By Hannah Curran, Editor
TRUSSVILLE — The City of Trussville approves a contract with the Greater Birmingham Humane Society (GBHS) for animal control and pound services on Tuesday, February 22.
Trussville City Council approved a contract with Birmingham Humane Society for animal control and pound services. (Photo by Hannah Curran)
According to the resolution presented to council members, in November 2021, the Jefferson County Commission issued an Invitation to Bid No. 7-22 (ITB) on behalf of the Purchasing Association of Central Alabama (PACA) and its members. It would accept sealed bids for animal control and pound services under the ITB.
“We’ve been using them for the last four years, we used to do it ourselves,” Mayor Buddy Choat said. “We used to let the police department and public works kind of handle it, but we signed the contract for almost five years ago now. So it’s just a renewed contract, they had to negotiate a new rate with the county commission. So we’ve accepted their new rate.”
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The council does ascertain, determine, declare and find that GBHS provision of the services and agreeing as provided, will serve a public purpose and is necessary, desirable, and in the best interest of Trussville. The health, safety, and welfare of its inhabitants allow for humane control and care of animals in the city and access to pound facilities. Therefore, the council finds that the items represent important public benefits to the city and its citizens.
“We don’t have any other way to take care of animals,” Choat said. “Some of them go downtown to the shelter, they are adopted. Some of them are just, we don’t know who they belong to, and we try to help them but it plays a big part for us and keeping animals safe and off the streets.”
Council members approved and authorized GBHS to perform the services as set out in the ITB. Accordingly, Trussville shall pay GBHS the cost not to exceed the agreed-upon amount, excluding where applicable pound services paid pro-rata to Jefferson County, as provided in the ITB.
Greater Birmingham Humane Society Animal Care and Control were expressly incorporated into the response to the ITB to perform services for GBHS as a subcontractor. Therefore, they are approved to perform all or a portion of the services for the City of Trussville.
GBHS is an independent contractor of the city. Accordingly, this resolution does not create any partnership, joint venture, or principal-agent relationship between the City and GBHS. Further, the city retains no control or authority with respect to its means and methods in which GBHS (or any of its employees, subcontractors, or representatives) performs the Services.
