Firing of Director Laid to ‘Problems’ at Los Angeles Zoo

The director of the Los Angeles City Zoo has been fired for his inability to solve what his boss called “a series of internal problems” at the Griffith Park facility, City Hall officials said Thursday.

Warren Thomas, director of the zoo since 1974, was dismissed Wednesday from the $73,000-a-year post in the aftermath of a disciplinary hearing Tuesday, said James E. Hadaway, general manager of the city’s Recreation and Parks Department.

Hadaway declined to discuss details of the action against Thomas “on advice of the city attorney’s office and because of possible litigation.”

“All I can say is that during the past few years there have been continuous internal problems at the zoo,” he said.

‘Not by Accident’

Thomas said the fact that the zoo went from a “substandard” institution when he took over 12 years ago to “one of the foremost zoos in the world . . . did not happen by accident.

“For someone to tell me they lost confidence in my ability to manage the zoo, in my mind, fails to compute.”

He said his telephone line has been “hot” with calls from zoo directors all over the world expressing their shock at his firing and their support for him.

He added that he received a notice dated last Friday “that I was to appear at a disciplinary hearing for the express purpose of firing me.

“I had virtually no time to do anything because I had to appear on Tuesday. I was served with a notice of discharge at 1:50 p.m. Wednesday. It was effective at 5 p.m.”

He said he would not get into a public discussion of any differences he might have had with Hadaway because “the most important thing of all is the welfare of that zoo. I’ve poured my heart and soul into it for 12 years. The end result speaks for itself. It’s a superb zoo.”

Thomas as temporarily replaced by zoo administrative officer Ralph Crane, pending a search for a permanent successor, department spokesman Al Goldfarb said.

Baret C. Fink, a lawyer representing Thomas, said his client was fired without “due process and a chance to present anything of a favorable nature” during the 45-minute hearing before Hadaway and two other department officials. “It was very clear from the start they intended to discharge him,” he said.

Fink said Thomas was criticized by department officials for three alleged incidents:

- There were two animal transfers to other zoos that were carried out by subordinates without approval from department supervisors or the Recreation and Parks Commission. “Dr. Thomas told me there were 4,000 animal transfers in his 12 years at the zoo, and they picked on two of them,” he said.

- Thomas was “insubordinate” recently when he failed to clear a position that he took before the board with Hadaway and other supervisors in advance. “It had something to do with filling two positions or using the money for maintenance or acquisitions,” Fink said.

- Mishandling ivory artifacts that had been given to the zoo for safekeeping.

Center of Controversy

Thomas was the center of a controversy several years ago over the disappearance of more than 200 of the ivory pieces entrusted to the zoo. He was suspended without pay for five days in 1983 for “lack of management judgment in the acquisition, maintenance and security” of the ivory, which had been confiscated by police officers from a downtown art gallery and turned over to the zoo for safekeeping.

Nearly two years later, a county grand jury found no evidence of wrongdoing.

“That’s what’s so absurd about this whole thing,” Fink said. “It (the missing ivory) is no basis for discharging him at all. . . . He took the job when the zoo was in a shambles and made it a first-rate institution.”

Thomas has no Civil Service protection and is not eligible to appeal the decision, Hadaway said.

William R. Robertson, the local AFL-CIO head who is president of the Recreation and Parks Commission, when asked if he was told by Hadaway the reasons for Thomas’ dismissal, replied: “I didn’t ask. . . . It’s not a policy decision.”

In announcing the firing of Thomas, Hadaway said, “The city appreciates that under Dr. Thomas’ direction the zoo has continued to provide quality service to the public.”

Hadaway said his department will make “a concerted effort to find a top-notch administrator to succeed Thomas and to continue the Los Angeles Zoo’s status as one of the nation’s leading zoos.”

Thomas, a 56-year-old zoologist and veterinarian, was named to the post in May, 1974. He had headed zoos in Oklahoma City, Omaha, and Brownsville, Tex.

He came to the Los Angeles Zoo at a time of considerable turmoil. The zoo had been established in 1966, but by the mid-1970s it had fallen into disrepute after a series of reports of poor conditions there and deaths of animals.

A blue-ribbon panel of zoo experts called the facility a professional “graveyard” fraught with political and bureaucratic mismanagement.

Years later, Thomas, talking about his decision to take the job, said he had heard at the time that the Los Angeles Zoo “was a good place to destroy your career. The word was that the city would not back you, that you had to work with a union and a Civil Service Commission which were impossible to deal with and with a zoological society that was impossible. And you had to face a keeper force that had just engineered the demise of your predecessor and his assistant.”

Crane, 57, has been with the department 29 years--the last 16 as zoo administrative officer, dealing with personnel, security, maintenance and financial matters.

The zoo, which has a budget of $8 million, is visited by about 1.4 million people a year.