Last fall, the 121-year-old Dallas Zoo embarked on a bold plan to run more efficiently and save the city money: It went private.
Since then, Texas' largest zoo has saved the city millions in operating costs while generating a windfall of hefty donations.
"We think it's working quite well," said Susan Eckert, spokeswoman for the city-owned facility now operated by the nonprofit Dallas Zoological Society. "It's been seamless.
"Our goal is that people not notice the difference."
The Los Angeles Zoo is now poised to follow the lead of Dallas and other large U.S. cities that have turned their menageries over to private management.
This week, the Los Angeles City Council ordered a feasibility study on ways to transform the city zoo into a public-private partnership. The study may take a year.
If approved, the financially strapped city would sign over operations of its Los Angeles Zoo & Botanical Gardens to a non-profit entity such as the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association.
Los Angeles currently spends $5 million a year of its $17 million budget to support the zoo. The remainder is raised through ticket sales and other income.
While GLAZA President Connie Morgan did not return calls, LA Zoo officials praised the potential move.
"What we're looking at is a new governance model," said General Manager John Lewis.
"Instead of a city department that tries to run a zoo, we want to be azoo that focuses on (being) a zoo and all that it implies - conservation of animals, public access, education, and welfare of the animals."
Some of the nation's top zoos are now run by private zoological associations, including those in San Diego, Chicago and New York, industry analysts say. City-owned zoos in Santa Barbara, Fresno and San Francisco, as well as the Long Beach Aquarium, are also privately run.
Of the 180 zoos accredited by the Association of Zoos and Aquariums, half are privately run, a spokesman said. Of those, between 50 and 60 percent receive some city money to help support operations.
"There have been waves of privatization," AZA spokesman Steve Feldman said. "When city budgets are tighter, they examine this option more carefully. It may produce some savings over the long run, but it's not a quick fix.
"It's a way to inject some form of predictability into the budgeting process."
For cities, one advantage of such partnerships is to transfer hundreds of public employees off their payrolls, freeing up millions in operating costs.
Comparable in size to the Los Angeles Zoo, the Dallas Zoo has an operating budget of roughly $17 million. On Oct. 1, Dallas turned over operations of its 95-acre zoo to a company formed by the zoological association, while retaining its zoo property.
The Dallas Zoo's 200 keepers and other employees were given the choice of transferring to other public jobs in the city, or working for the new company. Even though the city has agreed to subsidize the zoo for $10.8 million a year, it still saved $6 million.
In turn, zoo officials said they could operate more efficiently, buying new computers and equipment and cutting more nimble deals with venders and suppliers, Eckert said.
Since December, local philanthropists chipped in $2.25 million to help the zoo.
"This should be a good move for Los Angeles," Eckert said. "We patterned our move after many top zoos. People are willing to give to a privately managed zoo."
