EDITORIAL ZOO ECONOMICS REINING IN THE MONKEY BUSINESS AT GLAZA.

THE budgetary animals have taken over the zoo - or at least the nonprofit organization that raises money for the zoo, according to a recent audit by Los Angeles city Controller Laura Chick.

The Greater Los Angeles Zoo Association, which operates Los Angeles Zoo concession contracts and membership programs in exchange for a portion of the proceeds, kept $7.3 million more than it should have over the last five years.

At least that's Chick's reading of the situation. Zoo and GLAZA officials say they interpret the numbers differently.

But whichever interpretation you accept, not all is right at the zoo, or at GLAZA.

Although the two are supposed to be working hand in hand, their leaders have been at each other's throats for years, which may explain the imbalance in funding. And in three of the last five years, GLAZA has fallen well short of its fund-raising targets.

But that didn't stop the ``nonprofit'' from awarding its then-president a $20,000 bonus last year on top of his $175,000 salary.

Sound familiar?

That's because the story at GLAZA bears a striking resemblance to the ongoing scandal at the Entertainment Industry Development Corp., a private nonprofit organization set up to serve a public function, but which quickly took a self-serving life of its own.

Like the EIDC before it, GLAZA seemingly forgot that its purpose was to serve - not compete with, not profit from - the public. Its surplus should be funding the city's zoo, not its own excess.

Not that zoo officials are complaining. They claim that however GLAZA spent the money, the zoo no doubt benefited.

As Chick Hearn would have said, no harm, no foul.

Maybe, but we don't see how living high on the hog is good for the animals.

And it's unclear how the zoo benefited from GLAZA's selndulgence. Clearly though, one zoo official benefited - former director Manuel Mollinedo. Mollinedo received some $20,000 in travel and entertainment expenses from GLAZA, without following the rules for submitting those expenses that all city employees are required to observe.

Mollinedo has since been promoted to head of the city's Recreation and Parks Department, which is, by all accounts, a good thing. Coupled with new leadership at GLAZA, it appears that the two organizations are working together better again, and that at least some of the problems reported in the controller's audit have already been corrected.

We hope so.

But if there's one lesson that comes from the EIDC saga, it's that quasi- public agencies need every bit as much scrutiny and oversight as fully public ones.

Controller Chick and fellow city officials should continue to keep a close eye on both the zoo and GLAZA, lest the budgetary animals take over once again.