Cashmere warms to WVHS contract after reset meeting

CASHMERE — A months-long impasse over animal control services softened Monday night as Wenatchee Valley Humane Society Executive Director BJ Andersen met with the Cashmere City Council, acknowledged a rocky start, and walked members through a leaner contract path forward.

Andersen, who took the helm late last year, told councilors her first months were spent learning the jurisdictional contracts and seeing how work was actually allocated. “I’d really like us to get back on the right foot,” she said, adding that the Humane Society’s nine municipal contracts have been tracking “quite spot-on” to their projected service shares. For Cashmere, she said, the city accounts for about 2.28% of WVHS demand.

The unspoken understanding here, of course, is that WVHS is the only organization in the region doing this work. There is no specific animal control or humane society for each municipality; instead, WVHS might be in Malaga and Chelan on the same day, all run out of their facility in Wenatchee. Level of demand, then, becomes the only metric that matters when it comes to how much each municipality pays for the WVHS to serve their area.

Council previously declined to renew the contract amid cost concerns and confusion about what was covered. Andersen didn’t assign blame, but her tone — part clarification, part mea culpa for miscommunications that predated her — lowered the temperature in the room. Questions shifted from adversarial to practical: What exactly is in the contract, what isn’t, and how do reporting and enforcement work?

Andersen drew a bright line. Animal control covers RCW-level enforcement, the legal stuff: Dangerous and potentially dangerous dog cases, bite quarantines, and strays, plus most pet licensing. The Humane Society side handles social-service work such as owner surrenders, food assistance, behavior help, and an expanded vet clinic for low-cost spay/neuter and TNR (trap-neuter-return) for community cats. “We’d rather keep pets and people together,” she said.

She also previewed a reduced, three-year contract profile (previously shared in draft) with escalators of “8%, then 3%, then 3%” — still below WVHS break-even, she said, but intended to stabilize services region-wide. If Cashmere wants coverage restored before Jan. 1, Andersen said WVHS is “completely open to pro-rating.”

Councilmembers pressed on code enforceability, reporting cadence, licensing upgrades (DocuPet), and which cats are and aren’t covered. Councilmember Jayne Stephenson asked that feral/community-cat expectations be stated plainly. Councilmember Chris Carlson pushed for clear details on fees, fines and reporting. The mayor summarized the path ahead as paperwork, including being open to Andersen guiding them, as she’s able, through streamlining and even updating municipal codes regarding animal services.

By night’s end, the mood matched Andersen’s opener — reset and rebuild. The city will review revised language and return with next steps, but one thing was clear by the end of the discussion: Everyone left feeling better than they did when they walked in, including residents who attended.

Andrew Simpson: 509-433-7626 or andrew@ward.media