Panel on Zoo Director Firing Denied Lawyer
City Recreation and Parks commissioners have denied a request by members of a special tribunal that an outside attorney be hired to advise them during a hearing for fired Los Angeles Zoo Director Dr. Warren Thomas.
In denying the request Monday, the commissioners heeded the advice of City Atty. James Hahn that hiring an outside attorney rather than city-employed counsel “would require a needless expenditure of funds.”
The panel of three private citizens tentatively plans to begin taking testimony Sept. 23. Thomas was fired in June, but a federal judge ordered that the tribunal be set up to give him a full hearing.
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