The tornados that struck the Cities of Garland and Rowlett in 2015 and the hail storm that devastated much of the City of Wylie in 2016 emphasized the need to have mutual aid agreements in place for a variety of governmental services, including animal control services. After these two events, the City of Allen lead an initiative with the city attorney to develop a "boilerplate" Interlocal Agreement (ILA) that would allow any North Texas animal control department to join as "parties" under the agreement. By approving the ILA, the parties are agreeing to a set of guidelines and standards to follow which establishes a formal mutual-aid agreement among the parties. Currently, the Cities of Irving, Arlington, Cleburne, Farmers Branch, Grand Prairie and Allen have all tentatively agreed to approve the ILA and join as the initial parties. It is the desire of all parties that the area's animal control supervisors push the initiative and encourage other cities to join on an ongoing basis.
The attached ILA is the latest draft and is substantially complete. It is possible that portions of the ILA may change slightly as all the parties finalize their participation, so the Resolution for this item authorizes the City Manager to negotiate and execute the agreement when it is in its final form.