 P.M. in the Council Chambers of the Baytown City Hall,2401 Market Street,
Baytown, Texas with the following in attendance:
Charles Johnson Council Member
Jacob Powell Council Member
Mike Lester Council Member
Brandon Capetillo Mayor
Rick Davis City Manager
Trevor Fanning Interim City Attorney
Angela Jackson City Clerk
Mayor Capetillo convened the June 9, 2022, City Council Regular Work Session with a quorum
present at 5:37 P.M., all members were present with the exception of the absences of Council
Member Laura Alvarado, Mayor Pro Tem Presley, and Council Member Heather Betancourth.
1. DISCUSSIONS
a. Receive and discuss a presentation from the Animal Control Advisory Committee
recommending a Community Cat Program.
Health Department Director Tony Gray gave an introduction to the item before handing it off to
the Animal Control Advisory Committee. Mr. Gray relayed the Committee would present their
recommendation of having a Community Cat Program for the City of Baytown. Representing the
Committee was Chairperson Ellen Hollaway and Committee Member Dr. Francisco Alvarez.Also,
Committee Members James Garcia and Alberto Contreras were in attendance of the meeting as
well as Justin Gonzales from the Best Friends Animal Society. Mr. Gray emphasized that the
Community Cat Program, by itself, would not be an end all to the City's cat issues. To execute a
comprehensive plan, it would take revision of the ordinance. Mr. Gray assured the Committee was
aware and had preliminary discussions about that. The Committee would discuss that more in the
future based on the comments and direction of Council.
The veterinarian representative of the Animal Control Advisory Committee was Committee
Member Dr. Francisco Alvarez who would give the presentation to Council. Dr. Alvarez had a
PowerPoint presentation that touched on the City's feral cat issue, the Community Cat Program,
citizen concerns,the American Veterinary Medical Association's(AVMA)recommendations,and
then closing remarks.
Dr. Alvarez displayed pictures illustrating the feral cat population issue in Baytown. The issue of
those feral cats was that they could carry diseases, parasites, and also damage the wildlife and
property of citizens. Dr. Alvarez shared that one female cat could have three litters a year. If half
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June 9,2022
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of those kittens were female,Dr. Alvarez ran the numbers that suggested in eight years two million
cats could come out of that original female cat. He noted that was a conservative estimate as most
cats had three litters with four or five kittens per litter. The Community Cat Program involved the
Trap, Neuter, and Release(TNR) of cats as well as the Shelter,Neuter, and Release(SNR) of cats
already in the shelter that may survive outdoors. Dr. Alvarez specified sheltered cats would be
evaluated to see their chances of survivability in the wild.
About six months ago,the Best Friends Animal Society implemented a pilot program in Baytown.
Best Friends had been trapping feral cats in the neighborhoods based off the nuisance calls to the
animal shelter. Dr. Alvarez relayed Best Friends had TNR'ed about 231 cats. He hoped that, with
the program, the community would get involved and help catch cats for that TNR process. Cost-
wise, Best Friends estimated to close the year out with about $70,000 to spay about 625 cats. Dr.
Alvarez itemized that amount in a slide that listed the budget items and funding with that $70,000
total.
On to the pros and cons of the program, the biggest pros were: 1) the reduced number of free-
roaming cats; 2) reduced litters of kittens; 3) reduced mating behaviors, such as cats spraying and
scratching property; and 4) zoonotic diseases contagious to people would be reduced. One of the
cons Dr. Alvarez discussed about the program, was that releasing the cats back out in to the
community could cause more damage. However, overall, Dr. Alvarez stated the pros outweighed
the cons by far. It was not a perfect program, but it reduce all the things previously mentioned.
Dr. Alvarez's next slide quoted the concerns given by citizens. Those concerns were as followed:
• "I don't like cats on my property. "
• "They leave their footprints on my car. "
• "They spray urine around my house. "
• "They destroy my flower garden. "
The Committee's thought on those issues were that if those cats were not spayed or neutered,those
problems would get bigger and bigger. Therefore, Dr. Alvarez emphasized the need to spay and
neuter cats so their progeny would not come back and do the same.
In preparing for the presentation, Dr. Alvarez relayed that veterinarians were guided by the
American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA). The AVMA was a group of 100,000
veterinarians that gave guidelines for everything from anesthesia to procedures and ethics. Dr.
Alvarez noted the Committee upheld those guidelines. In the AVMA's article titled "Free-
Roaming Abandoned and Feral Cats," the AVMA encouraged state and local ordinances to
implement programs using non-lethal strategies and increasing funding for animal control.
In conclusion, Dr. Alvarez stated the program was a start. The Committee was already discussing
other changes to the ordinances to help out the efforts even more. Dr. Alvarez's job as a
veterinarian was to be the advocate for animals. If the program reduced the amount of cats that
came in to his office injured, without an owner, dehydrated, and diseased, Dr. Alvarez believed
the community and the City had done their part. The recommendation of the Animal Control
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June 9,2022
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Advisory Committee to Council was to support the implementation of the Community Cat
Program.
With that, the floor was open to questions or comments from Council. Council Member Powell
was curious to know how the City handled complaints currently. Mr. Gray replied there were only
a few items in the ordinance that spoke to a cat nuisance. City staff would look at the particular
situation and determine what was the nuisance. Then, staff would respond and evaluate—which
was what Mr. Gray wished to look at moving forward with the program. Mr. Gray would like to
revise the ordinance and lay out more criteria and specifics—similar to what the City had for
nuisance dogs. Baytown did not have a term for what was deemed a nuisance cat. Council Member
Powell stated he wanted to see a more comprehensive plan to address calls on cats.
Council Member Lester noted there was a nuisance section in the code. What would the City do
on a call about a nuisance raccoon? Mr. Gray answered staff would take a look at that as it was a
wild animal. Upon further discussion, Council Member Lester.stated he was not opposed to the
concept of TNR, but emphasized the need to deal with nuisance calls. Likewise, he stressed the
need to deal with the front end of the system. Council Member Lester used the analogy that animal
control could do whatever they wanted downstream,but not doing anything upstream would result
in the pond always being full no matter what was done. He shared he also received calls from
citizens that had called the shelter and received negative responses. Council Member Lester stated
the City needed to find a way to resolve that. It was the"onesies,"not the masses of cats,that were
causing the issues.
Dr. Alvarez responded that both Council Members' brought up a great point on the "onesies." It
would be something that would need more clarity for the Committee to take back and work on.
Dr. Alvarez cautioned if they did not do the program, the "onesies" would become "manies" as
the cats would continue to explode. He noted those calls that Council Members received would
become more as there would be that many more cats. Dr. Alvarez agreed that there needed to be
more work done on the front end,but the program was something that could be implemented now.
It was not difficult in the grand scheme of things and it was not terribly expensive. As they went
downstream, Dr. Alvarez stated those numbers would go down to a more manageable amount.
Council Member Johnson inquired once more over the cost of the program. Mr. Gray answered
$70,000 was the support that Best Friends would be willing to participate with.The slide presented
further showed the breakdown of how that money would be spent. Council Member Johnson
proceeded to discuss that he not only received calls on cats, but that he had negative experiences
with a cat of an irresponsible owner himself. Council Member Johnson agreed with his fellow
Council Members that things needed to be done upstream which would take care more so of the
complaints. If the program helped the numbers go down, Council Member Johnson would like to
see a plan that included irresponsible cat owners and ways they could be identified and be made
responsible for their cat. He would like to look at the matter more and talk with staff to get further
recommendations and see what were the options they may have for partnerships. Council Member
Johnson thanked the Committee on educating Council to see what could be done from there.
Dr. Alvarez wished to further note, in response to the issues Council Member Johnson brought
forth, that the Committee was working on an ordinance that every dog and cat in the city must be
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June 9,2022
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microchipped. Thus, nuisance cats would be scanned and the owner would be identified. Dr.
Alvarez proposed there could perhaps be a fine or something like that, but that was what the
Committee was working on and would be coming to Council soon. To that, Council Member
Johnson wondered what would happen to nuisance cats that would get reported on multiple times
that were strays and did not have an owner? He requested something be written in the ordinance
dealing with that also.
For clarification, Mr. Gray stated when discussing upstream solutions,the City would also have to
look at what constituted a nuisance cat and the mechanisms to remove a cat—or, at least have
some provisions on the upstream side. Also, Mr. Gray suggested for cat owners, requiring spaying
and neutering for their cat that are roaming at large. The Committee had brought up those matters
and would be discussed more at their next meeting.
Council Member Johnson relayed that he had heard of programs where dogs were needed in other
areas of the country and the dogs were then transported there. He questioned if there were the same
options available for cats. Mr. Gray stated they had not explored that option yet, but that would
definitely be something to look at.
Mayor Capetillo requested more information on the program. He spoke on the animal control
center itself and that it was based on programming and doing different things. The successes were
in part due to partnerships with animal advocacy and fostering groups. Mayor Capetillo believed
that should be continued. Furthermore, Mayor Capetillo stated he would be open minded with the
Community Cat Program. The program would not be a one-size-fits-all as the City needed to
address all nuisance animals in some form or fashion. He liked the idea of transporting cats to
other areas of the country that did not have the issue Baytown had. Mayor Capetillo suggested to
try to partner with them as an alternative to euthanizing.
The data Mayor Capetillo was looking for was where had the program been implemented and what
did that data look like? If he were to support it, Mayor Capetillo wanted the City to monitor that
data. What locations would be the best and most successful in the community? He recommended
to have pilot sites first and gather that data. Mayor Capetillo then shared a story on a past cat issue
he resolved that left one citizen satisfied,and another not so satisfied.Thus, Mayor Capetillo stated
the City would not satisfy everyone in the room nor satisfy every issue in the community.However,
he believed the City needed to make a good, smart, and strategic approach to whatever program
may be developed. Mayor Capetillo reiterated he was interested and would be open-minded in
making the decision.
Justin Gonzalez from Best Friends then took a moment to address a few of the questions posed
about upstream issues and single cats. A lot of the times, single cats were not single but tied to a
group of cats that neighbors feed. Mr. Gonzalez explained that was where the SNR portion of the
program came into place. Best Friends encouraged shelters to intake those cats and proceed to
perform surgery, vaccinations, and return the cat to the vicinity—not to the person's property as
they respected peoples' desire to keep cats off their property. As Dr. Alvarez mentioned, it was
not a one-size-fits-all. That being the reason why Best Friends had to get creative and encourage
local volunteers, shelter staff, and rescue groups to maintain that ongoing relationship. Best
Friends did have solutions which was part of their comprehensive funding to provide that training.
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The$70,000 was what Best Friends were proposing to offer to help fund that. Mr. Gonzalez further
explained that was their estimate for a six-month period. A yearly Community Cat Program would
look more in the range of$140,000. Mr. Gonzalez reiterated that was Best Friends' answer to the
upstream issues of those single cats which he was happy to elaborate on in future days.
Mayor Capetillo proceeded to inquire over how many dogs were required to be considered a
kennel. Mr. Gray responded with four or more dogs and the City had an ordinance that required
registration. He further believed that was of local origin. With that, Mayor Capetillo suggested
there be something for the City to look at for cats. As per the story he previously shared when
someone had multiple cats, was that something that could also somehow be addressed? Mr.
Gonzalez relayed other municipalities, such as the City of Houston, had a "Colony Cat Manager"
where citizens registered with the city and were enforced to get their cats spayed and neutered. He
noted that, as well, could be a solution to the nuisance issues by giving Baytown a way to manage
that so they are aware of those folks.
In closing, Mayor Capetillo stated what Council was really seeking were responsible pet owners.
He appreciated Best Friends and hoped they could somehow develop an established program that
would address the need of nuisance issues. The last thing Mayor Capetillo wanted to do was
euthanize any animal—unless, of course, for medical or veterinary reasons.
b. Discuss any or all of the agenda items on the City Council Regular Meeting Agenda
for June 9, 2022, which is attached below.
Council did not have a discussion on the item.
2. ADJOURN
With there being no further business to discuss, Mayor Capetillo adjourned the June 9, 2022, City
Council Regular Work Session at 6:13 P.M.
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