The city of Santa Maria is promoting responsible pet ownership by hosting the first Paws in the Plaza event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday, May 17, at the Machado Plaza located at 224 W. Chapel St.

The event has been coordinated by a group of nine city staff members from five city departments who participated in a professional development class offered in partnership with the University of California at Santa Barbara (UCSB) Professional and Continuing Education (PaCE) program. 

Paws in the Plaza will feature representatives from Cares for Paws, Santa Barbara (County) Humane Society, Santa Barbara County Animal Services, and a variety of other agencies who are working together to provide resources and services for local pet owners. Most of the agencies are geared to dog ownership, but there will also be information available about other pet species.

Pets on a leash are welcome to attend if they are socialized enough to positively interact in a crowd that contains humans and other pets.

The city of Santa Maria partnered with UCSB PaCE to provide the Management Training for Public Administrators (MTPA) certificate program courses including project management, building high performing teams, collaborative dispute resolution, negotiation strategies, foundations of leadership, foundations of accounting, budgeting, marketing principles, organizational and personal branding, decision making, foundations of human resource management,  and ethics. The 15-week program culminated with the class offering this event to the community as their final project.