STAR-BULLETIN / 2001 The City Council will meet on Tuesday to consider Mayor Jeremy Harris' proposal to privatize the Honolulu Zoo. Problems at the zoo, including the long-delayed construction of an elephant-mating facility, also will be addressed.

Pondering privatization

Honolulu considers a private-public
partnership to manage the city zoo

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By Crystal Kua
ckua@starbulletin.com

Honolulu could join cities across the country that have gotten out of the business of running zoos.

"Many zoos are moving toward that now. Sixty percent of city-owned zoos are now run by nonprofit governing bodies. It is a trend that is happening," said Gigi Allianic, spokeswoman for the Woodland Park Zoo in Seattle.

In his State of the City address last month, Mayor Jeremy Harris proposed privatization of the zoo, the Blaisdell Center arena, the Waikiki Shell and maintenance of a golf course and certain parks.

"The potential of this is very exciting. They just have to make sure they do it right the first time -- or not at all -- or they could give privatization a bad name," said Michael LaFaive, director of fiscal policy with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a Michigan-based pro-privatization think tank.

The mayor called for the zoo to be privatized to save the city money. But how much savings will be realized remains to be seen.

That's because one of the models being looked at would have the city continue funding for the zoo at its current level, said Barbara Thacker, executive director of the Honolulu Zoo Society, the nonprofit organization that supports the zoo.

The zoo's operating budget for the current fiscal year is $3.5 million.

The City Council Parks Committee meets Tuesday and the Budget Committee Wednesday on the zoo privatization proposal as well as some of the problems at the zoo, including the long-delayed construction of an elephant-mating facility and questions about halted construction projects.

Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi said that before any privatization plan can move forward, the zoo has to put its current affairs in order.

"When you privatize, you usually turn over the function to the entity that wins the bid and then they in turn pay for all the operation and maintenance but they also keep ... all the revenues that comes from the gift shop and entrance fees," she said. "There's cost savings if everything's turned over to them, if it's a true privatization where they take care of everything."

But she said that if the city is going to continue with current funding levels to the zoo, it doesn't make sense because the city could continue paying while also losing revenue.

Thacker said "privatization" is not an accurate term for what the society envisions in a new management arrangement. She said it's more like a private-public partnership.

From Houston to San Francisco to Pittsburgh, Honolulu has models to follow when it comes to privatizing the zoo, including the Woodland Park Zoo, which just completed the transition from being managed by the city of Seattle to the private nonprofit Seattle Zoological Society.

"My advice would be to take a slow approach and to make sure you build a process that's in the best interest of the zoo and the citizens and the staff who work at the zoo," said Deborah Jensen, president and chief executive officer of the Woodland Park Zoo.

Based on Seattle's and other cities' experiences, transferring the management of the zoo could take years.

Informal discussions with the city have been ongoing for several years, Thacker said.

The society about six years ago conducted a study, which recommended that the nonprofit group operate the 42-acre city zoo in Waikiki.

But critics have wondered whether the society is up to running the zoo.

"We envision it to be a nonprofit. It would certainly not be the organization that is the zoo society today. It would be presumably made up of a board of directors that would have representation from the city, representation from the volunteers as well as others," Thacker said.

The society reports for the 2001 fiscal year revenues of nearly $1.1 million that include $369,126 of noncash contributed services. Expenses total $869,000. Thacker said that 9 percent of society gross receipts goes into a fund that the zoo director can use for operations.

While the city operates the zoo, the Honolulu Zoo Society is in charge of education and volunteer programs plus fund-raising for zoo improvements, and city contractor Service Systems Associates runs the food and gift concessions.

The city of Seattle continues to provide about a third of funding for the Woodland Park Zoo or $2.5 million. Another third will be coming from revenues generated at the zoo including admissions, food concessions and sales of educational material, and the final third from money raised from members and donors.

Jensen said the agreement reached in Seattle allows the society to be more focused on the needs of the zoo including building new exhibits to meet current standards of care.

So far, the zoo hasn't had to raise fees as a result of the switch that is more attractive to private donors. "We'd like to stay affordable to a wide sector of the community in the region. Some of our private supporters say they would rather support a private institution. They think it's easier to hold private institutions accountable," Jensen said.

Mackinac's LaFaive said the Saginaw Children's Zoo in Michigan did not have to raise admissions prices because privatization resulted in increased attendance.

"As a result of reorganizing zoo management, they have been able to dramatically improve animal health, numbers and types, the size of the zoo itself, attendance and their education program," LaFaive said.

LaFaive suggested the city "break bread" with unions for a smoother transition.

Randy Perreira, deputy executive director of the Hawaii Government Employees Association, said the city has drafted guidelines for future privatization ventures.

"In those guidelines, there is an expectation that the mayor has that the privatization of services would result in services being done more cheaply and more efficiently and ensure that the public's interests were protected and there were provisions there that provided for retraining of staff," Perreira said.

The city has started consulting the union over the guidelines.

"We're concerned with the mayor's decision to consider privatizing some of these services and the impact that there will be not only the employees but on the service that's provided to the public," Perreira said.

While Harris has said no city employees will lose their jobs in the process, Perreira said there may be some city employees -- such as animal keepers who are covered by another collective-bargaining agreement -- who may not have an easy time being retrained for other jobs.

In Seattle, employee issues also arose.

"We have represented staff here and we have crafted an employee transition plan with labor," Jensen said. "We're in the middle of conversations with labor about creating a new collective-bargaining agreement and we're still operating in the spirit of the existing city agreement until we have a final new bargaining agreement."

Jensen said the management agreement allows the zoo to look forward to its future. "I think it's going to keep us one of the best zoos in the world."

City facilities that may be privatized Honolulu Zoo City employees: 75 Types of jobs: animal keepers, building maintenance, ground maintenance, veterinary, zoo education and administrative clerical Number of users: 515,125 Revenues: $1.26 million (operations); $120,000 (concessions) Pali Golf Course City employees: 26 Types of jobs: course maintenance and operations workers, cart attendants and administrative clerical Number of users: 114,676 Revenues: $1.65 million (operations); $31,000 (concessions) Waikiki Shell and Blaisdell Arena * City employees: 90 Types of jobs: trades, building and equipment maintenance, laborers, janitorial, grounds maintenance, reservation and sales, box office, productions, concessions and administrative clerical. Revenues: $530,000 (arena); $180,000 (shell) Rented days a year: 129 (arena); 194 (shell) * Waikiki Shell and Blaisdell Arena are part of the larger auditoriums complex and employee numbers are complex wide and not broken down per venue. Source: City & County of Honolulu