Cathy Casey - like a dog with a bone on fees

An impassioned plea by Auckland Councillor Cathy Casey ended the controversial increase in dog fees proposed by Council for the 2012-2013 year. This time last week Ms Casey presented an amendment to council, requesting a roll-over of this year's fees. She said the finance committee needed to go back to the drawing board. Earlier, council was presented two new options for the fees but those too were rejected.

"It's treasury telling us we need this [fee hike], but it's a disservice to dog owners," Ms Casey told the strategy and finance committee.

The increases were first revealed by The Aucklander in February and created an outcry including more than 4500 submissions to the Draft Long Term Plan. Ms Casey said Auckland wants to become one of the world's most liveable cities and dogs and their owners are part of that.

"It's not about opening a pie cart, it's about having a dog that's part of your family," she said.

Ms Casey has two dogs, both Chinese crested powder puffs - 10- year-old Mitzy and Pat, 8. She says the council needs to define its principles behind dog ownership first, then set the fees accordingly. Principles included registering dogs, ensuring that where possible they are rehomed rather than euthanised, and reducing dog attacks.

There are 97,000 registered dogs in Auckland but an estimated 107,000 that aren't registered.

She said the new fees did not indicate where the money would go. There was no way of knowing if the increase would reduce the number of unregistered dogs. On the contrary, dog owners claimed the pricing was so excessive it was likely to increase unregistered numbers.

"Dog owners are not greedy and not selfish," she said. "They are prepared to pay an increase but you must be able to tell them why there's a need for the increase and what they are getting for their money. At the moment that information isn't available to me as a councillor, it's not available to the council and it's not available to the dog owners of Auckland."

Rolling over the current fees would give time to gather that information. "We should be able to see how much of your fee goes to education, infringements, euthanasia, it's all supposedly commercially sensitive, so we can't tell dog owners how much it costs."

No other issue in her time as a councillor had brought her such a positive response by phone, email, in person and on Facebook.

"The main main thing has been that there is an appreciation the council has listened.

"People are struggling to pay rates and various things already without these fees tripling."

She said it's unlikely anything will be done on next year's fee increases until the dog policy and bylaws document is finalised. Hearings for that will be in July.

Auckland Council's Nigel King, acting manager licensing and compliance, said the council intends to undertake a review of the costs of its animal management services. "This will include a review of dog registration fees. Planning for the review is underway."

Mayor Len Brown said the new council had been caught between a rock and a hard place. "The Government arbitrarily cut dog fees to a lower level than most of the previous councils, and the incoming council has been required to set a new fee prior to passing a region-wide policy on dogs," he said. "We have tried to balance the cost to dog owners with the impact on rates."

He agreed more work was needed on the fee structure. "Cr Casey's amendment gives us the chance to match the dog licence fees with the upcoming review of the dog policy and I support that."

Mr King says the original proposed fees were based on financial data that did not include infringement income and impounding fees. But that revenue was included in the [two new] dog registration fee options considered at the Strategy and Finance Committee meeting on May 3.

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