Costa Mesa is hunting for a new long-term animal services provider after its previous contractor collapsed under the weight of missed deadlines and safety lapses — but the city drafted its new bidding rules without ever bringing them to the volunteer committee created specifically to watch over animal care in the city.
The city released its request for proposals on September 1, and the bidding window closed Wednesday, according to the Los Angeles Times. Costa Mesa has not yet selected a provider for the permanent contract, which is slated to begin January 1, 2027 and run for three to five years, with the chosen group expected to take in strays, treat sick and injured animals, and work alongside police animal control officers.
Notably, the new RFP looks a lot like the proposal Westminster Adoption Group and Services, or WAGS, submitted on May 27 to serve as the city's temporary provider, the paper reports. WAGS chief executive Michelle Russillo declined to comment on the similarity.
A Contract That Fell Apart
The city's previous arrangement with Priceless Pet Rescue unraveled after the nonprofit struggled to comply with its five-year, $480,000-a-year agreement, signed in April 2024. Costa Mesa Police Chief Joyce LaPointe issued a notice of violation on March 19, giving the group 60 days to fix the problems — among them, Priceless Pets' failure to build a full-service shelter inside city limits and its inability to staff the facility around the clock for after-hours drop-offs, per the same report. The notice also cited two separate dog escapes, one of which left an animal struck by a car and euthanized, according to an earlier Los Angeles Times report.
When the remedy deadline passed without resolution, the city terminated the agreement in closed session on June 3 rather than pursue litigation, ending an eight-year working relationship with the rescue group. Between 2018 and 2026, Priceless Pets had cared for 3,606 animals in Costa Mesa and helped the city maintain its no-kill status through its storefront adoption facility, The Orphanage, on Newport Boulevard. Debbie Price, who operates the Newport Boulevard adoption center, said the revised bidding requirements differ substantially from what she previously had to meet.
Looser Rules, Higher Price Tag
In the gap left by Priceless Pets' exit, the city signed a temporary deal with WAGS running through December 31 at an annualized cost of $576,000 — a 20% jump, or $96,000 more per year, over the old Priceless Pets contract. WAGS, a nonprofit founded 15 years ago in Westminster, already provides municipal shelter services for Westminster, Stanton, and Seal Beach in addition to Costa Mesa, and maintains a high-save standard that uses euthanasia only after medical or behavioral options are exhausted.
The new RFP eliminates several requirements that had tripped up the previous contractor. Bidders no longer need a shelter inside city limits; instead, they only need office facilities within 15 miles of Costa Mesa and access to veterinary care within 5 miles of that office. The city also cut the required staffing window from 24/7 on-site coverage down to a minimum of 24 hours per week spread across six days.
Committee Left Out of the Process
The Animal Services Committee, a seven-member volunteer body the City Council established in 2017 to monitor live-release rates, adoptions, and veterinary care and advise the council on animal care functions, never reviewed the bid invitation before it went out. Cara Stewart, who chairs the committee, said members want greater involvement in the contracting process going forward and has launched an online petition — which had gathered 272 signatures — calling for the city to study a permanent, locally controlled shelter.
Becca Walls, who served on the committee from 2018 to 2025, said excluding the panel from RFP development was problematic. Stewart has also filed candidate disclosure statements to run for the Costa Mesa City Council District 3 seat in the November election, adding a political dimension to a debate that is, at its core, about who gets a say before contracts are signed.
Costa Mesa is one of several Orange County cities — along with Newport Beach, Irvine, Laguna Beach, and Mission Viejo — that run their own localized animal care programs instead of relying on the centralized OC Animal Care shelter in Tustin, a structure the city settled into after moving away from regional contract arrangements in 2017. Whatever provider the city ultimately chooses will also have to operate within California's Hayden Act, the 1998 state law requiring shelters and contracted providers to hold stray animals for a minimum of four to six business days and attempt adoption or rescue placement before considering euthanasia.
