12:00 AM CDT on Thursday, July 30, 2009
By RUDOLPH BUSH and DAVID FLICK / The Dallas Morning News
The Dallas Zoo has long belonged to the city's taxpayers, but a plan being developed at City Hall would turn its management and animals over to the private Dallas Zoological Society before summer's end.
Mayor Tom Leppert said Wednesday that it's time to shift the zoo's operations into private hands to help the city overcome a critical budget shortfall.
Leppert intends to have the City Council discuss an agreement with the zoological society no later than mid-August, and he hopes to see it approved shortly thereafter.
Handing the zoo over to the society could save the city several million dollars off the $12.3 million proposed for zoo operations in the coming fiscal year, Leppert said.
But, he added, the deal is far from done.
Michael Meadows, president and chief executive of the society, confirmed that talks with the city are in a final stage.
The society's board has yet to sign off on an agreement but became interested in taking over the zoo when it became clear that the city's budget troubles would lead to major cuts that could have a long-term impact.
It's also not yet known how the City Council will react to the proposal. The zoo is a major attraction in southern Dallas, and turning it over to the society might prove politically delicate.
But Leppert and Meadows said they think the zoo can be run just as effectively and at a lower cost to taxpayers in private hands. They also hope doing so will stabilize its budget. As the city tries to close a budget gap of $190 million in its $1.9 billion budget, more than 40 zoo jobs are on the chopping block.
"What we're really trying to do is say: Is there way to get it out of the irregularities of the funding of the city?" Leppert said.
Meadows also hopes that private donations to the zoo will increase if the society takes over.
Other zoos, including Houston's, are run under similar agreements and have had better success raising funds because of it.
"There is a perception when something is run by a public entity, that they don't have a need for private donations. We've found that donors prefer to give to privately funded institutions," he said.
It's not yet clear how turning the zoo over would affect its day-to-day operations.
The agreement would turn over all management and operations as well as the zoo animals to the society. The society would not pay the city anything.
The city would retain ownership of the zoo's land and physical exhibits, of which there are about 190.
Leppert said the agreement will require that the zoo be operated at or above current standards or be returned to the city.
The society, meanwhile, is already familiar with many zoo operations, and its staff runs zoo marketing, concessions and the gift shop. The society has also funded several exhibits.
But city employees make up the bulk of the zoo's staff, including its top managers and animal keepers.
They will all have to reapply for their jobs if the agreement goes through, Meadows said.
That includes zoo director Gregg Hudson and his top staff. Hudson has received praise at City Hall and from the society for building the zoo's reputation for attractive exhibits and animal scholarship.
The city's proposed budget includes eliminating 45 of the zoo's roughly 250 jobs as part of wider cutbacks across City Hall.
Ongoing exhibit work at the zoo would continue as planned, including construction of the African Savanna – a major new exhibit that will become home to at least two elephants and other large animals.
Leppert said he doesn't anticipate the zoo will ever be off the city's books entirely.
Taxpayer subsidy will always be a piece of its budget, and that subsidy could grow in the short-term before leveling off, he said.
The zoo is also expected to benefit from future bond programs.
But now there is a better way to operate it, Leppert said, and Dallas should move in that direction.
"What we're trying to look at is what is this asset and what's the best way to manage it," he said.
http://www.wfaa.com/sharedcontent/dws/news/localnews/tv/stories/DN-zoo_30met.ART.State.Edition2.4c18ebf.html
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