Could the Jackson Zoo be defunded to cover rising property insurance costs?

JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) – Jackson city leaders are scrambling to find some $2 million to cover an unexpected increase in property insurance premiums.

And they could be eyeing cutting funding for the Jackson Zoo as a potential source for that revenue.

Budget deliberations continued Wednesday, with members of the city council again floating the idea of slashing the budget for the Jackson Zoological Park.

“I think it’s crazy for us to say that we’re not even going to have a conversation about it,” said Council President Aaron Banks. “We’ve got to talk about it.”

The city’s Parks and Recreation Department is seeking between $1.6 million and $1.8 million to fund the park for the 2023-24 fiscal year.

So far this year, the West Jackson attraction has brought in somewhere between $50,000 and $75,000 in revenue.

Some council members say the city needs to invest the money elsewhere to get a better bang for the city’s buck.

“If we had a 100 percent increase, a 110 percent participation increase, that’s only $110,000,” Banks said. “You did 200 percent, that’s still not even 10 percent of $1.8 million, and that’s hard to justify [for] a city with so many other problems.”

Banks’ comments come a day after the council voted to award a roughly $3 million contract to Lexington Insurance Et al. Group to provide property insurance for the city through August 2024.

The policy was brought to the council at the last minute and was about $2 million more than members had budgeted for to cover property insurance costs for the current fiscal year.

Ward 5 Councilman Vernon Hartley said even if the city closed the zoo today, it’s unlikely Jackson would have the money to immediately put to the insurance.

“It takes time to make all the moves and to transfer, and to work out agreements and so forth,” he said. “I don’t think that amount of money will be available right away.”

Instead of closing the park, he said the city should “get better at getting more outside money” for the facility.

The zoo has been on a downward trajectory for years, with the park reporting steep drops in attendance and revenue in the last two decades.

In 2003, for instance, approximately 180,000 people visited the zoo. By comparison, figures provided to WLBT in March showed that just 45,000 people entered the park in 2021 and 2022.

The park also suffered from a large number of animal deaths, with more than 500 animals dying, being killed, or going missing in a little more than a decade, necropsy reports revealed.

Deputy Parks and Recreation Director Abram Muhammed, though, said the zoo could be on the rebound.

He pointed to the recent Ice Cream Safari, which drew a record 1,200 people, and touted the recent spring break camp at the zoo, which drew 75 participants.

However, Muhammed agreed the city does need to do a better job of advertising.

“I’m talking about outside of the city of Jackson,” he said. “If we watch television for more than two hours, you will see that we constantly get inundated with commercials from other activities that are happening in other states.”

Jackson is still working to find a marketing person to help increase the zoo’s visibility. The city was looking to fill that position back in March when Parks and Recreation Director Ison Harris spoke with WLBT.

The city took over the park in 2019 after the Jackson Zoological Society dissolved.

“When we inherited the zoo, they were in a deficit, and a lot of money had been diverted in a plan to move the zoo,” Chief of Staff Safiya Omari said. “So, I hear you when you say $1.6 million is worth a conversation. But it is a conversation that should be had when we have time to rationally go through all the implications of the action.”

Previous figures drawn up by the city showed closing the zoo actually could cost Jackson taxpayers.

Banks referenced an estimate provided by former Chief Administrative Officer Robert Blaine, who said it would take more than $500,000 to shut down the park and relocate the animals.

Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said that figure was an estimate and had not been verified. However, he didn’t deny that closing the park would not only be expensive, but time-consuming.

“It’s not just a decision to move animals, it’s finding zoos or other sanctuaries that have the space,” he said. “For the collection that we have, to shutter an entire zoo and find homes for each one of those animals, you likely don’t have one or two zoos that are capable of doing it.”

“The reason that we don’t have a lion is not because there aren’t lions in the market,” he said. “The reason that we don’t have a lion is because we haven’t invested about $2 million that it takes to do the enclosure and purchase the lion.”

Several people, meanwhile, are pushing back on talks of closing the facility.

Heather Ivory, with the Zoo Area Progressive Partnership, said the zoo should be seen as an economic driver for West Jackson and the city as a whole.

She pointed to the zoo’s history, saying the park is more than a century old and has several buildings on the historic register.

“We have a really great thing that can be great or better than it’s been in the past,” she said. “But it takes investment and we’ve had disinvestment in it for a myriad of reasons over the years.”

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