Issue link: https://newsleader.uberflip.com/i/175080
Sarasota News Leader September 20, 2013 from rodents, although it did note "gnawing marks" on piping near the office and hospital facilities. The inspector, Kyle Varona, wrote that the birdcages were "well-built to exclude rodents." Page 56 "Everyone was pleased that the SOS organization addressed all of the allegations I made and passed all ordered inspections," he writes in an email. "This is a great example of city government working properly for the public. Landess found all the birds to be in "very good Foremost the birds are much better off and condition" overall, and he called the facility the public benefits from the forced improve"leaps and bounds" above the Pelican Man, ments." the old City Island nonprofit replaced by Save "I don't know anything," says Fox, who was Our Seabirds in 2008. terminated earlier this year after turning down Former SOS volunteer Greg Para began rais- a one-year contract that would have had her ing alarm bells about the condition of the fa- working in Wimauma instead of Sarasota. She cility after the departure of founder Lee Fox says she doesn't hear news about what's hapthis spring. Para also has severely criticized the management of CEO David Pilston, who pening at SOS; she's put the issue behind her. was hired in 2012. Para calls the positive news "The guy hijacked the organization," she says from the recent inspections an example of re- of Pilston. "If he had problems after that it was up to him to solve them." % sponsive governance. Parakeets share a cage at Save Our Seabirds in June. Photo by Norman Schimmel