Austin Animal Services Office begins developing bond package for 2026 vote

The Austin Animal Services Office is in early stages of developing its future bond package. The complete package for all participating city departments will be presented to voters in 2026.

In the meantime, the department is working through a process that will determine how its bond requests take shape.

Each department participating in the bond process must adopt guiding principles that will be used consistently in the development of technical criteria and a scoring matrix – all of which must be established by each department and approved by the Bond Election Advisory Task Force before any specific projects can be developed for consideration.

Deputy Chief Animal Services Officer Jason Garza gave an overview of the Austin Animal Services Office bond development status to the Animal Advisory Commission at its regular meeting on March 10. He explained that the department adopted the following six guiding principles, in alignment with the bond program: social equity; affordability; innovation; sustainability and resiliency; proactive prevention; and community trust and relationships.

“These six principles are tied to the city strategic plan and are the foundation of how each will develop the criteria to score the proposed project,” Garza said.

On that scale, sustainability and resiliency are worth five points, equity and innovation both count for 10 points, and affordability is worth 15 points. Proactive prevention as well as customer trust and relationships are weighted the heaviest, at a potential 30 points each. All projects are scored on a 100-point scale.

“On this (Animal Services Office) scoring matrix here, I find it a little disheartening that sustainability and resiliency only receive five points,” Commissioner Lotta Smagula said during the questioning period.

“With resiliency, we are looking at how we can impact the shock and stressors of climate change,” Garza explained. “Will the building itself and operating increase (the effects of) climate change? I can’t tell you that, especially if we really targeted a LEED-certified building.”

Garza confirmed that the current shelter meets LEED silver requirements.

In previous bond cycles, the Austin Animal Services Office asked for $22.3 million to replace its Town Lake Animal Center. The city’s Bond Election Advisory Committee granted $12,065,000.

The next steps for the office in the bond process include briefing the Bond Election Advisory Task Force on technical criteria and scoring matrix, developing projects for consideration, determining if there is alignment or overlap with other departments and presenting recommendations to the city manager’s office.

Photo by SteelMaster Buildings made available through a Creative Commons license.

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