Exclusive: San Francisco Zoo board member resigns over lack of action on CEO
Matthew Miller stepped down from the board of the nonprofit San Francisco Zoological Society, which runs the city-owned zoo, citing its inability to take action on the continued employment of Tanya Peterson, the zoo's executive director and CEO, two sources familiar with the development said. Miller, an attorney, headed the board's risk committee.
The board met for several hours on Tuesday at noon and Thursday at 4 p.m., said Corey Hallman of Teamsters Local 856, the representative of the zoo's nearly 100-member union. On May 8, Hallman told the Chronicle that the board was scheduled to deliberate on whether to remove Peterson, its leader for almost 17 years.
Zoo spokesperson Sam Singer said that Peterson could not comment on board matters. 'However, she does look forward to moving the San Francisco Zoo forward and welcoming the giant pandas in 2026,' he said in a statement.
The meetings come after a power struggle between zoo board chair Melinda Dunn and Peterson surfaced last week, when the Chronicle reported that Dunn had endorsed a plan to gather letters from zoo employees urging Peterson's removal. Peterson responded by revealing she had feuded with Dunn over whether Dunn remained board chair. Peterson said that she had accepted a resignation letter from Dunn, but that Dunn subsequently rescinded it.
The debate over Peterson's leadership comes at a critical time for the zoo, which is working with the Chinese government to host a pair of prized giant pandas by early next year — plans that have garnered international attention and support from San Francisco's City Hall.
Bill Lee, a former city administrator, is among the dozens of people and groups representing the Chinese community on San Francisco's west side who have signed onto a letter urging the zoo to prioritize hosting pandas as a 'once-in-a-generation moment.'
Lee said he and others decided to gather the signatures now because of concerns about the potential change in leadership. He worried that the zoo would lose a key fundraiser if the board removed Peterson.
'They all know if Tanya goes the panda will probably go,' said Lee, who said he traveled to China with Peterson many years ago when the city first explored the idea of hosting pandas. 'She's the only one who has knowledge of it.'
Hallman said that he had seen 20 letters from current and former employees as well as community members sent to the zoo board over the past week, urging it to remove Peterson.
The debate over zoo leadership caps off a period of protracted controversy at the zoo, in which the San Francisco Zoological Society conducted an investigation into Peterson's leadership and the Board of Supervisors launched an audit of the zoo. Both investigations followed Chronicle reporting in April 2024 on allegations of problems with worker safety and animal welfare at the facility, including a brief chase of a keeper by a grizzly bear in 2023.
In addition, the zoo's union issued a vote of no-confidence in Peterson in April 2024, and the city's Animal Control and Welfare Commission released a report — strongly disputed by the zoo — that called the institution 'unsafe for visitors and animals' in October.
Attendance at the zoo was down by 11% since September, likely because of negative publicity from the report, zoo chief financial officer Jeff Pace said in April.
'When there's a report that says that the zoo is dangerous to children and people and animals and staff, it drives down attendance,' he said at a public meeting.
On Monday, a coalition of animal rights activist groups, led by In Defense of Animals, urged the zoo board to remove Peterson, to stop the project to bring pandas to the zoo and to turn the zoo into a 'compassionate, rescue-focused ecopark.'
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