In Power Struggle at SF Zoo, Embattled CEO Appears to Come Out on Top

Weeks after an attempt to oust the embattled CEO of the struggling San Francisco Zoo, it appears that she’s come out on top.

Tanya Peterson, who has been under fire for growing concerns over safety and alleged mismanagement at the facility in recent years, will remain CEO while the chair of the zoo’s board of directors, who supported the effort to remove her, resigns.

Board chair Melinda Dunn is among five members of the San Francisco Zoological Society board who have left their posts since last week, according to Corey Hallman of Teamsters Local Union 856, which represents about 100 zookeepers, dieticians, gardeners and other zoo workers. Dunn declined KQED’s request for comment.

The wave of board resignations, first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle, comes after the board deliberated about Peterson’s employment during its regular meeting on May 20, according to Hallman. He said the body held two other discussions on the topic in the following days, but no decision was made.

Employees and community advocates have been increasingly adamant that Peterson be removed since reports began surfacing last year about unsafe conditions for workers and animals at the San Francisco Zoo, including a 2023 incident during which a grizzly bear briefly chased a zookeeper after a door was mistakenly left unlocked.

Unionized employees took an overwhelming vote of no confidence in Peterson last fall, and the city’s Board of Supervisors requested an audit of the facility in December.

Last week, Matthew Miller, the former chair of the Zoological Society’s risk committee, resigned, citing the board’s inability to decide whether to remove Peterson.

Hallman said he believes the resignations this week were also “what seems like protest for the dysfunction of the zoological board.”

“I’m shocked at how dysfunctional the board is and how they’ve ignored union members [and] nonunion members employed at the zoo [and] community members and seem to just keep moving forward as if there’s no problem,” he told KQED on Friday.

Earlier this month, a group of 12 unionized and nonunionized zoo employees sent the board of directors an anonymous letter, viewed by KQED, calling for Peterson’s removal. They wrote that she has created an environment that is “toxic beyond comprehension,” led by a lack of transparency, increasingly siloed departments and caused high employee turnover.

The dozen signatories, who said they are members of the zoo’s leadership team and sent the letter anonymously for fear of retaliation, wrote that employees would be able to step up to lead the facility if Peterson were removed.

“We will reverse the erosion of the programs, facilities, and standards that have progressively declined each year [Peterson] has held onto her power,” the letter reads.

A zoo manager, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation, told KQED that communication between departments has been siloed since the COVID-19 pandemic, and that earlier this year, he and other managers were barred from contacting the board of directors without Peterson’s approval.

“Any communication with members of the Board are cleared through the CEO,” reads a draft communication policy viewed by KQED, which the manager said he and other managers had to verbally agree to. He said that their emails can be viewed by zoo leadership.

Zoo spokesperson Sam Singer denied the existence of such a communication policy and said employees can call an anonymous hotline with issues.

The manager told KQED that the whistleblower hotline isn’t trusted by employees, because “previously, it went to the zoo’s own deputy director who then handed over everything to the CEO.”

Despite the apparent controversy, Singer said that Peterson has the “unanimous support” of the board.

He added that the facility also remains committed to a plan spearheaded by former Mayor London Breed and Peterson to host a set of giant pandas from China next year.

“Tanya Peterson has raised millions of dollars to improve the zoo, to open it up to more children and families throughout the Bay Area,” Singer said. “She has helped create and fund an award-winning children’s playground, plus the highly anticipated giant pandas.”