[Sustain] Zoo Director Resigns

[Eric Brooks]

See article below. While this is welcome news, it means we have to be 
even more vigilant now.  This could be a move on the part of the SF 
Zoological Society to let the resigning director take the blame for the 
Zoo's problems on his own shoulders as he leaves, giving them the chance 
to fly in under the radar and get approved for a new long term contract 
with the City; which would be a travesty. We must keep foremost in our 
mind and work that the SF Zoological Society is the real problem, and we 
must continue to demand that its management of, and fundraising for, the 
facility must end as rapidly as possible.

peace Eric

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/06/BACT114U8M.DTL&type=printable


  Beleaguered S.F. Zoo director quits

Rachel Gordon, Chronicle Staff Writer <mailto:rgordon at sfchronicle.com>

Friday, June 6, 2008

San Francisco Zoo Director Manuel Mollinedo meets with me... 
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2008/06/06/BACT114U8M.DTL&o=0&type=printable> 
Tatiana, a Siberian tiger, escaped from her grotto last C... 
<http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=/c/a/2008/06/06/BACT114U8M.DTL&o=1&type=printable> 


*(06-06) 17:47 PDT San Francisco -* --

Manuel Mollinedo, the executive director of the San Francisco Zoo, has 
resigned, officials announced late today.

The announcement, issued nearly six months after a zoo tiger escaped on 
Christmas Day and killed a San Jose teenager, comes amid high zoo 
employee turnover and what some keepers described as abysmal morale.

The San Francisco Zoological Society, the nonprofit that oversees zoo 
operations, issued a statement at 5:20 p.m. today.Tanya McVeigh 
Peterson, a lawyer who serves on the zoo society board, has been 
appointed interim director.

In addition, Carl Friedman, head of the San Francisco Department of 
Animal Care and Control, will be temporarily assigned to the zoo to help 
with animal welfare and management issues, sources told The Chronicle.

Mollinedo became director of the 100-acre facility in February 2004 
after running the Los Angeles Zoo for eight years.

The San Francisco Zoological Society provided no details on what led to 
Mollinedo's departure, other than that he plans to retire in the Bay 
Area and will stay active in his support of the zoo.

"The board greatly appreciates his efforts and wishes him well in his 
retirement," the statement said.

Word of an impending shake-up began to leak Thursday afternoon when the 
zoo society's board of directors held a closed-door meeting. A staff 
meeting at the zoo was called for this morning, but was abruptly 
canceled right before it was to begin, several zoo workers told The 
Chronicle.

Mollinedo and other zoo officials did not return repeated requests for 
comment throughout the day, and instead opted to issue a news release at 
the close of the business week, a time often picked by politicians and 
institutions to bury potentially unfavorable news.

Mollinedo was picked to head the San Francisco Zoo after a nearly 
six-month, nationwide search. He beat out 100 candidates and eight 
finalists for the position of executive director and president.

/E-mail Rachel Gordon at rgordon at sfchronicle.com 
<mailto:rgordon at sfchronicle.com>./

http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/06/06/BACT114U8M.DTL


-- 
"I am not a liberator. Liberators do not exist. The people liberate themselves." -- Che Guevara

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