{"id":58944,"date":"2025-11-21T06:43:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-21T06:43:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/58944\/"},"modified":"2025-11-21T06:43:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T06:43:08","slug":"el-paso-zoo-director-joe-montisano-no-longer-employed-with-city","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/58944\/","title":{"rendered":"El Paso Zoo Director Joe Montisano \u2018no longer employed with City\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

EL PASO, Texas (KTSM<\/a>) \u2014 The City of El Paso announced on Thursday, Nov. 20, that Joe Montisano is no longer the director of the El Paso Zoo.<\/p>\n

Here is the complete statement from the City of El Paso:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can confirm that Joe Montisano is no longer with the City of El Paso. We want to take this opportunity to wish Mr. Montisano, the best in his future endeavors.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo ensure continuity of service, Assistant Director Gary Lunsford will serve as the interim director.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs with all director of positions, the position for the zoo will be open for recruitment.\u201d<\/p>\n

This comes after a series of controversies with Montisano. In September, Montisano was placed on administrative leave, but the City did not disclose why.<\/p>\n

El Paso Zoo director placed on administrative leave <\/a><\/p>\n

In March, El Paso Matters reported that a former El Paso Zoo employee filed a sexual harassment lawsuit against her direct supervisor, alleging that the zoo director and a human resources employee did nothing.<\/p>\n

Former El Paso Zoo employee files sexual harassment lawsuit against supervisor, zoo director <\/a><\/p>\n

Last year, in March 2024, the City of El Paso cut ties with the Conservation Society of El Paso (then known as the El Paso Zoological Society) after 60 years of collaboration.<\/p>\n

City decides to cut ties with Zoological Society <\/a><\/p>\n

Additionally, the El Paso Zoo was denied its Association of Zoos and Aquariums accreditation, following a five-year review.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KTSM 9 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"EL PASO, Texas (KTSM) \u2014 The City of El Paso announced on Thursday, Nov. 20, that Joe Montisano…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":58945,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[138,140,139,31765,31767,31764,31766,27],"class_list":["post-58944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-el-paso","tag-el-paso","tag-el-paso-headlines","tag-el-paso-news","tag-el-paso-zoo","tag-interim-director","tag-joe-montisano","tag-montisano","tag-texas"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58944"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58944\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/58945"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}