The San Francisco Board of Supervisors has approved a resolution to allow the city to loan the San Francisco Zoo up to $8.5 million to keep it afloat amid its current fiscal crisis.
The resolution, which was approved unanimously Tuesday without discussion, grants the city’s Recreation and Park Department the ability to enter into a loan agreement with the San Francisco Zoological Society, the nonprofit that operates the struggling zoo.
The zoo is projecting a $12 million deficit in the next two years. Terminating operations with the Zoological Society, according to the resolution, would not be fiscally prudent or feasible for the city.
“The purpose of this loan is really to tide them over (for) the next couple years, while they engineer a financial turnaround and become self-sustaining,” said Nicolas Menard from the Budget and Legislative Analyst Office at the Board’s Budget and Finance Committee meeting earlier this month.
Visitor attendance, which is the main source of revenue for the zoo, has remained below pre-COVID-19 pandemic levels. Yet expenses have increased, forcing the zoo to dip into its reserves, according to Zoological Society CEO Cassandra Costello in a presentation at the Budget and Finance Committee meeting.
“We are in this position because of some significant challenges that the zoo faces in terms of both their costs and their revenues,” said Recreation and Park Department General Manager Sarah Madland at the committee meeting.
Audit finds faults with zoo
A 250-page audit of the zoo’s performance and management released in early May revealed that the Zoological Society spent around $12 million in capital improvement projects without required approval. It also showed that the zoo has not met its goals to modernize substandard and aging exhibits, nor developed sufficient strategic planning to outline its goals.
The loan agreement’s conditions seek to address these issues, requiring the Zoological Society to implement stricter accountability in tracking its goals, as well as developing plans to address its structural deficit by reducing expenditures and boosting zoo attendance.
“There is a long list of milestones that the Department and the zoo must meet,” said Supervisor Myrna Melgar at the committee meeting. Melgar requested the audit over a year ago.
“We can see the light at the end of the tunnel here, and we have to walk hand in hand with the zoo. We cannot be hands off in this relationship. We must partner together to make sure that we are successful.”
Supervisor Myrna Melgar
One of the proposed plans for boosting attendance is by bringing giant pandas from China to live at the zoo, an idea that has drawn criticism from animal welfare activists.
“The audit proves this zoo lacks the financial stability and basic infrastructure to responsibly care for highly sensitive giant pandas,” said Taciana Santiago Melo of Panda Voices, an animal welfare organization, in a statement after the audit’s release.
The Zoological Society is anticipating that two giant pandas will arrive to the zoo in early 2028, but a technical agreement with China has not been executed, according to Costello.
“We can see the light at the end of the tunnel here, and we have to walk hand in hand with the zoo,” Melgar said. “We cannot be hands off in this relationship. We must partner together to make sure that we are successful.”
