The aquarium, proposed by Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon and approved by the county legislature, is being built in the city's Inner Harbor. Credit: Laura Robertson | Central Current

A county legislature committee meeting on Tuesday ended in a spat involving leaders across county government. 

Megan Thomas, the vice chair of Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo, alleged county officials were “threatening the very existence” of their organization. Thomas and other leaders of Friends said at the Facilities Committee meeting they hope to facilitate a resolution with the county through the help of the legislature, she said.

The Friends organization is the nonprofit attached to the zoo, responsible for supporting the zoo with educational programming, financial support, and more. 

Last year, County Executive Ryan McMahon approached the Friends group to request $1 million in donations to the aquarium, said leaders of the nonprofit. The group did not give him a clear answer. They claim that since then, the county has launched a “campaign of retaliation,” Thomas said.  

“The ask from the county was not the problem,” said Thomas. “The problem is what happened after.” 

Thomas presented her case to the committee: The county was “laser-focused on removing all barriers to access” to the nonprofit’s money for the aquarium, said Thomas. After it became clear the Friends group did not intend to give money to the county, meetings became “hostile,” said Thomas. 

In August, the county delayed signing the recently renegotiated memorandum of understanding that dictates funding, administration and other agreements, despite telling the Friends it was ready to be signed, said Thomas. A few months later, in October, the county adjusted the percentage of membership dues paid by the Friends to the county from 20% to 40%, meaning the nonprofit would pull in less revenue, she said. The renewals of the MOUs reduced from once every five years to annually, she said. 

Then the county decided to put out a request for proposals for operation of the zoo’s gift shop. Operation of the gift shop helps generate revenue for the Friends, which is then reinvested into the zoo, said Thomas. It is “nearly universal practice” for nonprofit partners of entities like zoos to operate gift shops, Thomas said. 

At an October board meeting, Friends board members asked Onondaga County Parks Commissioner Brian Kelley if giving money to the aquarium would affect problems with the memorandum and the gift shop, Thomas said. Kelley responded that both would become “negotiable,” Thomas said. In the meeting, Thomas asked Friends board members to raise their hands if they had heard this statement. Seven did. 

The Friends had the following demands: 

  • Friends leaders want the RFP for the gift shop to be awarded to Friends and an agreement made that it will not be put back out to bid in the future. 
  • They want the original MOU signed. 
  • Finally, they want an end to “this campaign of bullying and retaliation and unprofessionalism,” Thomas said.

The meeting quickly devolved into an argument. 

At the meeting were members of the county facilities commission. Many of the remaining Democratic legislators and Republican Minority Leader Brian May sat around the edges. Multiple deputy county executives, the County Attorney Robert Durr, Chief Financial Officer Kristi Smiley, and county executive spokesperson Justin Sayles sat to one side. On the other side of the room sat members of the Friends board. 

“This project has been fully funded for months,” said Sayles, adding that the county had stopped looking for funding from Friends of the Zoo for longer than that. “We have certainly moved on, moved on months ago. I hope the Friends can do so too.”

The memorandum was not signed because the Friends organization itself had asked that it not be signed until the RFP decision had been made, said Sayles. The county said it was not legally able to discuss the RFPs. 

The Friends of the Zoo were the originators of the Aquarium plan, said Sayles. “This was a longstanding idea of Friends of the Zoo,” said Sayles. He said that when Ryan McMahon became county executive, one of his first actions was to meet with the Friends board president. The idea of the aquarium was born out of that, he said. 

Thomas denied that. 

Republican Legislator Richard McCarron called the meeting a “planned ambush,” citing a syracuse.com article that had come out that morning. He accused legislators of leaking documents to the media in order to leverage the story at the meeting. 

“I think this is extremely inappropriate. I’m offended by how this went down,” McCarron said. 

Thomas said that when the county had not been interested in a conversation with them, they came to the legislature. Chad Ryan, the committee chair, recently joined the board of the Friends of the Zoo. 

“What’s happening now is the Friends are under economic threat,” said Thomas. “Our choice was to speak up or go under.”

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Laura Robertson is a staff reporter covering Onondaga County. Prior to joining Central Current, she lived on the edge of the Bering Strait in Nome, Alaska, where she worked as a reporter for a year. She...