Tri-City briefs | Humane society struggles with strays, Union City and Fremont city councils end virtual participation

Ohlone Humane Society is out of money to spay, neuter cats

FREMONT, Calif. — Anecdotal reports suggest the stray cat population in the Tri-City area is surging, and the Ohlone Humane Society doesn’t have the resources to spay and neuter them.

Several people with the humane society urged the Fremont City Council on Oct. 10 to improve the situation at the Tri-City Animal Shelter and swiftly fund the trap-neuter-return program to control the population of feral cats, as well as the program that subsidizes those services for low-income residents.

“We’ve run out of money,” said Hilary Danehy, director of spay-neuter for the humane society. “What do we do at this point? We have spent over $52,000, as of September, spaying and neutering, vaccinating and treating for parasites, but we have no more money.”

The previously smooth collaboration between the animal shelter and the humane society hit a snag recently, but Danehy emphasized the need for additional support from and for the shelter.

Union City, Fremont city councils put the kibosh on virtual participation

FREMONT, Calif. — Both the Union City and Fremont city councils have decided that they will no longer accept comments from virtual participants during their meetings.

On Oct. 10, both city councils decided that they would no longer be accepting comments on Zoom because of fears related to vigilantes hijacking public meetings. At the Fremont City Council meeting, resident Kelly Abreu called the move a “preemptive assault on free speech.”

“How many disruptive Zoom callers have you had,” Abreu asked. “I think it’s a grand total of zero.”

Government agencies expanded opportunities for remote participate in their meetings during the COVID-19 pandemic and many, such as all the area school districts, have opted to continue the practice. Others, like the Union Sanitary District, took it a step further and ended the ability to watch meetings remotely.

Fremont City Council continues to support rent review board

FREMONT, Calif. — A voluntary process to resolve disputes related to rent increases in the city of Fremont appears to be working well.

The Fremont City Council gave its unanimous support for the continuation of a rent review program, which allows tenants to have increases in their rent reviewed by the city’s rent review board. Robert Lopez, one of the city staff overseeing the program, reported that more than half of the 56 requests for rent review during the past year were resolved, with many cases ending with tenants’ rent increases being reduced or canceled.

“A lot of tenants and landlords want to work together,” Lopez told the council, “so that’s been good to see.”

Fremont adopted its rent review ordinance in October 2017, allowing tenants to have rent increases over 5% reviewed by the board. However, Lopez added there are exceptions to the 5% annual cap for landlords that have not raised their rents in years.

_{Photo caption: A stray cat sits on a fence in Union City. Ohlone Humane Society is struggling to keep up with the need to neuter and spay stray cats in the Tri-City area; its trap-neuter-release program is currently out of funds. (Sonia Waraich – East Bay Echo)}