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Zoo Pays For Barns At Safari Venture

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By BAIRD HELGESON

The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 10, 2008

TAMPA - Taxpayer-backed Lowry Park Zoo has built two barns at zoo President Lex Salisbury's private exotic-animal attraction in Polk County.

The zoo paid for and constructed a 2,400-square-foot horse barn and a primate building of similar size on the Safari Wild property, according to a May 9 application for a federal loan guarantee for the project. The zoo paid for fencing around five acres of property for the zoo's horses, as well.

"This is a cooperative project between Safari Wild and the Lowry Park Zoo," the application stated.

The barns were built as part of a now-voided memorandum of understanding between the zoo's executive committee and Safari Wild, zoo spokeswoman Rachel Nelson said in an e-mail. The agreement granted the zoo a free, 10-acre lease that allowed exhibit animals to roam on the Safari Wild property.

"For this purpose, the zoo installed horse fencing and a pole barn for these particular animals," the e-mail read. "Similarly, construction was started on a bird and primate holding area. These structures are owned by the zoo, not by Safari Wild."

Safari Wild has yet to open and remains delayed by state and county permitting issues.

The executive committee severed the relationship in June when concerns arose about a possible conflict of interest in having Salisbury run both the zoo and the animal park.

The buildings and fencing can be easily torn down and relocated, Nelson said.

Nelson didn't say how much the zoo spent on the structures.
USDA Loan Guarantee Sought

In its loan guarantee application, Safari Wild is asking the U.S. Department of Agriculture to back $2.6 million in long-term debt to refinance other loans, finish construction and run the attraction.

It is the second time in recent weeks that Salisbury has faced questions about using the nonprofit zoo's money, resources and staff to help build his for-profit exotic animal park.

Two zoo board members who don't sit on the executive committee said Tuesday that they didn't know the zoo built barns on Safari Wild property and it is inappropriate for the organization to build anything on land it doesn't own. The zoo board's six-member executive committee approved the cooperative agreement with Safari Wild and construction of the barns.

Salisbury did not return messages seeking comment.

In 2007, Salisbury and St. Petersburg veterinarian Stephen Wehrmann bought 258 acres of land north of downtown Lakeland to create Safari Wild.

Guests would pay more than $50 apiece for an African-style safari tour in which they would see about 1,000 exotic and endangered species.

The animal park was to feature animals from Salisbury's private collection, along with zoo animals that needed a break from the Tampa facility.

Safari Wild has two other buildings on the property.

One building is a 13,000-square-foot lodge that will feature a restaurant and gift shop. The other is a 10,000-square-foot building that will house administrative offices, animals and feed.

The exteriors are complete, but the interiors need to be finished, the loan application stated.

Fassil Gabremariam, chairman of the zoo's board, said he was unaware of the loan application but knew about the barns on the property.

"They were meant to be temporary," he said.
Zoo board member Santiago Corrada didn't know about the barns.

"The zoo should not be building buildings out there," said Corrada, Tampa's administrator of neighborhood services. "Lowry Park Zoo shouldn't have any connection to Safari Wild, not in terms of animals, resources, staffing or money. Nothing."

Another board member, former Florida Gov. Bob Martinez, had a similar reaction.

"That's news to me," he said when told about the zoo barns on the Safari Wild property.

Martinez said he did not support the zoo's connection to Safari Wild from the beginning.

Corrada and Martinez are not on the zoo's executive committee.

In January, the 38-member full board was asked to vote on the memorandum of understanding that the executive committee agreed to with Safari Wild, said Martinez, a former Tampa mayor.

Martinez said he spoke against the measure when staff couldn't present the written agreement, instead asking the board to vote on a verbal characterization of the contract.

"I will never vote on anything other than written material," Martinez said. "I wanted to get a lawyer to look at it first."

The motion to approve the agreement was withdrawn when the objections surfaced, Martinez said.

He said that at the time, the board was not told that Salisbury owned Safari Wild or about construction of the barns.

Martinez said that he learned Salisbury owned Safari Wild in April when 15 patas monkeys escaped from the property.

Of the zoo's connection to Safari Wild, Martinez said, "We should not be involved with properties we don't control."

Nelson, the zoo spokeswoman, said the executive committee has reviewed all of the transactions between Safari Wild and the zoo. "All of the material transactions were approved by appropriate personnel, and, to date, no improprieties have been found."

The zoo will hire an outside auditor to review its transactions with Safari Wild, Nelson said.

Zoo Partnership Helps Loan Bid

It's unclear how much zoo money, staff time and other resources have been used for Safari Wild.

Last month, The Tampa Tribune reported on a series of e-mail messages that showed that the zoo's paid administrative staffers have worked to promote and gain political favor for Safari Wild.

Nelson said the work was incidental and insignificant.

The zoo has an annual budget of about $18 million. This year, the city and Hillsborough County will give the attraction a combined $900,000 for operations. The county is giving the zoo an additional $1.82 million for capital improvements.

Salisbury earned about $271,000 in 2006 as the zoo's president and chief executive officer, according to the zoo's most recent tax filings.

The zoo's partnership with Safari Wild would have aided the loan application, said Joe Mueller, a business project director for USDA who is processing the loan guarantee.

"It definitely helps," Mueller said Tuesday. "If a project is supported by other institutions, it helps. But it's not required."

USDA is waiting for Safari Wild to get needed permits for the project before it can guarantee the loan, Mueller said.

Reporter Baird Helgeson can be reached at (813) 259-7668 or bhelgeson@tampatrib.com.

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