Mayor Promotes L.A. Zoo Director

Los Angeles Zoo Director Manuel Mollinedo, who is credited with revamping the once-blighted city zoo, was promoted Wednesday to general manager of the city’s Department of Recreation and Parks as part of Mayor James K. Hahn’s efforts to clean up urban parks and stave off secession.

“He has done a terrific job running the L.A. Zoo,” Hahn said of his new parks manager, who joined the mayor at a news conference at a park in Boyle Heights, where Mollinedo, 56, grew up.

“I’m looking forward to him continuing to work with us to provide the city with safe and clean places,” Hahn said. “We think those people who are talking about breaking up this great city of Los Angeles could jeopardize our efforts to improve these park spaces.”

Zoo staffers reacted quickly to the news by naming a newborn mountain tapir--which looks like a furry striped piglet--Manuel in honor of their departing director.

“It’s kind of bittersweet, but the mayor didn’t give me much choice,” Mollinedo said, laughing, shortly after his announcement. Later, he posed with his new namesake, then washed baby tapir slobber off his hands before grabbing budget books and hurrying off to a meeting at City Hall.

The high-profile position may be even more visible as Hahn seeks to make the refurbishment of existing parks and the creation of new ones an important part of his campaign to persuade disgruntled residents not to secede. Hahn hopes residents will see that being part of sprawling Los Angeles means more financial resources--not fewer--to clean up neighborhoods.

Since February 1995, when Mollinedo became director, the L.A. Zoo has gone from a cramped, disease-ridden facility that almost lost its accreditation to a critically praised zoo with expanded spaces for some animals, state-of-the-art quarters for chimpanzees and orangutans, and a new animal hospital.

Mollinedo also refurbished the fine mesh coverings over big exhibits. Years of wear had allowed skunks to get through the mesh and pass infection to animals.

During his tenure, Mollinedo became as skilled at nurturing languishing animals as he did at handling city politicians, eccentric zoo donors and prickly celebrities. He had to negotiate the line between accommodating movie stars and donors wanting behind-the-scenes tours and keeping people away from essentially wild animals.

The line got crossed last summer when a Komodo dragon took a bite out of the foot of actress Sharon Stone’s husband, newspaper publisher Phil Bronstein. Mollinedo coped well with inquisitive media members and an angry Stone, and restricted up-close visits with zoo animals.

Although he has no degrees in zoology or veterinary medicine, Mollinedo turned himself into a student of animals, able to converse easily on obscure species and fly to Colombia to discuss mountain tapir breeding programs with wildlife experts. Since he took over, the zoo has received two accreditations from the American Zoo and Aquarium Assn., most recently in March. But the association said the zoo’s animals were geriatric and criticized the zoo’s powerful fund-raising arm, the Greater Los Angeles Zoo Assn., for having too much authority.

Mollinedo said the animals have become aged because he and his staff more aggressively care for elderly animals these days.

“For instance, we have some gibbons with diabetes,” he said. “In the old days, we used to euthanize them. Now, we train the gibbons to come up to the back of the exhibit and put an arm up against the chain-link fence so they can get a shot of insulin.”

But the director added that the zoo is already preparing for the inevitable death of its older male giraffe, Kito, by considering how to bring in a younger male.

Mollinedo, who holds a master’s degree in public administration from Cal State L.A., is a more likely director of parks than zoos.

He had run the city Parks and Recreation Department in Austin, Texas, and was an assistant general manager with L.A.’s Recreation and Parks Department before taking on the L.A. Zoo.

Although Mollinedo won’t take over the stewardship of the city’s parks and recreation centers until July 1--an appointment which still must be confirmed by the City Council--he already has some ideas.

“This city is so park-poor,” he lamented.

As a child in the city, he played at Pecan Playground at the Aliso Pico Recreation Center and loved the Los Angeles River.

“I used to play in the L.A. River,” he said, and chuckled about how he would get into trouble for it. “I really would like to see the department involved in turning the river into a long linear park that could connect a lot of parks.

“It could connect the Sepulveda basin, Elysian Park, Griffith Park. It could be this link that connects the city.”

Mollinedo, who makes $164,000 a year at the zoo and could make as much as $223,000 annually--the upper salary level for the Recreation and Parks manager--turned down the same job three years ago when Mayor Richard Riordan offered it.

“There was still a lot more to do at the zoo,” said Mollinedo, who is so devoted to the zoo that he only wears ties adorned with animals.

This time, he says, Hahn was convinced Mollinedo was the only man for the job. “I guess what I see myself bringing is a sensitivity to urban parks,” he says.

However, Mollinedo added, he would like to see Griffith Park, where the zoo is located, managed not just as an urban park but also as an environmentally sensitive area.

“How many other cities can boast that they have a 4,200-acre park?” says Mollinedo, showing that he is already beginning to master the factoids of his new job.

City Councilman Eric Garcetti says Mollinedo has a “proven track record.... We’ve put a big burden on our parks department. People are hungry for parks. We have passed bonds that have allowed us to build things and now we have to maintain them.”

Hahn’s effort is a continuation of the Clean and Safe Spaces Program, started by Riordan in November 2000, which has refurbished 47 parks. At least 10 recent renovations--parks and centers in Watts, Echo Park, North Hollywood and South L.A.--have been completed under Hahn’s administration. The mayor wants to overhaul additional 50 parks over the next 12 months.