Emergency Panel Formed to Address Zoo’s Problems : Recreation: One goal is to save facility’s accreditation. Ex-director gets $10,000-a-month consulting contract.

Trying to put things right with the beleaguered Los Angeles Zoo, the City Council on Tuesday formed an emergency committee charged with saving the facility’s accreditation and addressing its most urgent problems.

Also Tuesday, the city’s Recreation and Parks Commission approved a nine-month consulting contract, at $10,000 a month, with the man who resigned as zoo director the day after a panel of outside experts released a report detailing the facility’s many deficiencies. The commission oversees the city-owned zoo.

Mark Goldstein, 42, a veterinarian who had run the zoo for three years, was awarded the contract to help the zoo through its transition to a new administration, which could include some form of private operation.

Recreation officials said they hope to name an interim director in the next few days.

In its report last week, the panel of zoo directors from three other U.S. cities said it had found substandard animal habitats and sanitation problems at the Los Angeles Zoo. Zoo officials acknowledged Friday that coyotes from the surrounding Griffith Park hills have breached fences in poor repair in recent months and killed several flamingos and a rare Andean condor.

The panel warned that the zoo could lose its accreditation, which would be a public relations disaster and would prevent it from trading in some kinds of animals.

The zoo also has been beset by internal squabbling over spending priorities for a $23-million bond measure, declining attendance and stagnant fund raising.

On a motion by council President John Ferraro, whose district includes the zoo, the council formed an ad hoc committee Tuesday to launch emergency maintenance and repair operations and to help the zoo prepare for an accreditation inspection scheduled this spring by the American Assn. of Zoos and Aquariums.

Besides Ferraro, the panel will include Councilwoman Rita Walters, who chairs the council’s Arts, Health and Humanities Committee, and Councilman Richard Alatorre, head of the Budget and Finance Committee. Ferraro said the committee members “are ready to roll up our sleeves and get to work.”

The committee will consult with Recreation and Parks Department and zoo officials to determine priorities for dealing with the most urgent problems.

The council also asked its legislative analyst and the city’s chief administrative officer to study possible reorganization that would lead to a “public-private partnership” at the zoo and to examine the role played by the facility’s private fund-raising arm, the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn.

The commission approved Goldstein’s new contract on a 4-0 vote, with little debate.

Ferraro declined comment on the contract, saying he had not read the details and noting that “such an action is well within the purview of the commission.”

Goldstein was credited with several improvements at the zoo after inheriting numerous problems when he arrived from Boston, including federal citations for filthy exhibits and contaminated animal feed. He repaired relations with the local zoo association, oversaw construction of a new elephant barn and restored the zoo’s tram service.

However, some employees criticized him as being indecisive and preoccupied with political concerns at the expense of the animals.