I wasn’t initially in a union, but then they made some rule of saying that everyone had to be in a union. So then civil service in their brilliance, started going through all these different classifications that weren’t in unions and started, they had assigned them to unions. So the… Read More
And, and I don’t know who on the zoo side, if Saul was involved when they were separate entities with their contract and in terms of the city contract, that was part of the city master contract. I mean, there were people that sat in from the recreation park department,… Read More
Well, first of all, the general curator came, though initially I was the only curator. Then there were multiple curators. I wasn’t general curator in charge of animal, whole department officially until 2010, when they’ve created the society, created the position that there will be, it was a department, the… Read More
Did you personally, as the general curator have to deal with the unions and how did that affect the zoo?… Read More
We always had the basics to run the zoo. And I forgot the point that I was trying to make. Well, when you were talking about the zoo society, you said were talking about unions. Read More
I think it’s fortunately, I never took budget seriously in the end. I have no experience with budgeting Lincoln Park, but at Evansville and one of my first introductions as a management was a budget issue. But over the years I saw that it didn’t matter, you may not be… Read More
The city had many more holidays than the zoological society. There was talk about the zoological society, I believe. And their initial contract wouldn’t allow employees to take vacation in the summer because that’s the busiest season. Well that wasn’t in the city’s contract, all of this caused a lot… Read More
Same union, there were Teamsters, but a different contract and the city had its own contract and there were different pay rates and there were different benefits. People could be working next to each other, and they have basically the same job description, totally different pay scale, benefits. That made… Read More
Of course there were difficulties. Let’s first talk about the employees, when the city and the society came up with an agreement, and I think it is a 99 year contract with there’s an option every five years, it’s either five years or 10 years, to renew or to make… Read More
Any difficulties?… Read More
Can you talk about the general transition from a public zoo to a society operated zoo?… Read More
You mentioned the zoo did ultimately go private. Read More
That wasn’t until the early nineties, it was about 13, 14, 15 years. So you were a city, as well as everybody else was a city employee. Yeah, everyone was a city employee. Well, the society had their own employees too. They had their own staff taking care of animals… Read More
How soon after you arrived, did the zoo go from being a public zoo to a private zoo?… Read More
There was nothing really that would increase attendance, draw attendance to the zoo that started changing, SEEDA also had effect on San Francisco and what they wound up doing because it allowed them to partially fund first of Wolf Woods and the Musk Ox exhibit, then Gorilla World, and the… Read More
Money was always an issue. The society’s involvement was an issue. Early on, I mean, the society always thought that the city was doing a poor job of managing the zoo. The society had a contract with the city that they operated all the concession stands, gift stands or gift… Read More
What were some of the issues affecting the zoo when you got there?… Read More
When I first came there for many years, I was not in the chain of command. My position there was advisory. I mean, I think they called it advisory to the head keeper or assistant keep and senior keepers. I had no direct reports and I would be keeping the… Read More
How did your management style change at all, from Mesker Park?… Read More
He would openly listen to keeper, he would listen to people, for their input in terms of changes and things that’s going on. and he was able to implement or change, initially when he first got there, in terms of acquiring animals or reacquisitioning them, no animal could be moved… Read More