Super Zoo

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"Mr. Tong, please read the document from the city for everyone," Mr. Song handed the official red-headed document to Mrs. Tong. Accepting the document, Mrs. Tong cleared her throat, stood up, and began to read it, announcing the city's decision on the restructuring of the zoo.

Everyone had more or less guessed the contents of the decision. The zoo was a type two public institution and was looking to shift towards type three status.

It would be financially self-sufficient, with profits only subject to normal taxation and not required to be turned over to the government. However, should there be losses, the government would not intervene. If it became impossible to continue operations, the zoo would go through closure, bankruptcy, or restructuring through mergers.

Yet, there were differences from type three public institutions. First, the organizational structure of public institutions was dissolved. Since the government was no longer providing funding, having such a structure was meaningless; second, removing the structure gave way to personnel autonomy—the zoo would internally decide on the recruitment, appointment, promotion, and dismissal of all employees, with HR relations moving from higher authorities to the zoo itself.

In essence, this resembled a collectively owned enterprise, but financially more lenient. According to relevant regulations, collectively owned entities usually retain 60% or slightly more of their net profits, whereas the zoo could keep 100% of its net profits for its own allocation. Of course, that's under the premise of generating profit, which currently, without government subsidies, the zoo did not have.

Mr. Song had mainly contested with the city regarding the zoo's various assets.

The most important asset of the zoo was the animals, numbering in the thousands. Post-restructuring, these animals would remain at the zoo without the option to buy or sell, and the zoo would be responsible for their care.

This marked the largest difference from the past—clearly defined 'ownership' rights over the animals. Previously, as a public institution, the zoo merely housed the animals, but had no authority over their fate. With a single document from above, any animal could be allocated to another zoo. Once, Yangchuan City Zoo had cared for two pandas in their adolescence, which were sent to aid in the development of Capital Zoo.

Capital Zoo was quite considerate, reciprocating with two porcupines...Mr. Song was brooding over this for quite some time.

From now on, in theory, such occurrences would not happen.

The second was various fixed assets, such as tables, chairs, lights, and buildings—all were accounted for. These items, after depreciation, were virtually given half-sold half-given to the zoo. Even so, the total devalued amount was quite surprising. Mr. Song had resorted to playing hardball in the conference room. Afterwards, when TV news was playing about the Fox Immortal, Wang Jian She took the chance to mediate, eventually settling with the city's finance department to return the amount over eight years incrementally.

For the zoo, this was a significant financial burden. However, looking back, all of the assets were initially government-funded investments. As long as the zoo could repay this sum, it was still poised for substantial profits.

The third, and most prominent, was the zoo's various lands, including the park, back hill, and Shuijun Lake. This matter had taken up nearly seventy percent of Mr. Song's negotiation efforts, but in the end, a satisfying outcome was reached: the land ownership still belonged to the state, still provided for the zoo's uncompensated use, but the zoo could not arbitrarily change the nature of the land and had to ensure it remained designated for public service. In other words, areas designated for animal care couldn't suddenly be leased to developers for villa construction following restructuring.

In summary, even with the restructuring, the zoo's public educational nature must not change, and the scope of its services cannot fundamentally deviate. It must remain a zoo providing leisure, entertainment, and educational services to Yangchuan City and not transform into country clubs, villas, or a CBD of any sort.

In the last six months, the zoo's situation had greatly improved, which brought considerable leverage to Mr. Song's negotiations. The terms achieved had indeed exceeded expectations.

For the government side, it wasn't a loss either, as it 'unloaded' a financial burden that was unlikely to ever yield benefits.

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The zoo's expenses are simply too great; relying solely on ticket sales is far from enough to cover the costs, even though visitor traffic has more than doubled in the past half year, it is still insufficient to offset the expenditures.

Suming is particularly clear about this, for he made a decent amount of money, but that was from his own businesses, money that went into his pocket. The zoo could merely rely on ticket revenue and a small amount of contract fees.

Financial independence is the absolute dream for some units, but for zoos like this one, in most cases, it's a nightmare. Currently, most zoos in the country are losing money. Take an adult tiger for instance, it needs over ten pounds of beef a day, plus animal offal, live creatures like chicks and ducklings, and fruits as well—a cost of at least two to three hundred yuan each day; and an elephant, with an appetite 60 times that of a human's, can devour seven or eight watermelons in one sitting, and can eat half a bag of garlic at once.

Yangchuan City Zoo's monthly alimentation expenses alone require several hundred thousand yuan, and adding the labor costs, expenditures reach the million-yuan scale. The greatest benefit of restructuring is gaining financial and personnel autonomy, allowing one to be the master of their own affairs. Giving up financial support in exchange for freedom.

Running a zoo, fundamentally, is not a profitable initiative, no matter the restructuring. It still retains a nature of public welfare and science education, aimed foremost at serving the public. This is quite unlike Suming's other businesses, such as fish farming and boating services, which, though also serve the public, prioritize making profits.

When Suming first came to the zoo and when he was about to take over, he never thought of profiting from the zoo itself. Given the current domestic environment, it would be remarkable if the zoo could eventually achieve a balanced budget with a slight surplus in the future. Suming earned most of his money from Shuijun Lake, fish farming in reservoirs, and contracting the zoo's operations.

Beyond this, the municipal government also imposed an additional condition, to reduce the zoo ticket prices to one-thousandth of Yangchuan City residents' average monthly income within three years.

"Thanks to the bastards at the Bureau of Statistics..." Suming thought for the first time that the 'average wages' he saw each year were actually quite endearing after hearing this news.

Every mid-year, Yangchuan City's Bureau of Statistics would release a report on the 'average salary of on-post workers in the previous year.' The source of the data was unknown, the statistical methods were unknown, the truth was unknown, but each year it rose at a fixed, unchanging rate. Suming also had a steady salary at the zoo; as a leadership official, he made less than 3500 a month. He had specifically looked up the Bureau's average salary records; in his junior year of college, it was 3400 per month, in his senior year, it was 3900, and from the time he graduated until he began drawing a salary, the average salary for workers was already 4300...

Before, he just felt that his own salary was dragging down the country and holding the nation back, but now, it seemed that such inflated data wasn't all bad; at least if it continued to rise at this rate, the zoo just had to avoid raising ticket prices for the next three years.

"This is all I could fight for on behalf of everyone," Song continued, "Next, I will announce the appointments for the new leadership team. I hope the new team can lead the zoo to grow and prosper, and further improve the material income levels of our comrades."

According to the general practice of restructuring, the original leadership would not change much at the outset unless there were new appointments from above or the individuals themselves resigned for special reasons. Song still held the title of director, and other positions remained unchanged.

There were two changes, however, the first being Suming's promotion to Executive Vice Director. The term 'executive' implies more power than an ordinary deputy, responsible for all or significant affairs within the unit and presiding over daily work, acting in the director's stead when he is away.

"I have only half a year until I retire; from now on, any matters, please direct them to the Executive Vice Director. Those who skip ranks in their reporting, don't blame me for criticizing them," Song joked and proceeded to announce the next appointment.

Chen, the Party Committee Secretary, voluntarily resigned. Given his current health condition, he could not handle even the slightest issue. Before the restructuring, it was fine for him to hold a nominal position and drift along, but now that restructuring had happened, it wasn't really appropriate for him to continue doing nothing in such a role.