The Henry Vilas Zoological Society will transfer $593,000 directly to the zoo as part of an agreement with the Dane County executive’s office.
The agreement, signed today, also calls for the Society to transfer an endowment fund of $7 million to the Madison Community Foundation to be used to support the zoo.
The agreement appears to end the dispute that began last March when the county executive’s office severed its relationship with the Society, which had been the zoo’s fundraising organization since 1914.
In ending the relationship, the county took over all the concessions at the zoo, and evicted the Society from the zoo grounds. But it was unclear what would happen to the money the Society had already raised and controlled.
The conflict between the two entities grew more heated in November, when the county asked the Dane County Sheriff’s Office to investigate what it called an “enormous discrepancy” in the amount of money collected in the donor tubes at the Henry Vilas Zoo and what was reported publicly by the Society.
The Society, in turn, accused County Executive Joe Parisi’s office of attempting to “tarnish its reputation” through the investigation.
The Society, in a Dec. 20 statement, said that the pending criminal investigation “had no bearing on today’s announcement.”
Under the agreement, the Society also agrees to turn over its membership list to the county and cease to do business as the Henry Vilas Zoological Society. The group is changing its name to the Greater Madison Conservation Society, Inc., but it did not specify what the group will do.
In its statement, the Society thanked its “countless donors, members, volunteers, and staff who have supported the organization over the years.” Tom Hanson, chair of the Society’s board of directors, also said that the “Henry Vilas Zoo has always been our number one priority.”
Parisi praised the agreement in a statement: “We are pleased to reach an agreement that assures dollars raised at the Zoo in recent years will go directly to future capital projects and its missions of conservation and species survival.
“Securing these dollars, new funds added to the county budget for longer summer evening hours, and the recent accreditation by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums mean Dane County's Henry Vilas Zoo will offer its best zoo experience ever in 2020,” he adds. “We appreciate the work of the Zoo Society to reach an agreement that's in the best interest of our community's free zoo and its hundreds of thousands of visitors.”
The agreement also calls for an end to the acrimony. “The parties agree that their professional and personal reputations are important and should not be impaired by any other party after this agreement is executed.”
