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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2013-07-29• MINUTES OF A REGULAR MEETING OF THE CITY COUNCIL COMMITTEE ON PARKS, RECREATION, EDUCATION AND YOUTH July 29, 2013 CALL TO ORDER The regular meeting convened at 5:31 p.m. in the City Hall, 2nd floor conference room, 20 Civic Center Plaza, Santa Ana, California. ATTENDANCE Council members Present Mayor Pro Tem, Sal Tinajero (Chair) Angelica Amezcua Roman Reyna Staff Present: Kevin O'Rourke, Interim City Manager, Gerardo Mouet, PRCSA Executive Director Lisa Storck, Assistant City Attorney Jeannie Jurado, Interim Community Services Manager is Jose Perez, Community Services Supervisor Hiram Uribe, Graphic Designer. Public Present Jesus Nieto, Pacific Baseball League Manny Quintana, Golden Baseball League Pedro Magallon, S. A. Youth Soccer Association Alex Vega, S.S.B.A Henry Buenrostro, SAUSD Carlos Nava, S.A. Pony Javier Ollevidos, S.A. Pony Sulema Urquiza, S.A, Pony Lori Elizalde, S.A. Pony Harvey Contreras, Valley Little League Liza Rodriguez, Valley Little League Jaime Contreras, Valley Little League Oscar Diaz, Valley Little League Pedro Rodriguez, Valley Little League Aaron Rodriguez, Valley Little League Tyler Lopez, Valley Little League Ruby Woo, Resident Debbie Freedman. FOSAZ Juan J. Rivera O.C.R.B.L. PREY Regular Meeting Page 1 July 29, 2013 • • APPROVAL OF MINUTES o Minutes of October 29, 2012 accepted as presented • ESTABLISH BY-LAWS o Lisa Storck - Answered question indicating it is okay to modify By-Laws. This is a standard procedure for all Council Committees. The PREY By-Laws will go before Council for approval. o MOTIONS: • Mayor Pro Tern Tinajero - Motion to establish Committee, Motion passed ¦ Council Member Amezcua - Motion to appoint Mayor Pro Tern Tinajero Committee Chair - Motion passed • Council Member Reyna - Motion to appoint Council Member Amezcua Committee Vice Chair- Motion Passed • PUBLIC COMMENTS: o Pedro Magallon asked when sports lighting to DYSC #2 and #4 would be repaired. Many lights are not working. Mr. Magallon also asked when damaged turf to DYSC #4 would be repaired and the timeline for the work to be completed on the Spurgeon fields. o Jesus Nieto objected to the changes made regarding recent adult baseball • lottery and redistribution of fields. Rules have been violated. New league does not meet the required Santa Ana player resident percentage to be able to have fields. Small percentage of players are Santa Ana residents and do not comply with the rules. Certain individuals were given privileges. The new league is bringing in teams from outside of Santa Ana. Requested Council committee to do what's best for Santa Ana. o Manny Quintana indicated he is a resident of Santa Ana for 50 years and was the first to bring adult baseball to Santa Ana. Some people indicated he profits from using school fields and blames him for damaging the school fields. He was the first to use school fields and has letters from different schools on donations he has made to schools he used. He said he received a call from Mayor Pro Tern Tinajero and was told it can be proven what he has done over the years and why doesn't he take his league to Fullerton. The new lottery only affected him. o Henry Buenrostro indicated that the new lottery system is good because it benefits the community, youth and schools. School fields look good and the lottery system levels the playing field for all leagues. The fields belong to the community and the city, not the leagues. The Council Committee is moving in the right direction with this decision. Competition is good as it improves the quality a program has to offer and holds everyone accountable. Baseball is alive in Santa Ana and he loves the game. He feels privileged to have played the game at a high level and would like to give back to the community. They have former players that maintain the fields the right way to keep them • looking nice so players feel proud to play on well-maintained fields. He PREY Regular Meeting Page 2 July 29, 2013 • thanked the council committee and staff for a great job in moving in this direction. o Alex Vega indicated that the lottery process was corrupted, that he was lied to by Mayor Pro Tern Tinajero and Gerardo Mouet. The new league brought in six teams from Long Beach to increase the teams in their league. Mr. Nieto gave the new league Hector Godinez fields on Saturday. The Godinez fields are the best fields in Santa Ana. The new league was allowed to by-pass the process and used Mayor Pro Tern Tinajero to get fields. o Javier Ollevidos indicated that this is the first year for Santa Ana Pony League. Nearly 400 players participated in the program. Other cities are very competitive and Santa Ana never competed well against other cities. The Program is a volunteer program and he puts in approximately 15 volunteer hours a week as a coach and umpire. He is passionate about the game and thanked the Council Committee for allowing the Santa Ana Pony League to move forward. o Carlos Nava indicated he is the president of Santa Ana Pony League. Because of him, the league kids are coming back to Santa Ana to play baseball. The current youth leagues puts restrictions on players and Pony League eliminates those restrictions allowing the game to be played as it is meant to be played. The teams in Pony League represented Santa Ana very well. The league offers scholarships and allows players to grow and develop. They offer regular clinics to teach players basic fundamentals of the game. • The league conducts background checks on everyone involved with the l T eague. he league keeps kids in Santa Ana where they should be and not going to other cities to play in other Pony Leagues or travel ball teams. He thanked the Council Committee for allowing Northwest Little League to transition to the Pony League and to continue forward. o Javier Contreras indicated that the adult leagues are not crying for fields but are crying for profit. Kids are fighting for the game and for fields to play and practice baseball. Does not understand why grown men are fighting for fields. Young athletes are proud, will not going to back down and will fight for fields. o Aaron Rodriguez indicated he is 12 years old and attends McArthur School. He is proud to live in Santa Ana and does not understand why they don't have fields and why they have to fight for fields. He plays baseball year round and baseball is an outlet for him and keeps him off the streets. He wants to make his parents proud and baseball gives him pride. o Harvey Contreras indicated that he does not know why we are here discussing field issues when Mr. Nieto does not even live in Santa Ana. Everyone is fighting for fields and this needs to end. He is fighting for Valley High School and Jerome fields because kids in his program live by these fields. Baseball keeps kids out of jail. He is a volunteer and is not doing it for profit like Mr. Nieto. The lottery was fine, the lottery needs to stay. Do it for the kids. o Tyler Lopez indicated he attends McArthur School and baseball is a lifestyle, it keeps him fit. His older brother plays for Godinez High School and the • fields are in bad condition. The team has to do regular fundraisers to help PREY Regular Meeting Page 3 July 29, 2013 • maintain the fields. The little League fields are in better condition than the school fields. His parents taught him to be proud. o Debbie Freedman asked what is the status of the management of the zoo, has not heard anything in a while regarding this matter. Proposed viable option for FOSAZ to manage. Funds saved by the city could be used for other programs, such as baseball. FOSAZ needs to know if they need to hold onto funds. ¦ Interim City Manager Kevin O'Rourke instructed staff to set up a meeting with FOSAZ to discuss. o Juan Rivera indicated he has lived in Santa Ana for 25 years and is the President of Orange County Regional Baseball. He thanked Council Committee and staff for the opportunity to use city fields. He has nothing against the other adult baseball leagues and feels the community should have the opportunity to choose what league they can play for. He is not in it for the profit and will always give back to the community. OCRB will look to become a non-profit. The youth today need more support and OCRB will provide scholarships to Santa Ana youth. Recent news article stated Pony league and Little Leagues are doing very well in Santa Ana. • REVIEW OF PARK IMPROVEMENT PROJECTS o Gerardo Mouet provided park project update • ¦ Pacific Electric Park Improvement • El Salvador Park Community Garden & Picnic Area Improvements ¦ Memorial Park Picnic Area Improvements • Madison Park Joint-Use Community Garden & Basketball Court Improvement ¦ Centennial Park Skate Park Improvements • Leisure class instructors to teach community to grow own gardens • UPDATE OF ADULT BASEBALL PROCESS IMPROVEMENT PROGRESS o Gerardo Mouet presented Power Point presentation and handouts on history of adult baseball in Santa Ana and current status. ¦ This issue was presented, reviewed and discussed at the July 24, 2013 Board of Recreation and Parks meeting. The board expressed support in the direction staff took regarding the lottery process for the three adult baseball leagues. • Implementation of Adult Baseball Surcharge of $18 per game with monies going back to help maintain adult baseball fields. Fees voted and approved by City Council as part of Miscellaneous Fee Schedule and took effect July 1, 2013. o Council Member Reyna appreciated everyone's involvement and acknowledged Aaron and Tyler to be able to speak in a public forum at such a young age as it is not easy to do so. He is a product of youth sports and • attributes much of his success to youth sports. All organizations using city PREY Regular Meeting Page 4 July 29, 2013 • fields should be non-profit. He referenced SAUSD going through a similar field allocation process several years ago and the school district leaned towards youth over adults. The City and SAUSD over the years have shared ideas to better this process to ensure fields are being used by Santa Ana residents. o Council Member Amezcua indicated that the lottery was done fairly and was a random draw not favoring one league over another and will be an annual lottery. o Mayor Pro Tern thanked staff for a great job; it is not an easy job to distribute fields when there is a lack of open space in Santa Ana. Before there were two leagues with six available fields, one league had four fields and the other had two. Now there are three leagues and each league has two fields. OCRB has shown that they will maintain fields and the other leagues will have to do the same - only time will tell. It's about choice and providing a good product. When there is a monopoly on fields quality is low, fees are high and fields are not maintained. Recently the dug out at Valley High School was damaged and league did not take responsibility to report the damage to the school or the city. It seemed leagues were running amuck and coaches and players did not have a voice. Coaches now have a voice. Choices empowers kids first and adults second. No one lost in this situation, everyone is still here. Kids need to know if they don't fight for something they will never get anything. With the adult Baseball Surcharge we will have money to fix fields • which will benefit everyone. We ask that everyone be good stewards of the fields. • MOTION: ¦ Council Committee Members, Tinajero, Amezcua and Reyna supported and approved staff's direction on the lottery process for adult baseball. • STAFF UPDATE o None • COMMITTEE MEMBER COMMENTS o None ADJOURNED: 6:55 p.m. mcu Gerardo Mouet Executive Director. P CSA 0 PREY Regular Meeting Page 5 July 29, 2013