Recreation and Parks Commission Will Consider Reinstating Ex-L.A. Zoo Chief

Former Los Angeles city Zoo Director Warren D. Thomas still does not have his job back.

The Recreation and Parks Commission, in effect, declined a request Friday by Thomas’ attorneys to immediately reinstate Thomas, who was fired last June by department head James E. Hadaway.

Instead, the five-member commission unanimously agreed to review on Dec. 5 the recommendations of an independent citizens panel that Thomas be returned to his job.

The three-member tribunal, organized by the commission under the order of a federal court judge, said last week that Thomas should not have been fired. Rather, he should have received a 20-day suspension for various improprieties and management failures, the panel said.

At least one member of the city commission expressed unhappiness with the tribunal for suggesting Thomas’ reinstatement, saying that the tribunal had been assigned to serve a purely fact-finding function.

“I was shocked,” Commissioner Mary D. Nichols said. “I didn’t think that (deciding the nature of Thomas’ punishment) was their job.”

The legal tangle, which began last June when Hadaway fired Thomas after what the tribunal later termed a “hasty” and “hostile” hearing by top department officials, is headed back to federal court in Los Angeles.

Earlier this week, U.S. District Judge William J. Rea scheduled hearings to resume Dec. 1 on the request of Thomas’ lawyers for a preliminary injunction that would return Thomas to the zoo post.

Rea ordered creation of the tribunal in July in order to provide Thomas with a fair hearing.

Thomas’ lawyers briefly argued before the commission Friday that the findings of the hearing, held by the tribunal, were clear and the commission has no further jurisdiction.

However, deputy city attorneys countered that City Charter provisions clearly indicate that the commission has the right to review and alter, if necessary, the tribunal’s ruling.