SOUTH PORTLAND – Establishing a Fish, Fowl and Animal Advisory Committee in South Portland was a “no-brainer,” South Portland Mayor Tom Blake told the City Council this week.

“The city is actually full of animals,” Blake said.

But other councilors at a council workshop on Monday weren’t convinced that there are enough animal issues in town to keep such a formal council subcommittee busy. And councilors worried how the volunteer committee would cope with residents who get angry and emotional about animal issues – such as ones regarding dogs.

In the end, councilors agreed to create a temporary, informal animal advisory committee. They said that the ad hoc committee would work for six months to come up with some educational information about animals in South Portland that would be shared with the public, perhaps in the form of a brochure.

Blake suggested three topics the new committee could research and provide information about: the foxes in the city, what to do when one encounters an animal that appears to be rabid, and the ducks at Mill Creek Park.

City Manager James Gailey said he would draw up some parameters and guidelines for the ad hoc committee. Blake said councilors would put feelers out for residents interested in serving on it.

Blake seemed surprised on Monday by the council’s opposition to creating a permanent committee to study animal issues in the city. He said he first proposed the idea to the council in the spring and said at that time it had the support of five of the seven councilors to move forward.

As proposed, the committee was designed to help alleviate the demands on city staff and city councilors to deal with animal issues. Blake said he and the city manager often receive calls from residents with such questions as how to deal with foxes or skunks around their homes or about possible rabid animals. And in the past two years, the City Council spent months debating how the city would handle the issues of residents’ keeping bees and chickens in their back yards.

Erik Carson, the assistant city manager, drew up some parameters for the proposed formal committee. The guidelines were based on information he obtained about similar committees in places such as Sioux City, Iowa, and Jackson County in Oregon.

The charge of the formal committee would have been to assist the city in identifying, educating and discussing issues around animals. The committee would also have reviewed and developed policies and recommendations regarding duck, goose and chicken management and also the management of fish in waterways within city limits.

But councilors were concerned because the city said it could not spare a staff person to attend the committee’s monthly meeting and advise it.

The city’s animal control officer, Corey Hamilton, is also Cape Elizabeth’s animal control officer and splits his 40-hour week between the two communities. Police Chief Edward Googins said the demands on Hamilton’s time are so great that he couldn’t attend meetings on a regular basis.

But Councilor Maxine Beecher said that for a formal committee to be effective, “it needs to have a staff person assigned to it.”

Councilor James Hughes said he worried about the volunteers on the committee because sometimes residents concerned about animal issues can be “quite vehement” and “vociferous.”

He said was a lot of contention at the meetings of a task force that over the past year or so studied the question of allowing dogs on the Willard Beach.

Hughes said of a formal animal advisory committee: “It might be difficult for them to deal with public.”

Councilor Tom Coward also said he worried that people would volunteer for the committee because they liked dogs or bees or foxes but then would face “ravening hordes” upset about a issue at the committee meetings.

Coward said he doubted there were sufficient issues to occupy the committee. “I still need to be convinced that there’s enough for a monthly meeting for the subject matter,” he said.

He suggested the city find the funds to have a full-time animal control officer. He also said the city should start an animal control officer internship program to provide more help in responding to residents’ animal concerns.

Blake had suggested the formal committee could study such contentious issues as whether the city should have a dog park.

But Councilor Patti Smith said issues regarding wildlife and companion animals are very different and should be treated separately.

Two residents attended the workshop meeting. Both women said they came the meeting because they appreciate having foxes in the city and feared a new committee might advocate eradicating them.

“I don’t want anything to happen to the foxes,” Sandra Paul told the council.