And so, we started getting the collection cleaned out and cleaned up and making it more meaningful in terms of the zoo’s goals. I’ve always been a strong believer in understanding that first of all, the zoo is a recreational entity and that’s why people come to the zoo. We… Read More
I think when anybody steps into a position, they’re gonna bring elements of their past with them in terms of what their vision would be and how you would like to make it better. I certainly was fortunate to have some financial skills in terms of managing money and managing… Read More
So, I had an understanding of the power of the computer and how that could help us manage things. When I arrived at the zoo, the entire accounting system was being run on an Apple 2E with about three peripherals in terms of memory and stuff. It was crazy. So,… Read More
Just to drop back a bit, when you became executive director of the zoo, were there things from your other positions that you consciously brought with you that helped you in this executive director position?… Read More
Was this a master plan that was already in place or was this something you created?… Read More
No, 1987. We interviewed some architectural firms for a master plan and Cole Lee were selected and they produced the master plan. So, actually I think that may have been the first bonafide master plan that that institution had ever had. They had little parts but it was here was… Read More
I think it was, looking back on it and somebody else has asked me that question and I thought it was just a matter of deduction. This was the only opportunity left to us other than somebody coming up and giving us a whole lot of money for X number… Read More
Please stay out of this, just give us your blessing and just stay out of the way and let the people decide. I do believe that they were all very surprised when it passed because I don’t think they really understood how popular the institution was with the tax payers. Read More
Did it come from the city fathers?… Read More
Was the sales tax idea your idea, was it a group thing?… Read More
Did it come from the commission?… Read More
They dropped it off 100,000 for each year. So, by the end of three years, we didn’t get any more money from the city. So, we had to generate our own. So, obviously we started looking at revenue centers. We started balancing that with the capital expenses in terms of… Read More
Just that overnight. So, when we and this was a tax against a sales tax for Oklahoma County and the county would collect the money, give it to the city and then the city would dole it out to the trust but nobody else could touch it. It was the… Read More
We had recognized if we had the money, what we would do. So, when we got the money, the next morning I was on the phone to a contractor about let’s get our to the City Planning Committee, let’s get this out, let’s get it in bid form. Let’s start… Read More
The economy kept plummeting. People didn’t have the spendable dollars they used to have. And as a result, we were having a hard time attracting people to the zoo. They just weren’t gonna spend the money to do that. So, we started looking at other ways of funding the institution. Read More
And so, that was not going to happen. Bond issues were mainly for capital expenses. They weren’t supporting operational issues. So, that left only one possibility and that was the sales tax. So, I guess in the fall of 1989, an effort was made to put together a referendum for… Read More
We put together plans, we worked the plans. We made the effort to change the institution in appearance first because that way people could see what was being done and not just saying, “Well, we’re doing this program or we’re doing that program.” They aren’t interested in programs. We wanna… Read More
The responsibilities as they were lined out to me were that we needed to get the zoo back online. Actually the zoo in Oklahoma City was like the Bird Department in St. Louis at the time. It was broken and it needed to be fixed. There were a lot of… Read More
You tell us what we need to do. And they were pretty good about that at in the beginning. And so, we started working ’cause we didn’t have a lot of money. We started doing just cosmetic changes. New coat of paint can do a lot for an old building. Read More
Your responsibilities of executive director, were they given to you in a piece of paper or was it okay, you’re in charge, make it happen?… Read More