The council gave Hogle leaders the go-ahead last month to ask voters for a $65 million bond to help pay for a lifelike African savannah, an updated animal hospital, more parking and an expansive arctic exhibit.
But the GOP majority attached this potentially fatal condition: That the zoo come up with $20 million in private donations (the amount the east-side attraction pledged to raise over the life of its project) before tapping any tax dollars.
"Even with our best efforts," campaign coordinator Maura Carabello said, "it is too onerous."
So the zoo today will urge the council to require only half the money upfront. Once Hogle raises $10 million, the county would release $35 million in public bonds - if voters approved the measure in November. The rest of the bond money would have to wait until the zoo earns another $10 million in private contributions.
Since late 2006, Hogle backers have raised $7.3 million.
"I see that as a realistic option," said Democratic Councilman Joe Hatch of the relaxed requirement. "I'm willing to support that as a compromise."
But Republicans, who locked ranks behind the $20 million requirement, seem reluctant to change. And the zoo needs at least one of them to break the 5-4 GOP majority.
Republican Councilman Jeff Allen, a county-appointed member of the zoo board, doesn't plan to change his vote. The zoo promised an $85 million project - paid out of public and private funds - and he wants to ensure it lives up to its side of the deal.
"If the public is going to invest in a project and a vision," Allen said, "they should have the right to invest in the whole thing."
But Hatch says his conservative colleagues - who rejected the ballot-box proposal along party lines last year - simply are trying to defeat the measure again by mandating the "largest private capital campaign for a cultural-arts facility in the history of Utah."
Republicans deny the accusation, saying they just want to hold Hogle accountable before taxpayers for its private-donation pledge.
Hogle leaders won't say whether today's discussion will determine whether the bond proposal makes it to the ballot in November, but Carabello characterized it as a "critical step" for the zoo's campaign for "either going forward or looking at some other alternative."
Does Carabello think the council will change its mind?
"The Republicans have been willing to listen to us," she said. "That is all we can ask."
