Boulder City Proposed "Leash Law" Meets Resistance

At Tuesday night's City Council meeting a proposal (Bill No. 1913) to require dogs be leashed within city limits was discussed. The bill failed 3-2 with Council Members Bridges, Fox and Jorgensen voting against it, so there are no changes currently and the law stays as is. But we really felt that this warranted some additional discussion and review for those who were unable to attend.

Boulder City is the only entity in Clark County without a leash law preventing dogs from being off leash in public areas. Boulder City Police Department staff noted that 9% to 11% of calls to Animal Control staff are specifically related to dogs running at large in the parks. The "problem areas" noted are Veterans Memorial Park and Bicentennial Park. Staff noted that in the last eighteen months, there have been dozens of attacks on both other animals and people. There have been four canine fatalities due to aggressive dogs in the same time period.

Animal Control Supervisor, Ann Inabnitt noted there are an average of 500 calls per year just to her office for animals running at large. That doesn't take into account that hundreds of calls are also dispatched by the police department and handled by patrol officers. She noted that residents have told her they are unable to use local parks due to dogs off leash because they don't feel safe. Police Chief, Timothy Shea stated that a significant number of calls are related to animals potentially running at large.

The current ordinance is largely unenforceable because misdemeanor offenses have to be witnessed by police department staff, which makes it difficult to cite irresponsible dog owners when attacks happen outside of police presence. As the current ordinance is written, a dog is considered running at large when off leash and is not "under verbal control" of the owner. Chief Shea noted that he had never worked in a jurisdiction where dogs were permitted to be unrestrained in public.

Parks and Recreation Director, Roger Hall discussed some of the history of dogs running in parks off leash. There are a number of dog shows at Veterans Memorial Park that allow dogs off leash with the Special Event permit issued. Otherwise, off leash use is not currently available at any city park as a permitted use. At one point, the City agreed to allow dogs inside Veterans Memorial Park baseball fields but that was withdrawn when it was discovered that some of the users were not cleaning up after their animals and other users of the baseball fields (Boulder City Little League, city youth leagues, club teams, etc) were negatively affected. He was unaware of any other municipalities that allowed off leash dog use except at established dog parks. It was noted, for example, the City of Henderson has nineteen municipally owned dog parks within their city limits.

There are several issues that surround this topic that we thought were worth digging into, (pardon the pun) for comparison. Currently, Boulder City has one dog park, which is not managed by the City, but by a private non-profit See Spot Run, which we told you a little bit about recently HERE. This park has a limited budget and is run entirely by passionate volunteers, but frankly lacks the level of resources that some wish it had. A major criticism raised with the park is that there is no grass in the area. Many of the citizens objecting to the proposed leash law stated that they didn't feel we had a proper dog park with grass and that this is the reason they prefer to go to our grassy parks to let their dogs run. A totally understandable desire. But did you know that in fact in the fiscal budget in 2020-21 that our Parks & Rec. Department had on their proposed budget to spend $128,000 on a grassy dog park next to the existing park out at Veterans Memorial? Most of us didn't remember that, but for reasons we're not yet clear on, the project was not approved, and was removed from that budget. (See Special City Council Meeting 10/29/2019 for reference, starting about the 18:00 mark.)

Many residents don't appear to understand that the City does not manage the existing dog park and has never created one in Boulder City. This then ties back to the questions of funding for our Parks and Recreation Department overall. We ran a few quick numbers for you from some of our neighbors to shed some light on this. When you look at the 'Cultural & Recreation' budgets for Boulder City as well as a couple of our neighbors, we found some really interesting stats. BIG CAVEAT HERE: this is a quick glance 30,000 foot view - municipalities might treat different categories of 'parks and recreation' and the maintenance, staffing, etc. very differently from each other. So please remember this is a snapshot without a lot of detailed information. Nonetheless we found it interesting. See below:

As you can see overall, Boulder City is in fact working hard to make sure we have a good quality of life here in our 'clean green' little town. For a small city we are certainly investing in our parks and the city staff work hard to maintain our properties and give residents a good variety of options for our enjoyment from the two golf courses, our parks and playgrounds, the Rec. center itself, fitness and gym programs, sports activities, the pool, etc. etc.

So what about dog parks? Most people who own dogs love them and they have become a new 'must have' item in many communities. Henderson with its 19 dog parks fills the needs of a community with over 300,000 residents, and as noted by our animal control department there are few incidents with negative pet interactions reported there (exact numbers were not presented). Conversely, Las Vegas is lacking with only 10 dog parks within it's city, and what may or may not be a correlation, has a much higher incident rate which was shared at the meeting Tuesday night, with sadly 600 dogs impounded per week because they were running at large.

The picture that begins to appear is this - dog parks that people really want to utilize and be at get used, and this might potentially reduce negative incidents among the animals in other random outdoor situations. An irresponsible dog owner who doesn't train or control their dog or pick up after them, is just that - they are not doing their part to be good owners - and that can range anywhere from being just lazy to being outright negligent and unfit to be doggie-parents, to criminal neglect and disrespect of others rights. Most dog owners however are of course good owners, or strive to be, but even in the most disciplined animals can sometimes go beyond an owner's control. And just because you or I may never have witnessed a situation occurring doesn't mean incidents don't happen. The stats shared by Ann Innabnit certainly gave us pause, and are something we should all take note of.

Opponents of the ordinance felt that the law would penalize responsible dog owners for the misdeeds of a few irresponsible ones. Opponents to the proposed rule change also feel this is overreach of the City Council and an attempt to over control the daily lives of residents. Both of these views are valid, and people feel passionately on all sides of this issue. Public comment on Tuesday night was highly emotional and the meeting room was packed full, we noted.

This issue will surely continue to be discussed and the community will need to decide what level of liability and risk they are comfortable with when it comes to using parks responsibly and balancing the use between regular users of the parks and dog owners who use the same parks. Most importantly though, is we see where this topic becomes the impetus for a larger conversation - the value of our local parks - and also how to prioritize and balance what types of parks/facilities we invest in to create a high quality of life that ALL of us - and our beloved pooches - are able to safely enjoy. So Boulder City, the new budgetary cycle begins soon - let's start that convo and get some of our creative juices stirring and see if we can't make this into a win-win!