Dozens of Hayward residents and animal‑welfare volunteers urged the City Council on Dec. 2 to preserve per‑diem staff positions at the Hayward Animal Shelter as the city works through a multi‑million‑dollar budget deficit.

Speakers including long‑time volunteers, shelter supervisors and per‑diem employees described programs they said would be lost if the city eliminates temporary staff. "The loss of these positions will be crippling," Jeanne Comstock, the shelter’s animal services administrator, told the council. She said 47% of the shelter’s current workforce are per‑diem employees and warned that reduced staffing could mean reduced hours, lost programs such as TNR (trap‑neuter‑return) and an increase in euthanasia because staff could not care for animals properly.

Those accounts were echoed by per‑diem staff and volunteers. Heather Rapa, shelter operations supervisor, said per‑diems are the "fundamental foundation" that makes the shelter operational and that the city’s decade‑long progress reducing intake and euthanasia would be reversed without them. Volunteers described transporting animals to partner clinics, running the TNR program (which speakers said spayed and neutered 750–800 cats annually from 2022–2024 and is on pace for roughly 1,000 this year), and providing foster and adoption support.

Mayor Salinas opened the meeting by addressing weeks of social‑media concern and emails and told residents the council had not placed any final plan to cut the shelter on the agenda. "There are no plans for cuts to the animal shelter," he said. "We are listening." Several council members, including Mayor Pro Tem Roach and Council member Andrews, later reiterated that staff are conducting a holistic review of per‑diem roles across departments and that there has been no council direction to target the shelter specifically.

Speakers framed the potential savings from eliminating per‑diems as small relative to the city’s gap. A number of volunteers and per‑diems cited an estimate — circulated in public discussion — that eliminating per‑diems would save about $1,000,000, which speakers said is less than 4% of the city’s reported $26.4 million budget gap.

Council members acknowledged the community’s concerns and requested more detail from staff on how reductions would be prioritized. City staff and the police chief (the shelter reports to the police department) said any reductions would follow Memoranda of Understanding and operational needs and that essential, legally required services would be preserved where possible. Council members also described short‑term options they are pursuing, including seeking county support, grants and rescue partnerships, and asked staff to produce clearer trend reporting on realized savings and the status of labor negotiations.

The council did not take a vote on animal services staffing at the meeting. Several council members asked staff to provide a clearer "barometer" of progress on projected savings in advance of the February fiscal update, and encouraged continued public engagement on alternatives to blunt shelter impacts.

Ending: The council adjourned public comment after several hours of testimony and said staff would continue negotiating budget reductions and report back; no final action on animal shelter staffing was taken at the Dec. 2 meeting.