Aquarium losing support

The recent resignations of most of The Living Planet Aquarium's board members, mounting financial problems and rumors of bad management have led most Salt Lake County Council members to decide that they would not support a $34.5 million bond for a new aquarium facility.

On the heels of the resignations of nine board members and a police investigation of a former employee who is accused of stealing thousands of dollars from the nonprofit organization, a multimillion-dollar bond would be tough to approve, county leaders said Thursday.

The aquarium has been in Sandy since June 2006, but for years, aquarium officials have wanted to build a world-class 90,000-square-foot facility in downtown Salt Lake City.

Returning to the capital city, however, hinges on voter approval of a $34.5 million bond. The County Council declined to approve that ballot item for November 2006. But aquarium officials could go back to the council next year to request that it be added to the November 2008 ballot.

"Obviously, this makes it almost impossible for them to get on the ballot," Councilman Joe Hatch said. "It probably puts the kibosh on bonding."

Hatch, who has opposed giving public money to the aquarium, said the recent problems may also jeopardize the aquarium's cut of Zoo, Arts and Parks (ZAP) funding.

Councilman Marv Hendrickson said that "if that were to go to a vote sometime in the near future, it's a 50/50 chance." He added that the county should "take a peek" into the aquarium's internal affairs.

Councilman Jim Bradley said the aquarium should not come to the county for money until it solves its budget problems and does an audit. "Right now, they've got a lot of rehabilitation to go through," he said.

Enid Greene, a former congresswoman and current chairwoman of the Utah Republican Party, was an aquarium board member from 2004-06 and said she left because of concerns with management. She lobbied the county and Legislature for the bond initiative. But Greene — whose ex-husband served a prison sentence for fraud in the 1990s after he directed nearly $2 million of her father's money into her congressional campaign — also told aquarium leaders that they did not have a sufficient financial accountability plan in place.

Greene donated $150,000 out of her family's trust to the aquarium, with the instruction that part of the money be used for a chief financial officer to handle the finances.