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Yes, This Place Really Is A Zoo!

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By STEVE OTTO

sotto@tampatrib.com

Published: December 21, 2008

You can't make this stuff up.

On Thursday, as armed guards kept the media from a meeting between the board that operates the city's zoo and its about-to-be-canned director, the about-to-be-canned director's wife was charged with animal cruelty for, authorities said, leaving two dogs alone in a car for more than two hours.

That same board - the one that includes the mayor and other elected officials - demonstrated it had little or no idea how the zoo was being run or what the real story was with alleged sales and shifting of animals to unknown locations, pretty much dumping the blame on the now-gone director.

That would be the same director who was taking in $340,000 year to operate the zoo, while mixing the zoo's business with his own animal - some would say monkey - business elsewhere.

You wonder how it all came to this, especially if you happen to have been here long enough to remember what Lowry Park used to be like. I mean we're talking redneck cheesy here.

The old zoo was about as pathetic as they come, with a few animals in gloomy cages. The highlight was a little train kids could squeeze into that meandered around the park so you could see some of the more exotic animals: chickens, a cow, an old mule, some peacocks and, of course, lots of squirrels.

Ah, Simpler Times
Of course those were simpler times. You could still go across town to Busch Gardens, get in for free, watch the bird show and even get a free beer. If you went to the beach you could park for free. Shoot, you even could see the beach without driving down a canyon of condos.

When the city and the county finally decided to do something, at least they did it right. I think designs for the new zoo were based roughly on the Audubon zoo in New Orleans.

Nobody much missed the old zoo with its dingy little carnival rides and grimy cages.

Gradually the new zoo blossomed into a spacious, clean and well-run facility. Instead of an embarrassment it became an asset, even a destination. A few years ago one magazine named it the No. 1 family zoo in the country.

Theme Park Status

But you have to be wary of success. With its successes Lowry Park expanded internally as much as it did externally. More exhibits were added, ticket prices began to reach theme park status and its nonprofit volunteer board grew as well.

The dangerous thing with boards is they can be come symbolic; people end up on boards just to add another feather to their social resume.

Apparently the real power at Lowry Park was in the executive committee, which seems to have spent more time on fundraisers than monitoring what was happening internally with a director who had conflicts of interest.

Now he's gone and board members say they are going to launch a nationwide search to find his replacement.

Don't you just love nationwide searches? Are you telling me they are going to scour the country and bring in people from Boise to Baltimore instead of just looking for someone around here?

Wouldn't you think for a salary package that runs over $340,000, you just might be able to find someone with management skills and the dedication to a park as outstanding as this one without going elsewhere?

Instead of a nationwide search, they ought to find a few people in their boardroom who might be interested in actually knowing what's going on at the zoo.

Keyword: Otto Graphs, to read and comment on Steve Otto's blog.

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