Oahu residents want to have a zoo enough to give it a second chance — a series of second chances, in fact. A new infusion of hope came when the voters ratified the idea of a dedicated funding source for the
Honolulu Zoo, a significant show of support.
But there are limits to the taxpayers’ patience, and Honolulu Hale seems to be testing them now.
The city has been slow to adequately reward that support, unfortunately, and the Waikiki attraction is still missing what it needs most: experienced and capable leadership.
For the last seven years there’s been inconsistent funding and enough instability that five zoo directors have cycled through.
The turnover became part of a long, rocky road that led to the loss of accreditation from the Association of Zoos &Aquariums. This is the credential that underlies, among other things, the zoo’s ability to secure animals for its exhibits. It was rescinded after three cycles of underperformance.
The chimpanzee exhibit was closed after a May 14 episode in which a chimpanzee attempted to escape, clambering up over the wall separating the animals from the aviary exhibit. It was a 10-minute scare, and if the animal had reached a public area, staffers were told to shoot to kill it.
This is a black eye for a zoo under any circumstance, and especially after the zoo has been faulted already for the exhibit’s security.
There is still a pathway to recovery for the Honolulu Zoo, but the problems need to be attacked with a degree of urgency that has seemed lacking to this point.
In November, taxpayers approved a City Charter amendment to provide dedicated funding. Under this new provision, the zoo receives one-half of 1 percent of real property taxes.
By July, that’s projected to
yield $5.8 million of the $7.8 million Mayor Kirk Caldwell wants to set aside for the zoo operating budget. That will go a long way toward
reopening the three exhibits that are now closed and regaining
accreditation.
But first the facility will need a permanent director to replace Baird Fleming who left, ironically, just after the election in which the charter amendment passed. And the search has been dragging on: Active advertising for the post only started a week ago.
Zoo management has been continuing under interim leadership, but that stalls advances in important projects that have been promised, such as a hippo exhibit and reptile house. Department of Enterprise Services Deputy Director Tracy Kubota said during the six-month delay, city officials “reached out to staff and stakeholders to discuss the recruitment.”
Really? That takes six months? The zoo was eligible March 1 to reapply for accreditation but now likely won’t do so until the fall of 2019.
Surprisingly after the long delay in recruitment, the process is now accelerating. The posting closes June 5, which suggested to some, including City Councilman Trevor Ozawa, that officials already have a prospective hire in mind.
That would not necessarily be a bad thing, as long as the administration has some confidence that the new director will stay long enough to make the critical changes. There have been some cosmetic fixes — better grounds upkeep, resumption of educational programs, cleaner animal exhibits — but that’s not enough.
The zoo needs to demonstrate a commitment to lasting improvement. If accreditors are to be convinced that management has taken a new direction, there must be competence and consistency at the helm.
A zoo can be an important educational asset in a remote community such as Honolulu, where children often have no other opportunity to see and learn about animals up close. Still, unless city officials can capitalize on the funding assurance taxpayers have provided them, it may soon be time to rethink whether Honolulu can manage one at all.
