'This company is using this tactic in order to distract from the fact that the Columbus Zoo believes the company overcharged the Zoo for services under this contract and that the Zoo is seeking to recover funds on behalf of our members, our guests and our community.' 'This issue is being raised by a company that was handed a $2 million unbid contract by the former CEO of the Columbus Zoo and Aquarium,' the statement from spokeswoman Nicolle Gomez Racey said. Zoo: Former Columbus Zoo CEO Tom Stalf to pay back $400,000 attorney says he was 'scapegoat'

The company also billed the zoo a 'substantial cost overrun' for the project. Specifically, the company requested the contract for new zoo CEO Tom Schmid, but said the suit, if successful, would clear the way for all kinds of zoo records to be made public.įormer zoo CEO Tom Stalf personally selected Meade as the vendor for the $2 million Straker Lake cabins project at The Wilds without seeking competitive bidding or going through the customary 'design-build' process, an outside investigation and forensic audit concluded last year.

The Tuesday morning filing by Meade Construction seeks an order that the zoo produce records that the construction company requested under the state’s public records law. A construction company whose no-bid selection by former Columbus Zoo and Aquarium officials drew investigators’ scrutiny has filed a public-records lawsuit against the zoo in the Ohio Supreme Court, the latest move in what court documents describe as an ongoing, back-and-forth between the two parties since last year.

Tom stalf columbus zoo