Henry Vilas Zoo
It’s accurate to say that Brent Walter grew up at the Henry Vilas Zoo. His dad, Richard Walter, was a zookeeper there for more than 30 years and his godfather was a zookeeper there for 40 years.
“We were here fairly often,” remembers Brent. “Back in the ’70s, a lot of the animals were hand-raised, so we hand-raised a lot of them at our house because they had to have 24-hour care. We had tigers and racoons and bear cubs in our home. To me that was just growing up.”
During summer breaks from college, Walter worked at the zoo’s concessions, and after college, he kept working there. “I just decided this was working out,” Walter says.
Not only did he love working at the zoo, Walter says it was a growing business. When Walter began working at the zoo, there were only about 15 employees running the concessions. Today, there are roughly 75 — mostly high school and college students — whom Walter oversees as the senior vice president of operations at the nonprofit Henry Vilas Zoological Society.
For Walter, the job is not just a paycheck, but a job with a purpose. “All of the money we raise goes to the zoo,” he says of the society. “It’s been that way since 1914. Our mission statement is to support the zoo.”
On Tuesday night, Walter went before a Dane County committee and pleaded with supervisors not to dissolve the relationship the county has with the 105-year-old Henry Vilas Zoological Society.
“I’m 31 years at the zoo,” he told the supervisors, fighting back tears. “It’s really tough to do this. To be told we don’t do a good job anymore is just unrealistic.”
Walter told supervisors that the society dedicates 100 percent of its profits toward the zoo, but the private company officials are contemplating turning operations over to would turn over only 85 percent.
“I don’t understand how a for-profit company is going to be better for the zoo than a nonprofit company,” he told supervisors.
But Walter’s pleas went unanswered — after Sunday, he’ll be unemployed.
The county’s Public Works and Transportation Committee recommended that the full board approve funding for nine more positions, as the county prepares to take over zoo functions now overseen by the Henry Vilas Zoological Society.
The committee also recommended the board approve a three-year no-bid contract with Centerplate to run the zoo’s concession operations, which the society now runs.
The dissolving of the relationship between the county and the society has left many people baffled, frustrated and angry. As one resident told the committee: “We love the zoo. My children love the zoo. And I don’t understand what’s going on. No one has made the case to me about why this 100-year-old relationship is ending.
“This is an amazing zoo thanks to the work you do,” the man added. “And we’re members and contribute in a very tiny way. But what the hell is going on?”
Joe Tarr
Brent Walter: "I don’t understand how a for-profit company is going to be better for the zoo than a nonprofit company."
The divorce between the society and the county has been bitter and acrimonious. The two entities have been negotiating for a contract renewal for about a year. When an agreement couldn’t be reached last December, an extension was granted until March 31.
Under current operations, the personnel who care for and tend to animals are hired and overseen by the county, while the Henry Vilas Zoological Society employs the people who run concessions, rides, educational programs, marketing and social media.
Josh Wescott, chief of staff for Dane County Executive Joe Parisi and one of the county’s chief negotiators on the zoo contract, says that the society’s bargaining position has put the zoo’s accreditation with the Association of Zoos and Aquariums (AZA), at risk. Among other things, the accreditation enables the zoo to obtain and house endangered species.
Wescott says that the AZA requested that the county increase staffing for animal functions and the county, in turn, asked if the society could increase its contribution to pay for them. He says that the society, in its contract proposal, placed conditions on the funding increase.
“[The society] said if we are going to provide more money, we want animal trainings and public animal feedings and baby animals,” Wescott says, which could be used for marketing and fundraising purposes. “It’s not a carnival. That’s where the AZA got really concerned.”
Amy Supple, a society board member, disputes this characterization. She says the contract proposal the society submitted was based on a strategic plan that the society and the county had developed together in 2017 and had been signed off on by the zoo’s director, Ronda Schwetz, a county employee.
“She didn’t even know that [the strategic plan] didn’t meet the AZA standards,” Supple says. “The society is not the AZA expert. We’re relying on Ronda to tell us what is and isn’t up to the standards of the AZA.”
Supple says when the society learned the strategic plan and the proposed contract posed problems for accreditation, it immediately agreed to make changes.
The county has also claimed that the society staff was unwilling to relinquish oversight of some functions that are necessary for AZA accreditation, such as the training and oversight of volunteers.
Supple says that this is a mischaracterization. She says the board has been willing to give the zoo director oversight on big picture details, but that it needed to be able to make smaller decisions — such as who to hire to work at a concession stand — in order to function.
The society sent a letter to Parisi’s office on March 27, reiterating this point.
“We do admit, and stand by, our position that we did not think that ‘ultimate authority’ means every decision we made would need to be approved by the zoo director,” the letter stated. “This is not a requirement of the AZA. It is not how other AZA facilities are run throughout the country. And, it is not the relationship you will have with your third-party vendors, like Centerplate, going forward.”
Wescott says the county also became concerned by the amount of money that the society was raising on the zoo’s behalf but keeping in reserve funds. The society’s most recent annual report from 2017 shows that it has an operating reserve fund of a little over $3 million and an endowment fund of about $1.1 million.
The operating fund was established for when bad weather depresses attendance on the zoo’s typically big weekends, like Memorial Day, Mother’s Day, and the Fourth of July, says Tom Hanson, the society’s board president.
“The purpose really is to recognize there will be a period of time we may need to tap into this because of inclement weather or a downturn in the economy,” Hanson says.
The endowment fund was established a couple of years ago, with the hope of growing it enough so that interest income could eventually fund zoo activities.
But Wescott says that the society’s reserves are closer to $7 million and that the management of the money has raised concerns, because it’s happening “without any public review or scrutiny.”
“It’s money raised on public grounds, in a public facility in the name of a public purpose,” he says. “But the decisions on how that money is allocated are made by a board that routinely meets in closed session.”
At the March 26 committee meeting, two supervisors — Tim Kiefer and Andrew Schauer — tried to find ways forward that would preserve the relationship between the county and zoological society, offering resolutions that would request the county enter into mediation and that the county executive’s office continue negotiations. Both resolutions failed. The resolutions to approve new county staff for the zoo and to contract with Centerplate for concessions, both sponsored by Supv. Chuck Erickson, were then approved.
The county will still need to find an organization that can raise private funds for the zoo. Wescott says that the county will prepare a request for proposals to see what organizations can offer in terms of fundraising.
“We know what the best offer from the society was. They gave us $595,000 last year. They gave us some number higher than that the year before,” Wescott says. “Maybe that’s the best the zoo can do. But we really don’t know that until we ask the question publicly.”
Theoretically, the society could put in a proposal to fulfill that fundraising role, but Supple is not optimistic. She notes that the county will first study what it wants from a fundraising entity and then put out a request for proposals.
“Best-case scenario, that’s probably a three- to four-month endeavor. Worst case, it could be six months,” Supple says. “We’re not going to have an organization six days from now.”
The money that the society has already raised will go into a trust for the zoo. Any expenditures of that money will require approval from both the society’s board and the county, Supple says.
In the meantime, the society is vacating its offices at the zoo and laying off its 13 full-time employees.
At the committee hearing on Tuesday, one supervisor asked Walter if he would be interested in applying for a job with the county when it begins hiring.
“I don’t know at this point, because I don’t know what jobs there are. We have not been approached for taking on other positions. My job isn’t the important thing, it’s the zoo,” Walter responded. “After 60 years of family involvement, the daughter of the first director of the zoo finds me every year when she’s at the zoo. She’s 95 years old. It’s not just that you can go get another fundraising organization. There’s been 105 years of building relationships.”
Katie Knill, the chair of the society’s young professionals board, known as “The Pack,” told supervisors that she’s confused about what happens going forward. Her organization is in the midst of planning for a May 31 event at the zoo for children who have terminal illnesses. “Is that happening? I don’t know,” Knill said. “Are we still a group? I have no idea where this goes.”
She told the supervisors she wouldn’t ask people to donate to an organization she didn’t have faith in or know about its track record. “What happens when your revenue streams dry up because you’ve created this huge public thing that happened and we don’t know why?” she asked.
The kerfuffle has already cost the zoo at least one donation. During the March 26 meeting, Carla Moore told supervisors that she has been a longtime donor to the zoo and had established a “significant” legacy donation in her will. She said her lawyers are now advising that she reconsider leaving the zoo money because of the fallout with the society.
After the committee voted to move ahead and terminate the relationship, Moore told Isthmus that she will be revising her will.
“I won’t be giving money to the zoo, which is very distressing for me because the legacy would have been in the name of my late husband, who absolutely loved the zoo,” Moore said. “Under the current circumstances they will hire an unproven fundraising arm, I suspect.”
She’s angry at county officials and pessimistic that they will change course.
“I would have voted for Joe Parisi, but never again,” she said. “I’m really upset.”
