Updated: November 13, 2024
Adopted budget data from the City of Seattle shows an increasing trend in City support of the Seattle Animal Shelter (SAS) from 2011 to 2024. In 2011, the SAS budget was only $3.0 million while in 2024, it reached $7.2 million.
In September, Mayor Bruce Harrell proposed a $7.8 million budget for 2025 and an $8.0 million budget for 2026. The Seattle City Council will now deliberate whether to approve these amounts. Final adoption is expected in November.
SAW is concerned that these numbers may not adequately address the increasing population in the city. Seattle may absorb almost 250,000 more residents in the next five to ten years, reaching one million in population. Humans bring their animals. Has SAS and the City of Seattle planned for this? Without a citywide needs assessment, it is hard to determine whether the budget is funding operations that are sufficient for the city’s present and future demands.
SAS has been embroiled in controversy lately. In his resignation letter, former SAS Director Esteban Rodriguez accused the City of Seattle of refusing to fund critical positions and much-needed shelter remodeling. The Seattle Times published this response from Mayor Bruce Harrell on September 30, 2024:
Callie Craighead, a spokesperson for Mayor Bruce Harrell, said in an email the city is in the process of hiring a behaviorist, and has already hired a foster care coordinator. She said both positions are fully funded.
She said that due to a $250 million budget shortfall, Seattle can’t afford to fund a new facility or add new positions, but the city has set aside nearly $4.5 million for building improvements at the shelter. Additionally, she said, the city invests $7.4 million annually in the shelter.
SAW would like to point out that this statement by Ms. Craighead is partially correct. As can be seen below, City support of SAS has NOT been at $7.4 million on an annual basis. It only exceeded 7.0 million for the first time in 2022 and then dropped in 2023 to $5.0 million. It returned to 7.2 million in 2024. The average from 2011 to 2024 was $4.9 million from 2011 to 2024.
UPDATE: We asked Finance and Administrative Services's (FAS) Communications and Marketing Director Melissa Mixon questions about the 2022 to 2024 numbers. (The Seattle Animal Shelter is part of FAS.) Here are her clarifications.
Why did the adopted budget drop in 2023 a full $2 million dollars from 2022?
A portion of this, ($131,000) represented the defunding of one ACO II position in response to budget reduction requests as part of the 2023-2024 budget process. The remaining nearly $2 million referenced above was not a cut to the SAS budget. Rather, the costs had been allocated to each division for indirect expenditures for things like rent, internal services (IT and central HR support, etc.), and pooled benefits. The change you’re referring to reflected a technical adjustment where these indirect costs were moved to be allocated centrally rather than to each division. There was not a cut to services or support received with these changes.
Why did the 2024 endorsed budget of $5.0 million shoot up to $7.2 million as the 2024 adopted budget in a subsequent document?
In 2024, the Department of Finance and Administrative Services (FAS)—of which SAS is one of 10 divisions—introduced a new budget project structure that aligned budget with the department’s core functions rather than divisional structure. Like the changes in 2023, these big shifts were not an increase in services. They were refining the 2023 shift to allocate back some of the indirect costs. This change included moving indirect costs, such as rent and internal services, back into divisions while leaving other indirect costs, such as pooled benefits, into a central holding area.