Guardian' vs. owner' set for final approval
A controversial measure that would redefine Ukiah dog and cat owners as "guardians" will be back in front of the Ukiah City Council next week.
The ordinance wording change was previously passed with a vote of 4-1, with Councilmember Doug Crane dissenting, and will return for final approval at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday.
Crane and others have previously expressed apprehension about approving the change, fearing it would lead to legal repercussions down the line.
The revised wording of the ordinance provided in the attached staff report responded to these allegations.
"Since the city council received the request to make these changes to the city code, the city has received numerous written and oral comments on this proposed change," stated City Attorney David Rapport in a portion of the document. "Most of those comments are concerned that the term guardian,' as used in state statutes and court decisions, has a very different meaning than the term owner.' These comments are concerned that if the owner of an animal were held to the standard of a guardian, as defined in state statute and common usage, that could result in numerous limitations on animal owners that do not currently exist."
Rapport stated that while the change was "not necessary or useful" in his opinion, the revision should cause no confusion.
"They are concerned that these limitations could prevent owners from using animals for commercial purposes and could result in other complications and potential litigation," he stated. "The proposed amendments attempt to avoid these possibilities by carefully defining guardian to mean only owner as owner is defined in the city code...However, if the City Council elects to make these changes for other reasons, in my opinion, with respect to the administration and enforcement of the Ukiah Animal Control Ordinance, the proposed amendments should not result in the confusion and other consequences described in the referenced letters and comments to the city council."
The agenda summary report stated that the meaning of the words being used would be clearly outlined in the revised code.
"The proposed amendment would add a definition of the term guardian,' which reads as follows: The term guardian,' as used in this Chapter, means owner' as defined...and has no other meaning," stated a portion of the document. "The term owner is not replaced with the term guardian in code sections that reference animals generally or other species than dogs and cats."