Chickens May Not Be Cheap, Cheap, Cheap, Attorney's Office Says

Wauwatosa's chickens are getting their first mid-year performance review Tuesday night – about three months early.

The ordinance allowing backyard chicken-keeping – up to four hens per household – was passed only in February, with a one-year trial period.

The "sunset clause" would be invoked if the hens should prove to be more trouble than they would appear to be worth.

Given that upon passage of the law on Feb. 5, there was no permitting process yet set, the birds have had only a little more than three months to get settled.

To date, according to a memo from Assistant City Attorney Eileen Miller Carter to the Common Council's Budget and Finance Committee, four applications for chicken coops have been received, but only three permits have been issued.

Under those permits, 11 hens are being harbored at Wauwatosa households.

Carter's memo also mentions that the permit fee established after passage was $15 per chicken, per year (permits must be renewed annually as long as the same hens are kept or new ones brought into the fold.)

That means so far the city has taken in $165 in permits but has likely expended the equivalent of $468.59 implementing and responding to the ordinance, Carter said.

The memo cites estimated expenditures of administrative staff time of nine hours, pro-rated at $405.39, and notes that there has been one complaint fielded by the Health Department.

The Health Department itself, though, did not characterize that contact as a complaint.

"It was more of an inquiry about what the ordinance entails," said Jim Beix, environmental health manager for the department. "We have not received any calls requiring inspection for communicable disease or a nuisance investigation.

"We haven't been called out to the field so far."

Beix said that nine hours of administrative time spent setting up and advising on the ordinance was probably accurate – but that won't be a continuing expense.

"That was one-time policy development," Beix said. "We should have everything pretty much hashed out now."

The other expenses noted in Carter's memo comprise one-half hour spent on office work by the public health manager at $26.10, and one hour of an assistant city clerk's time at $25.60, plus $11.50 worth of postage.

Those last costs of processing permits would be continuing as new permits are drawn or renewed.

Beix said that additional costs in time to the Health Department will be accrued only if any complaints do arise that would require an additional inspection or investigation.

Beix also mentioned that in addition to the single inquiry call about the ordinance, the office had been copied on one letter in general opposition to it, but regarded that as a policy matter and not an enforcement issue and passed it on to the City Clerk.