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Crisis In Leadership Threatens Support For Lowry Park Zoo

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The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 18, 2008

Lex Salisbury has had a great run as president of Lowry Park Zoo, elevating its facilities, its draw and its stature.

But recent news reports reveal another side to the man who has won public affection for his great way with animals.

Reports by the Tribune and NewsChannel 8 paint the portrait of a public official who has lost his way - and shattered public confidence in his ability to safeguard public resources.

It appears Lowry Park's president has been gaming the taxpayer-supported zoo to build Safari Wild, a private, for-profit zoo he is developing near Lakeland. Now he's resisting city demands for better oversight, presumably because he doesn't want Lowry Park to meet the transparency requirements of the Sunshine Law, which raises another question: What else is he trying to hide?

A few weeks back, Salisbury assured the public that there were no ethical conflicts between his public job and his private development. He admitted that zoo staffers had done some work for Safari Wild in Polk County, but he assured us that staffers had done little more than make a few phone calls and arrange a couple of meetings.

Salisbury failed to mention that:

•The zoo paid to build a 2,400-square-foot horse barn at his private park, plus a similarly sized primate building. The zoo also paid for fencing around five acres of property, where Salisbury was housing the zoo's horses.

•The zoo agreed to pay Safari Wild $600 a month for five bison to graze there. Never did Salisbury ask the city, which leases the zoo its land, if other public property could be used for free.

•Salisbury moved three of the zoo's white rhinoceroses to Safari Wild, including two pregnant females. Salisbury told WFLA reporter Steve Andrews that the first offspring from this rare collection would go to Lowry Park Zoo, but he planned to keep the second baby rhino for Safari Wild. He said this was standard operating procedure in the world of animal husbandry. Despite his position, he seemed unfamiliar with the zoo's lease that says all of its animals belong to the city.

•The zoo's six-member executive committee agreed to let Safari Wild exhibit animals on Salisbury's property for free, where they would be seen by visitors of the private venture, though not by visitors to the zoo. When the agreement was brought to the full 38-member board, former Gov. Bob Martinez argued against approving a verbal characterization of the contract. His sound advice was not heeded. Neither did Salisbury inform the board of his personal stake in the private venture.

Sadly, Salisbury refuses to see the error of his ways. He acts like a victim, rather than a leader paid more than $270,000 a year to manage one of Tampa's jewels.

So, too, has board chairman Fassil Gabremariam failed his board and members of this community. He should immediately come clean about who will perform the promised audit, which needs to be independent to be trusted. And he should explain why he served on the private foundation that supports Salisbury's for-profit park, creating the appearance of another conflict of interest.

As we said when USF President Judy Genshaft formed a banking business with USF board member Lee Arnold, it is a conflict of interest for board members to enter private business relationships with the chief executives they supervise. Cozy deals like these leave taxpayers wondering who's looking out for them.

Salisbury seems to have forgotten that the zoo is a city-owned facility that every year requests a taxpayer hand-out to keep the lights on.

Hillsborough County, too, gives the zoo public money and administrator Pat Bean is rightly concerned about how it's been spent.

Salisbury has done great things at the zoo, no question. But Lowry Park is not his personal fiefdom to do with what he wants.

Actually, Salisbury appears most excited about the future of his private venture, which leaves some patrons questioning the vision for the zoo. Why, some have asked, did he install a water-flume ride that forced the displacement of the bison to his private park? Is he trying to make the zoo a theme park?

A crisis in leadership hovers over Lowry Park - from its president, to its chairman, to its too-powerful executive committee and its uninformed board of directors.

Tampa Mayor Pam Iorio is right to demand that a city representative be given a seat on the executive committee and that a public accounting be made of all the animals, including any that Salisbury might keep at his private ranch in Dade City.

It's doubtful that Salisbury can survive the drip, drip, drip of revelations that have revealed such poor judgment on his part, especially since he refuses to take responsibility. That's why Martinez, from his seat on the board, should lead the call for restructuring the zoo's governance.

The zoo is bigger than one man.
Lowry Park Zoo needs new leadership.

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