Chad Campos abruptly resigned mid-November as president of the nonprofit Tautphaus Park Zoological Society (a 501/503c corporation?). He indicated problems with our Idaho Falls city government interfering with their organization’s finances (including writing organization checks), and personal attacks on his character. Chad Campos is an apparently successful local lawyer with his own downtown firm, so I can only imagine he is an upstanding local citizen.
The alleged city interference with the society finances is concerning. When I saw the amount of money the Zoological Society managed compared to the city’s portion, I brushed it off as an insignificant percentage. However, a buddy pointed out that a city government has no business handling or writing checks for a registered nonprofit corporation, or meddling in the nonprofit corporation’s finances. I realized he may have a point, and the actions are more important than the amounts involved, and since our local media do not appear to be pursuing the story I decided to raise this issue for local discussion.
First, let’s establish what is the Tautphaus Park Zoological Society (TPZS). According to the city’s website:
The Tautphaus Park Zoological Society is a non-profit corporation established to assist the city of Idaho Falls with making your zoo bigger and better than ever before.
I could find no mention of what kind of nonprofit corporation it is, which would then lead to the rules governing such an organization’s finances, and how much or little influence government agencies may have in that organization’s finances. Can anyone shed light on this?
I should disclose that my family is an annual member of the TPZS because they provide an awesome deal on zoo passes. I have written about these passes before, and I strongly encourage anyone and everyone to buy one of their memberships because you support our local zoo and get many benefits. The TPZS is doing great things for our city and deserves continued support.
However, I am concerned about these alleged activities by our city government. Could these alleged activities constitute illegal interference by Idaho Falls government? Does Idaho Falls city government hold a checkbook to the TPZS corporate account, and do they write checks on that account? If so, is there a clear audit trail demonstrating those checks are written for Tautphaus Park Zoo costs, or are they mingled with city costs?
Why keep the funds separate at all? I imagine the TPZS wants to spend their money in ways to directly benefit the zoo, such as with exhibits or food or equipment. If the city is spending that money, how do we know they are not paying out bonuses or paying for improvements to the larger Tautphaus Park?
What do you think?
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Gato got runned over by Marcus many moons ago. Be ye daft, 2486? 
Let's have a new poll, alright, Joe?
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> I could find no mention of what kind of nonprofit corporation it is
According to Guidestar.com, the TPZS is a 501(c)3 organization.
I find the allegations that the city has signed, otherwise blank checks on TPZS accounts troubling. There’s no justification for that.
More troubling to me, though, is the TPZS’s most recently available IRS Form 990 (from 2005) which shows that out of $130K raised, only $26K was spent on Program Services, while $88K went to Management and Fundraising expenses. The 2004 Form 990 shows a similar split.
Those are awful numbers. By contrast, the Idaho Zoological Society, which supports the Boise Zoo, spent only $63K on Management and Fundraising Expenses, while providing $216K of Program Services, according to their most recent Form 990.
I wasn’t real impressed with the leadership at the Zoological Society after working with them recently on “Boo at the Zoo.” I found several of the individuals very unprofessional, as well as difficult to work with.
I like to volunteer, but won’t choose working with this group in the future because of the the way they treated me. On the other hand, I have enjoyed working with the TPZ directly and have always been treated kindly. The society makes it a point to let people know they are different from the zoo and need to be treated differently. As for me, I want to help the zoo and I would rather go directly to them that through an organization that has issues.
Maybe it is time for new blood that works for the betterment of the zoo. What do you all think?
So nothing new on this story?
Sounds like the Zoological society had some problems, are those fixed, or what are their greatest needs right now?
Sounds like nobody is bothered by our city government writing checks for an account that belongs to a nonprofit group?