Sedgwick County Zoo belongs to the community

The Sedgwick County Zoo is your zoo. It belongs to all of us in the community.

For about 50 years, we’ve been fortunate to have a great public-private partnership with Sedgwick County. Each partner plays an important role in ensuring a wonderful zoo for the next generation.

The volunteer board members of the nonprofit Sedgwick County Zoological Society are also Sedgwick County residents and taxpayers. We greatly appreciate the community support and proposals brought forward to ensure the zoo’s future.

It’s also important to clarify that the zoo does not want special treatment. During tough budget times, we have taken our share of budget cuts, because it was important to us that we be good partners in developing both a great zoo and a great community.

It’s most important to be part of an open and transparent process. We’ve appreciated a partnership that provided oversight within that process for decades under different funding mechanisms.

Volunteer trustees have carefully weighed and discussed each new request with one question: Would it make the zoo a better place for our community? Given that, we were pleased that the county will no longer pursue the operating agreement changes and instead focus on a funding arrangement (Aug. 16 Eagle).

We believe that this approach will allow the society and the county to move forward in a positive manner and continue to deliver the quality experience our community expects and deserves.

The society will begin the process of evaluating the mill levy proposal, including understanding the reasons a similar agreement changed a number of years ago. As the zoo is a publicly owned institution, both the county and society are accountable for the quality, safety and efficiency of the zoo’s operations. We pledge to work with the county so these goals are met.

Fortunately, with zoo funding for 2017 approved in the county’s budget cycle, this provides the opportunity to perform a thorough analysis and arrive at a solution that meets the expectations of the residents and taxpayers of Sedgwick County.

This story was originally published August 23, 2016 at 5:04 AM with the headline "Sedgwick County Zoo belongs to the community."