Yeah, it, and it didn’t, it wasn’t based on seniority, just ’cause this person worked longer, had to get more money. We could reward the younger person that was working their ass off and doing a lot more. So, you know, your, your your bonuses, you didn’t get bonuses with… Read More
’cause weather, just the weather. Making sure you were prepared for disasters. Yeah, I, you know, almost everything could go inside and the flamingos could go in the bathrooms. That’s what you usually do with flamingos for hurricanes, you know, ’cause the flamingos just stand there. They’re fine. But, and… Read More
But again, I, did I answer the question?… Read More
But there was the question before that. There was something else I was gonna add before the weather. You were talking about what you want to change right away. Yeah, I, the, the culture had to be changed too, you know, and that when you take over a new facility,… Read More
It was in, it was in the, the nicest area of town. Most city zoos are, are usually not in very nice areas of town, or they used to be, but that now they’re not. So we, we, we were in a very good area for, for fundraising to improve… Read More
Did you have to deal with any We were in hurricane, we, we were very vulnerable to hurricanes. And it’s a low lying area where the zoo is in Herman Park. And we had a sign, one very significant hurricane when I was there. But we had a lot of… Read More
Excuse me. How does the zoo, now you’re Houston Zoo and, and there have been hurricanes. Read More
How does the zoo prepare for natural weather disasters?… Read More
You said, I gotta change this right away. The pair exhibit was horrible. It was so small, you know, and it was little and either get rid of it. And then we had a small mammal building that I said, we gotta close this thing. It’s just these window, you… Read More
Were there certain exhibits in your mind?… Read More
So, so we had some semi employees, but most of them that were five years or less, they didn’t, they they, they, they then went to to, to the new zoo and had a 401k instead of a retirement fund. And there were, there were a few keepers that didn’t… Read More
So it worked out, it worked out, it worked out pretty well. But it was stressful. It’s always stressful. It’s all, you know, and that, you know, the end result was worth it. But God, you know, there was a lot of debates When you were there looking at the… Read More
But if we wanted somebody, we could offer them more money and a promotion. So the ones we did that we want, the ones we wanted to save, we offered more money. The others we’d get the same. And so we only had a few people leave. Well, we had… Read More
It was a zoo where I’m, I’m in my office and a lady comes in and says, could you come out to the restrooms?… Read More
They’re all flooded, you know, had to wade through water and squeegee. The bathrooms were like third world bathrooms, you know, things were overflowing. They ran outta toilet paper. Nobody did. The animal, the animals were taken well care of. But the public was like, they didn’t get, they didn’t… Read More
What kind of zoo was it?… Read More
It was a zoo that had long lines. When the, when the lines got busy, the cashiers took a break because it was too stressful for them. Read More
They go, what? I’m not gonna lead it. What do you mean?… Read More
So when you first got to Houston, what kind of zoo were you finding that you needed privatization, you wanted to do things?… Read More
You, you we told you to lead it. No, I got somebody, I’m gonna be the vice chair. Bill Barnett’s gonna lead it. Their drawers dropped. They knew the train had left the station. They were giving me kind of lip service. But now I had somebody in there. They,… Read More