Audit Criticizes Zoo Fund-Raiser

The Los Angeles Zoo’s fund-raising group failed to meet its goals, spent money raised without consulting the zoo and paid a former president a salary and bonus not justified by his performance, according to an audit by the Los Angeles city controller released Thursday.

The Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn., a nonprofit group, raised less than its goal in three of the last five years, the audit states. The report also criticizes the association for deciding how the $7.3 million it raised over the last several years would be spent on the zoo, rather than turning the money over to zoo officials to spend.

The audit recommends that the city attorney be asked for an opinion on whether the nonprofit group should repay the $7.3 million to the zoo. But Tom Mankiewicz, the association’s new board of trustees chairman, said the expenditures had been approved by the city.

The zoo and the nonprofit “should be operating in concert, sharing the same objectives and goals,” Controller Laura Chick wrote. “Unfortunately, the audit showed that the relationship was strained to the point of hindering the effectiveness of fund-raising activities and the ability to start construction projects.”

For a while, officials from the zoo and the nonprofit did not communicate, David Townes, interim zoo director, said Thursday. Referring to the association, Townes said, “GLAZA people would not be invited to zoo staff meetings and zoo people were not invited to GLAZA meetings. Communication had basically ceased, which is a dangerous situation.”

One of the projects delayed by lack of funds for as long as nine months was a gorilla habitat, which is about to go out for bids, a zoo official said.

The audit also criticized the association’s board of trustees for paying the group’s president, Don Youpa, $175,000 last year. The trustees also gave him a $20,000 bonus, although the association had raised 64% less than in the previous year.

The bonus was guaranteed when Youpa negotiated his contract, and he would have gotten it regardless of how much money he helped raise, said Mankiewicz.

“The bonus was a mistake,” he said.

But Mankiewicz also said that positions where people are expected to raise tens of millions of dollars must pay competitive salaries. Youpa was considered by many an expert fund-raiser when he worked for KCET.

“Unless you find an incredible diamond in the rough, if you want to pay $100,000 to $125,000 to raise this kind of money, I’ve been told, you’re not going to get many people,” Mankiewicz said. He said Youpa’s fund-raising efforts had been complicated by the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, which happened just a few months after he took over, and which chilled major philanthropy everywhere.

Youpa’s tenure as president ended late last summer, and he’s now a part-time consultant for the group.

Officials for the city, zoo and association said things have markedly improved since the audit’s completion this fall. However, they also said the relationship between the nonprofit organization and the zoo must improve to fund upcoming, ambitious projects.

The zoo and the association, along with the city, are renegotiating their operating agreement to better define their roles. The agreement could be completed in a few months, Chick said.

“We all want what is best for the zoo,” she said.