By Dan Richman

drichman@whidbeynewsgroup.com

Island County is working toward making its animal-control personnel employees of the county rather than independent contractors, county officials said.

That distinction can be crucial to avoiding possible tax-liability problems, said Elaine Marlow, county budget director and administrator of the county’s General Services Administration.

“We the staff recommend hiring a full-time employee on Whidbey and a part-time employee on Camano,” Marlow said. Over time, another part-timer could be added if budget permits, she said. It’s not yet clear on which island the second part-timer would work.

Independent contractors have staffed the county’s animal-control program since the early 1990s, Marlow said.

Using independent contractors poses the risk that the IRS will view them as employees, depending partly on the degree of control the county exercises over them. That perception can cause tax-liability issues, she said.

Carol Barnes is currently serving as animal-control officer on Whidbey Island. Camano Island has lacked such an officer for the past three years.

Barnes will be appointed to the newly created county-employee position, because such appointments are permissible under civil-service rules and Barnes served in that role under those rules from 1984 through 1991, Kelly Mauck, Island County’s undersheriff, said Monday.

The part-time position will be advertised to the public.

“The challenge, especially on Camano, has been finding a contractor willing to essentially operate their own business” of animal control, Mauck said.

Making the animal-control officer a civil servant again “we hope will give us consistency and make it more enticing for people interested in animal control but not in operating their own business.”

“Very rough estimates” put the animal control supervisor’s salary plus benefits at $76,000 per year, and those of animal control officers at $23,000, Marlow said.

The total estimated annual cost for the program is between $114,000 and $143,000.

The animal-control program will be supervised by the county Sheriff’s department, and likely by Mauck himself, he said. Animal-shelter contracts would continue to be overseen by the GSA.

The Board of Island County Commissioners has yet to give final approval to these plans, Mauck noted, and their timeline is uncertain.