Oakley Councilmember Says "Club Teams" Should Pay More

On Tuesday, Oakley City Councilmember George Fuller stated he believed club teams were highly discriminatory, cliquish and thought they should pay more to use facilities.

The comments came during a Work Session on its Recreation Fee Schedule. During the discussion, staff provided an overview and presented the council with the option of keeping fees the same, consider a small increase for all groups or a small increase for only some of the groups.

Under the staff recommendation, Oakley would raise its fees by 50%

Special Area for Group 1 Users – $11 per hour
Special Area for Group 2 Users – $26 per hour
Special Area for Gorup 4 Users – $60 an hour

Note – User Groups:

Group 1: Oakley Resident, Oakley Based Businesses and Oakley Based Non Profits
Group 2: Non‐Resident and Non‐Oakley Based Non Profits
Group 3: Community Partner
Group 4: Private Business, Group or Organizations

Councilmember George Fuller took issue with club teams and said they should pay a higher fee.

“I don’t have a lot of love for the club teams. They are highly discriminatory, they are cliquish, come over afterwards we will have a barbecue, go down to San Diego and play another team. I don’t mind charging them more than $11 an hour. If they are going to play club, we know right away it is not open to the public,” stated Fuller.

Staff cut off Fuller explaining they rent to East County Little League, the number one renter and classified them as recreational organization and mostly in Oakley but do have 15 other travel ball teams using the fields.

Fuller stated he wanted Option 1 until staff comes up with higher fees for club teams.

“If you come up with something for the club teams and charge them more,” stated Fuller. “We know what clubs do. They go down to the little AYSO and scarf up all the players who look like they fit into their click and can play with their money. For that, they are doing a disservice for everybody else. For right now, until you can come up with a fee that’s charging appropriate for privilege teams and for everybody in the community, I am not ready to raise those fees.”

Councilmember Aaron Meadows defended club teams.

“Club teams play a purpose and there are a lot of kids that play, including my daughter when she was in soccer,” stated Meadows. “I am okay with staffs recommendation.

Mayor Anissa Williams believed what staff was proposing was fair.

“As someone who runs a non-profit that fundraisers for sports, those club parents are not necessarily privileged, they just want to give their kids whatever they can and often work their tails off to do that,” stated Williams. “The prices are fair when compared to neighboring cities and this isn’t going to detract anything and unfortunately in all of are cities unfortunately sports fields are always going to be what people need so I think we need to recover our costs so I am great with staff recommendations.

Vice Mayor Shannon Shaw took issue with Fullers comments.

“To say I don’t like club teams, lets charge them more. I think that is just not right. I am with the staff recommendation as well. I think these ballfields are used, whether it be by a club team or local team, if somebody is wanting to try it out for the first time, we have group users so I think we have beautiful cities and I am ready to make sure we have the money to upkeep them so the fees are very reasonable,” said Shaw.

Councilmember Hugh Henderson stated that was “good with the staff recommendation of option 2”

The comments came as the City Council was holding its work session on the Recreation Fee Schedule.

According to the staff report, after a recent review of fees related to the Recreation Division, it was noted that the fee schedule in place did not properly represent the fees being charged. The intent of the fees charged for the rental of the recreation center was meant to be a per hour fee and was inadvertently noted on the fee schedule as per day. It was also noted that other fees such as the administrative fee for contract programs or classes and the after-school program were missing from the adopted fee schedule

Within the staff report, staff reported that Park Rental Fees-similar to the rental of the recreation center, costs to maintain our facilities continue to rise. Our parks and sports field are

kept at a high standard and the cost to keep them in their current state is growing. Current fees can be found on the attached fee schedule.