| Year | Dog Licenses | Dog Revenue | Dog Licenses with Penalty | Cat Licenses | Cat Revenue | On-Line Licenses | On-Line License Revenue | Total Pets | Total Revenue |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | 1013 | 26,707 | 8 | 203 | 4,100 | 1224 | 31,097 | ||
| 2018 | 980 | 25,823 | 3 | 207 | 4,140 | 1190 | 30,023 | ||
| 2019 | 554 | 14,511 | 2 | 90 | 1,762 | 646 | 16,233 | ||
| 2020 | 757 | 19,020 | 2 | 165 | 3,300 | 49 | 5,940 | 947 | 28,320 |
| 2021 | 226 | 6,602 | 6 | 42 | 840 | 198 | 13,770 | 973 | 21,342 |
Roughly speaking, how much annual revenue does the City receive from pet licenses?
I asked that question from the dais months before I filed Public Records Request #16116 with the City. It was information I thought would be useful in deciding whether or not to move Animal Control Services to Burien C.A.R.E.S.
When I originally posed the question, I just assumed it was routine information the City would have at its fingertips. After all, we’ve had an on-line licensing system now for two years.
Now I have some follow-on questions:
- How difficult is it to gather this kind of information?
- How does our compliance track with other cities?
Dirty Laundry
I’m also posting some ‘dirty laundry’ because residents frequently tell me the issues of good government I raise can be difficult to follow. This is hopefully a more straightforward way to illustrate some of those issues.
- As I said, l originally asked this question from the dais. A staff member agreed to provide the answer off-line but did not do so.
- As usual, I did not get an explanation as to why it went unanswered. It was just ignored.
- That’s the reason for most of my public records requests.
Background
The City does not and has not responded to virtually any of my off-line requests for information for over two years. Both the administration and the majority repeatedly blame me for this state of affairs, alleging that I overburden staff with 1“thousands of pointless questions”; while providing no examples to back up their claims.
Fortunately, there is a fairly simple way to judge for yourself.
By our Rules of Procedure and the RCW, when a Councilmember asks a question from the dais, the administration is required to respond.
Now: nobody expects staff members to have every piece of information available at the drop of a hat. To avoid holding up meetings, electeds routinely accept their responses off-line. But the off-line response still carries the same obligation.
The City simply does not comply. And our Council refuses to enforce that requirement.
In short: the administration refuses to answer questions made by an elected official, no matter how simple, even when made from the dais, and even after they agree to do so.
So I end up making public records requests; which cost the City money.
The choice
I can certainly raise each incident of misconduct at every City Council meeting. But ironically, I pretty much never do because doing so is simply asking for a fight. So I choose to avoid conflict.
And there’s the rub:
To avoid conflict, one must simply roll over. That is the price of cordiality.
And that is the choice at every meeting:
- Do not ask for even the most basic information.
- Do not embarrass the administration for non-compliance.
- Do not point out the Council’s ongoing role in enabling that misconduct.
That is a small portion of what it takes to avoid making the public cringe.