San Francisco Zoo in Violation of City and State Public Records Laws, City Contract
Despite Unanimous Vote, Zoo Tells Task Force They Don’t Intend to Abide
In April 2021, The San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Task Force found San Francisco Zoological Society (SFZS) in violation of the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance and California Public Records Act for failing to respond to records I requested.
I have spent 16 years trying to better understand the inner workings of the San Francisco Zoo and zoo leaders have blatantly refused to respond to my records requests — those finding were is a win for zoo animals and an important mandate for better governance at the San Francisco Zoo.
In addition to violating city and state law, the zoo is currently violating its lease agreement with San Francisco. In the 85-page lease agreement between the city and the San Francisco Zoological Society in section 16.2, it’s explicit:
SFZS shall provide public access to information concerning the operation of the zoo to the same extent that such information would have been available to the public pursuant to local ordinances if the department had continued to operate the zoo in the same manner as if it did prior to the date of this agreement.
It further states…
All information concerning the status of all animals exhibited or otherwise housed or cared for at the zoo shall be deemed public information subject to public inspection under the Public Records Act.
The San Francisco Zoo was owned and operated by the City of San Francisco until 1993 when the city entered into a private/public partnership with the San Francisco Zoological Society, which is a non-profit that the city pays $4.2 million a year to manage the zoo.
The San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Task Force heard testimony from, Jason Watters, Vice President of Wellness and Animal Behavior at San Francisco Zoo.
After 20 minutes of deliberations and questioning, the San Francisco Sunshine Ordinance Task Force, which is a quasi-judicial body of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, voted unanimously in favor of me.
After the vote, Josh Wolf, the then Vice-chair of the Task Force shared this:
“Sunshine Task Force unanimously upheld that zoo records are public records that legally must be turned over to Mr. Barker. I look forward to hearing that he has received documents he has requested, and I want to thank him for bringing this issue to the attention of the task force.”
Despite the unanimous vote, Jason Watters told the entire task force the zoo intends to continue breaking the law.
Transparency and public records requests are so important for places like the San Francisco Zoo — A zoo whose director, Tanya Peterson, is a lawyer with no experience working with animals or managing a nonprofit.
Peterson who was only meant to be interim zoo director after a Siberian tiger was killed in a hail of police gunfire after fatally mauling a zoo visitor in 2007 has now resided over the zoo as executive director and president of the board for 16 years.
Peterson, who has a 11% approval rating by employees on Glassdoor, earns $358,269 a year, which is $60,883 more than London Breed, the Mayor of San Francisco, who earns the highest mayoral salary in the United States.
San Francisco Zoological society must comply with the Sunshine Ordinance, establish a formalized process for future records requests and the entire management team must take Sunshine Ordinance and ethics training to prevent further violations.