news story / By Ryan Burns

Save the Monkeys!

Eureka asks citizens for help in rescuing the zoo. Make that the city

(March 26, 2009)  Eureka City Councilman Frank Jäger doesn’t sugarcoat it: The city’s budget situation ain’t pretty. Blame can be spread in a number of directions, though the truth of the matter is that, as with the unholy messes in the state and national budgets, there’s one overriding culprit: It’s the stupid economy. Sales tax revenues have been down in Eureka, and dammit, they’re not supposed to go down. They’re supposed to go up indefinitely, just like the housing market. In fact, the city’s general fund depends on that growth. But for the 2008-2009 fiscal year, sales tax revenues are projected to drop by more than $1 million.

Two measures approved by voters in November may help prevent an outright catastrophe. Measure D will increase the city’s sales tax by a quarter percent while Measure E will boost the Transient Occupancy Tax (paid by visitors staying in motels) to 10 percent. Both will bring in much-needed revenue. Still, when you factor in flat property tax revenues and staffing cost increases of about $1.5 million, the city suddenly finds itself facing an anticipated budget deficit of $2.8 million. Everyone agrees that cuts have to be made, but suggestions that the city can no longer afford the $660,000 it takes to run the Sequoia Park Zoo have many county residents up in arms.

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Put simply, Eureka is in a tough spot, and frankly, Jäger doesn’t like it. “Boy,” he said on the phone Monday, “it’s a tough time to come on the Council, I’ll tell ya. It’s not gonna be a pretty picture.” He sighed. “These are gonna be tough decisions.”

Eureka City Manager David Tyson hosted a community forum Monday night, hoping to harness the collective brainpower of area residents to help the Council make those tough decisions. Standing under the sunbeam-patterned ceiling beams at Eureka’s Wharfinger building, Tyson presented a series of glowing slides — pie charts, financial tables, bar and line graphs explaining how the general fund works, where it comes from, what it does and why it can no longer do all those things. Fifty or so community members, including Councilmembers Linda Atkins, Jeff Leonard and Larry Glass, watched the presentation as the setting sun filtered through the clouds outside the windows, casting a silvery glow on the boat masts oscillating slowly in the harbor.

The goal of the forum, Tyson told the Journal Monday morning, was to educate both sides — that is, for the city to inform the public about the budget process and for the public to inform city officials about their priorities, which Jäger, for one, appreciates. “You know, we’re just five people who are gonna make a decision, [while] twenty or thirty thousand are gonna be affected,” he said. “The more we hear from them the better.”

The community’s majority message thus far has been loud and clear: Cut whatever you must, be it the parks and recreation program, the Clarke Museum, street sweeping, whatever; just keep your damned hands away from our zoo. “I really haven’t gotten any calls regarding anything else,” Jäger said. Councilman Mike Jones has had it almost as bad — 98 percent of his calls have been zoo-related, he said Monday. It’s a lot of hubbub over something that accounts for less than three percent of the general fund, Jones said, but that doesn’t diminish the passion of zoo supporters. “I think the people who are concerned about the other issues like fire and police feel safe knowing that’s a council priority,” Jones said.

Such has not been the case with regards to the zoo since May of last year, when Glass first called attention to the expense of maintaining the 100-year-old facility. The zoo began charging admission fees in August, but it’s still losing money, and as the city’s budget situation has worsened, scrutiny of the facility has persisted. Despite Tyson’s call for ideas and solutions rather than complaints, many attendees simply couldn’t hold back their emotional defense of the local home for white-handed gibbons, cotton-topped tamarins, Western pond turtles — and, above all, the zoo’s significance to our children.

“Nobody speaks for the kids,” said Eureka resident Rex Bohn. “That zoo’s got a special magic. Go there on a Sunday. Watch how many kids under 10 have their week made by going to that zoo.” A woman who came with her daughter broke into tears while speaking. “To just do away with it — that’s wrong,” she whimpered. “I’m sorry. There has to be another way.”

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