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Zoo Trying to Recoup More than $200K from Former CEO

Tribune file photo by MICHAEL SPOONEYBARGER (2008)

Lowry Park Zoo's board of directors has hired an attorney to recoup more than $200,000 in supplies and animals the former president and CEO Lex Salisbury took from the facility, according to an audit.

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By BAIRD HELGESON | The Tampa Tribune

Published: March 23, 2009

TAMPA - Lowry Park Zoo's board of directors has hired an attorney to recoup more than $200,000 in supplies and animals the former president and CEO took from the facility, according to a city audit of the facility.

Tampa city officials released a final draft of the audit today, more than three months after a preliminary report showed that former zoo chief Lex Salisbury used zoo money, staff and animals for personal gain.

The final audit affirmed all of the major findings from the initial draft, and zoo officials pledged a major overhaul of how it handles animal transactions, finances and tracks items donated to the facility. It also pledged a new era of openness, freeing up employees who feared Salisbury's wrath if they raised concerns.

The city's audit staff conducted the review.

Mayor Pam Iorio, who called for the audit after a Tampa Tribune investigation of Salisbury's dealings, praised the zoo's management for taking the audit's recommendation's to heart.

"I am very pleased," she said this afternoon. "It's going to be a better and a stronger zoo because of this in the long run."

Iorio said the final audit will be forwarded to law enforcement, who can decide whether to pursue a criminal investigation.

The zoo board forced Salisbury to resign in December from his $339,000-a-year job after the audit found he used zoo supplies, money and animals at his personal Dade City ranch and to help build his private, for-profit exotic animal park in Polk County, called Safari Wild.

"He seems unable to differentiate between his role as CEO of the Zoo and the role he plays with his business and his ranch and fails to acknowledge the improprieties even after the results of this audit," auditors wrote.

Two months earlier, Fassil Gabremariam, the zoo board chairman who signed off on many of Salisbury's most criticized transactions, resigned from the board.

Salisbury bought and sold more than 180 animals from the zoo in recent years, which is part of the reason the zoo temporarily lost its accreditation from the Association of Zoos and Aquariums.

The nation's top zoo accrediting group is holding a hearing Friday to decide whether to reinstate its endorsement of Tampa's zoo.

The city owns the land the zoo sits on and its animals. It requires the nonprofit organization that runs the zoo to meet the group's standards.

Salisbury and zoo officials could not immediately be reached for comment.

Reporter Baird Helgeson can be reached at (813) 259-7668.

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