Screen Photo Minot Police Chief Michael Frye speaks to the Minot City Council about pound services Friday, Jan. 23.

A Minot City Council decision Friday, Jan. 23, to reject a negotiated pound contract with Souris Valley Animal Shelter leaves stray animals out in the cold.

However, Minot Police Chief Michael Frye stressed he will not put an animal in jeopardy because a pound isn’t available.

He has been working with SVAS and other animal rescue operations to see what can be done over the next couple of months while the city goes through the process to request new proposals for service. The city’s one-year pound contract for 2025 with SVAS has expired.

Finding a facility to house stray animals has been the dilemma.

“I have to come up with something with my staff to figure out what we’re going to do for the most egregious things that take place, and maybe that’s, in the immediate, putting them in our sallyport,” Frye said. “We will figure it out. It’s an obstacle. It’s an opportunity. We’re going to use it as an opportunity to see where we can go, but I will never look at anything as it’s a dead end.”

SVAS had been the only respondent to the city’s request for proposals to provide pound services for 2026. It had requested a three-year contract to allow it to securely put services in place. The city directed staff to negotiate after that proposal became hung up at the Jan. 20 meeting.

On Friday, the council narrowly voted 3-4 against a negotiated two-year contract that still didn’t give the city the voting position on SVAS’ board that it wanted and didn’t provide for release of all the financial information requested by some city council members.

SVAS Board President Zach Krukenberg further explained the organization’s position on financial disclosure to the council Friday.

“While transparency is important in public dealings, this demand goes well beyond the city’s own standard practices for service contracts and risks undermining a successful collaboration that benefits Minot residents and its animals,” Krukenberg said. “Service agreements between municipalities and nonprofit or private entities like this pound contract are typically focused on performance metrics, service quality and cost effectiveness, not internal financial audits. Requiring public disclosure of an organization’s full financial documents sets a dangerous precedent that could deter qualified providers from bidding.”

SVAS meets federal and state requirements for filing financial information each year by Nov. 15, he added. Insisting on more than this exposes the city to legal challenges or higher costs if alternative providers must be sought, he said.

Council member Mike Blessum said the financial data is important to ensure the city doesn’t end up in a contract with a service provider that goes into bankruptcy, leaving a bill for the taxpayers. Blessum, Rob Fuller, Mike Hayes and Scott Samuelson voted against the negotiated contract.

Blessum said he would be comfortable with the data released each November if it was more current. The latest information publicly available is for 2022. He questioned whether 2023 and 2024 data could be made available.

There also was discussion on having a voting member on the SVAS board, which City Attorney Stefanie Stalheim noted could create a conflict of interest when city matters are discussed. SVAS has agreed to continue the city’s ex-officio membership on the board. Council member Lisa Olson said the ultimate goal is better communication between SVAS and the city by having a city or police representative aware of board discussions.

Council member Rob Fuller moved the city advertise a new request for proposals that allows respondents to submit plans and costs for caring for cats, dogs or exotic animals, creating potential for up to three service providers. Organizations would need to provide their financial information and plans for access to veterinary services.

Frye said the city would then have to determine how unclaimed animals exit to foster families or enter other long-term solutions. He also raised concern about staffing because of transportation to different providers.

“We only have one animal control officer right now. I’m going to need another, plus administration,” he said. “I really do believe that this will cost a little more, based off of what I’ve seen already from financials that have come from the organizations that would bid independently.”

“It’s always going to be cheaper to do it this way rather than building our own building, staffing our own shelter,” Blessum responded. “So, finding a good, stable set of providers that want to do this work for us, I think, is in our best interest.”

Frye said it comes back to finding facilities because most organizations don’t have space or have space only for cats. Likely, the city would need to find a facility to rent, he said.

“Either we’re going to be running it or someone else is going to run it and we’ll oversee it,” he said.

The council voted to have staff draft a request for proposals to come before it for approval on Feb. 2, after which time advertising could begin. About two months is estimated before the council would have a new contract in place.

Hayes encouraged SVAS to submit a proposal, saying just small changes to its existing proposal would put it in a good position for council consideration.