Issue of the Month: John Ball Zoo

During the past several years the county has partnered with the John Ball Zoological Society in operation of the John Ball Zoo through two structures—the county owns and funds the operations, and the Zoological Society provides fund raising for new projects. A study completed in early 2011 found this business model was not consistent with zoo industry accepted best practices and was not an efficient model for a sustainable long-term future. Many of our private local Foundation funding entities concurred with this finding. The Zoo Society and County agreed to form a Transition Committee in mid-2011 to develop a new non-profit entity with responsibility for both functions. This Transition Committee designed a new non-profit governance structure with a new Board and management structure. Even though the Zoo Society was active in the Transition Committee work and formation of the final governance structure, concerns have recently been expressed by the Zoo Society members that this direction is wrong. There is a feeling the work expended on behalf of the zoo by the Society has not been sufficiently recognized. This is causing delay in implementation of the new structure, and consequently delay in pursuing a new method of providing the community a quality zoo with a sustainable future. The County Commission Chair has recently communicated the intent of the County Commission to move forward with the recommended changes, and invited the Society members to continue their involvement by serving as board members of the new non-profit. It is unfortunate there is continued dissension about this direction since we started out with mutual intent to find the best possible sustainable operational model for this community asset.