JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) - After closing its gates in 2019, the City of Jackson conducted renovations for the Jackson Zoo, which is now back open and ready for business. Walking through the park, you can't help but smile at what you'll see. "You can come out and see our giraffe, our tigers our leopards, the [.]
Jackson Zoo employees added to city s payroll Share Updated: 6:29 PM CDT May 25, 2021 Share Updated: 6:29 PM CDT May 25, 2021
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Show Transcript that s right for the past year and a half. Those zoo employees have been considered contract workers. They couldn t get benefits. Some were forced to leave the city job. It s very imperative that we made this decision today. More than two dozen employees at the Jackson Zoo, including veterinarians and zookeepers will soon start getting health insurance and other benefits through the city of Jackson. The reason why that s important is because we ve been losing valuable people because of that situation. Parks and Recreation Director Eisen Harris says they lost a zookeeper to new Orleans because he didn t have benefits. Yeah. Take care of his family. And so you you have that situation and that s something that we want to prevent by making sure that these people are taking care of your in favor of
By Kayla Thompson
May 25, 2021 | 5:09 PM
JACKSON, Miss. (WJTV) – After the Jackson Zoo’s managing partner backed out of the deal, the City of Jackson took control of the facility. While the zoo does not have someone to manage it, the city will have to hire and pay employees.
A zookeeper, veterinary technician, animal care supervisor and development director for the zoo will be managed by the city’s Parks and Rec Department. Ison Harris is the director of the department and said this is needed to secure the zoo and people who can do the job.
“We had basically contracted workers working with no insurance or anything at that point. So if we’re going to go back through the process of managing it and RFP, we want to make sure that we secure those people. The reason why that’s important is because we’ve been losing valuable people because of that situation so we want to stabilize it,” Harris explained.
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The Jackson City Council voted unanimously on Tuesday to put employees at the Jackson Zoo on the city payroll.
Employees at the Jackson Zoo have been without benefits such as health insurance for the last year and a half after the city took over operations from the nonprofit Jackson Zoological Society in 2019. The transition left zoo employees, many who have worked there for dozens of years, without benefits or legal recourse in the event they are injured on the job.
The city council amended the city s compensation plan to include job classifications and compensation for zookeeper, veterinary technician, animal care supervisor and development director.
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As questions over who would take over the Jackson Zoo loomed large in city council meetings years ago, former Councilman Melvin Priester Jr. was blunt when it was suggested the city should take the reins. We can t take care of our infrastructure, Priester said. We can t send water bills out. Now we re going to get into the weeds about running a zoo. . I don t know how to feed a giraffe. Do you?
The council relented and decided to continue contract negotiations with an outside operator in January 2019.
Over two years later, the hand-picked operator to oversee the zoo, the St. Louis-based zoOceanarium Group, made an unceremonious exit from negotiations with the city.