{"id":41410,"date":"2025-05-24T12:17:49","date_gmt":"2025-05-24T19:17:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/occupysf.net\/?p=41410"},"modified":"2025-05-24T12:19:45","modified_gmt":"2025-05-24T19:19:45","slug":"41410","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/2025\/05\/24\/41410\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: San Francisco Zoo board member resigns over lack of action on CEO"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Tara Duggan<\/a>, Michael Barba<\/a> Updated May 23, 2025 (SFChronicle.com)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

San Francisco Zoo CEO Tanya Peterson visits the giraffes in the African Savanna habitat in 2011.Paul Chinn\/S.F. Chronicle<\/em><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A San Francisco Zoo<\/a> board member resigned Friday over concerns about the body\u2019s indecision on whether to stand behind \u2014 or remove \u2014 its controversial CEO. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Matthew Miller stepped down from the board of the nonprofit San Francisco Zoological Society, which runs the city-owned zoo, citing its inability to take action on the continued employment of Tanya Peterson, the zoo\u2019s executive director and CEO, two sources familiar with the development said. Miller, an attorney, headed the board\u2019s risk committee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Miller declined to comment Friday.
\u00a0
The board had been expected to vote on Peterson\u2019s leadership this week, but after two hourslong meetings, no decision was reached.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The board met for several hours on Tuesday at noon and Thursday at 4 p.m., said Corey Hallman of Teamsters Local 856, the representative of the zoo\u2019s nearly 100-member union. On May 8, Hallman told the Chronicle that the board was scheduled to deliberate on whether to remove Peterson, its leader for almost 17 years. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zoo spokesperson Sam Singer said that Peterson could not comment on board matters. \u201cHowever, she does look forward to moving the San Francisco Zoo forward and welcoming the giant pandas in 2026,\u201d he said in a statement.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The meetings come after a power struggle between zoo board chair Melinda Dunn and Peterson surfaced last week<\/a>, when the Chronicle reported that Dunn had endorsed a plan to gather letters from zoo employees urging Peterson\u2019s removal. Peterson responded by revealing she had feuded with Dunn over whether Dunn remained board chair. Peterson said that she had accepted a resignation letter from Dunn, but that Dunn subsequently rescinded it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The debate over Peterson\u2019s leadership comes at a critical time for the zoo, which is working with the Chinese government to host a pair of prized giant pandas by early next year \u2014 plans that have garnered international attention and support from San Francisco\u2019s City Hall. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some are concerned that removing Peterson would be detrimental to those plans.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bill Lee, a former city administrator, is among the dozens of people and groups representing the Chinese community on San Francisco\u2019s west side who have signed onto a letter urging the zoo to prioritize hosting pandas<\/a> as a \u201conce-in-a-generation moment.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lee said he and others decided to gather the signatures now because of concerns about the potential change in leadership. He worried that the zoo would lose a key fundraiser if the board removed Peterson.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey all know if Tanya goes the panda will probably go,\u201d said Lee, who said he traveled to China with Peterson many years ago when the city first explored the idea of hosting pandas. \u201cShe\u2019s the only one who has knowledge of it.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hallman said that he had seen 20 letters from current and former employees as well as community members sent to the zoo board over the past week, urging it to remove Peterson. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The debate over zoo leadership caps off a period of protracted controversy at the zoo, in which the San Francisco Zoological Society conducted an investigation into Peterson\u2019s leadership<\/a> and the Board of Supervisors launched an audit of the zoo. Both investigations followed Chronicle reporting in April 2024 on allegations of problems with worker safety and animal welfare<\/a> at the facility, including a brief chase of a keeper by a grizzly bear in 2023. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In addition, the zoo\u2019s union issued a vote of no-confidence in Peterson in April 2024, and the city\u2019s Animal Control and Welfare Commission released a report<\/a> \u2014 strongly disputed by the zoo \u2014 that called the institution \u201cunsafe for visitors and animals\u201d in October.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Attendance at the zoo was down by 11% since September, likely because of negative publicity from the report, zoo chief financial officer Jeff Pace said in April.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWhen there\u2019s a report that says that the zoo is dangerous to children and people and animals and staff, it drives down attendance,\u201d he said at a public meeting. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

On Monday, a coalition of animal rights activist groups, led by In Defense of Animals, urged the zoo board to remove Peterson<\/a>, to stop the project to bring pandas to the zoo and to turn the zoo into a \u201ccompassionate, rescue-focused ecopark.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ko Lyn Cheang contributed to this report. <\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

May 23, 2025|Updated May 23, 2025 1:35 p.m.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Tara Duggan<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

REPORTER<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tara Duggan is a staff writer in the Chronicle\u2019s climate and environment team who focuses on the marine environment. Previously in the Chronicle’s Food department for 19 years, where she earned a James Beard Foundation Award, Tara has written several\u00a0investigations and the narrative story “The Fisherman’s Secret,<\/a>” a finalist for an Online Journalism Award in 2020. She is the author of five cookbooks, and her articles and recipes have appeared in the New York Times, Food & Wine Magazine and the Wall Street Journal.<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n

Michael Barba<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

ACCOUNTABILITY & PUBLIC SAFETY REPORTER<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Tara Duggan, Michael Barba Updated May 23, 2025 (SFChronicle.com) San Francisco Zoo CEO Tanya Peterson visits the giraffes in the African Savanna habitat in 2011.Paul Chinn\/S.F. Chronicle A San Francisco Zoo board member resigned Friday over concerns about the body\u2019s indecision on whether to stand behind \u2014 or remove \u2014 its controversial CEO.  Matthew Miller stepped down… Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41410"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41410"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":41414,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41410\/revisions\/41414"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/occupysf.net\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}