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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2008-04-01 - Parks and Rec Advisory Council Meeting Minutes MINUTES OF THE VILLAGE OF RYE BROOK PARKS AND RECREATION ADVISORY COUNCIL 938 KING STREET, RYE BROOK,NEW YORK 10573 April 1, 2008 CONVENE MEETING: Chairman Steve Schoen called the meeting to order at 820pm The following members of the Council were present: Advisory Council Members: Chairman Steve Schoen, Cliff Shaw, Richard Gutner, Kenneth Finder, and Jeffrey Kornblum, Absent Council Members: Steve Epstein and Debra Tempesta Recreation Department Members Present: Robert Bertolacci, Parks and Recreation Superintendent Carmella Swick, Sr. Office Assistant Paul Rosenberg, Village Trustee & Liaison to Parks & Recreation Department Teddy Sabato, Little League Committee Member Rye Brook Residents: Robert Hauryluck, Ken Frankel, Dan Forrester, Dan Wurtzel Jill Zecker, and Sari Jablon Chairman Schoen commented that this is one of the most well attended meetings in several months. Thank you all for coming. A formal Agenda was not published but we will be talking in particular about travel baseball tonight. Chairman Schoen stated that he didn't know if anyone here tonight had kids playing soccer over the weekend in the Rye Brook Soccer Tournament. This is the second year of the tournament and they did a fantastic job. It will probably become a long lasting tradition in the community. It was well organized, great flow of information and volunteers. You got to the event and you knew what was going on, the teams knew what was going on. There were 80 teams involved in the event over the weekend with over 300 kids just from our neighborhood and 1200 kids in total. Chairman Schoen congratulated our Council Member Finder who is the co-chairman of that committee. Chairman Schoen welcomed 2 new members who will be on the Parks and Recreation Advisory Council, Ken Frankel and Sari Jablon. Ken and Sari will be officially appointed next week by Mayor Elect Joan Feinstein. We welcome you and look forward to having you participate with us. Over the last couple of years we had a 7 member council but prior to that it was a 9 member council. It had shrunk by two members during Ed Kulik's term as Chair of the council Given the demand for being able to participate on this council and the different things that are going on with recreation and the importance they play in our children's weekend and day to day lives, it is 1 good to see more participation. Chairman Schoen would like to briefly explain our role as part of the Parks and Recreation Advisory Council. We are not a rule making board, we are a council that hears about different activities and issues and provides recommendation to Superintendent Bertolacci. Superintendent Bertolacci can choose to act on those recommendations, act differently on those recommendations either in whole or in part or choose to ignore them, but that typically doesn't happen. It is not etched in stone that whatever we recommend, Superintendent Bertolacci will follow. That is the primary purpose of the council and my purpose as Chair is to make sure as we go through things and talk about things that we try to do as best we can in areas of diligence, process and things of that nature so that Superintendent Bertolacci has all the information he needs to be able to make decisions and bring information to us. Chairman Schoen asked if there were any questions or comments before moving on. Chairman Schoen said there has been a lot of interest in the Minutes from last month. Chairman Schoen stated that he went to the Recreation Office and listened to the tape particularly the section about travel baseball. We had a Travel Privatization Update as part of our Agenda last month on March 4t'. The draft Minutes were circulated by e-mail to the council members yesterday and there are changes to them and we will not ask you to approve them tonight because you are just getting them. You will see that the recommendation that was discussed is part of that update and looks smooth on paper but listening to it again on tape, it was garbled, fumbled and not entirely clear. You will see what it says in the revised Minutes. It was in fact recommended by the Council Members except for Committee Member Tempesta due to her absence and Committee Member Shaw because of his role in the prospective private baseball club. Chairman Schoen e-mailed Superintendent Bertolacci a few days after last month's meeting to inquire in more detail what he referred to as being satisfied with what he had heard from the prospective travel baseball group and also his thoughts of what that should include. I think the entire council, Trustee Rosenberg, Chris Bradbury and the Little League sub-committee had a sense for what those thoughts entailed based on the e-mail I sent around to everybody on March 13th. My thoughts are that there should be a value proposition for us doing this and a value-add add to the kids participating in the program. Furthermore, there should be a proper process around it. Based upon what I learned since that meeting about that proposal and what I have heard about the process, I don't know if those burdens have been met. Again, we are a council making recommendations and we will hear from Superintendent Bertolacci about that shortly. Superintendent received a submission from the private Baseball Club on March 26th which we all received the following morning and we have had a chance to review. Chairman Schoen stated that we would like for Superintendent Bertolacci to voice his thoughts about the proposal after considering what was submitted along with any other communication that he had with the prospective private baseball group. You outlined some very basic items at our last meeting that you wanted to see addressed. I think it is important to remind us about some of those more critical items on the list and tell us whether they were addressed or not, and if not, why not. 2 Superintendent said that the report submitted on March 26th didn't address the tryout process which was one of my concerns, and did not address the fee and stability of the program over time. I did meet with the group prior to this meeting at 7:OOpm. It seems they have their fee structure pretty much ironed out. They are still not quite set with the rating process but I think one way or another the group is going to move forward with their baseball club whether it is with our backing or not with our backing. Chairman Schoen said we live in a free society and can start companies and do things as we wish. Whether or not the Village and the Rec Department chooses to endorse it is another matter and probably there is an issue using the name of Rye Brook. Committee Member Shaw stated that he doesn't think there is an issue using the Rye Brook name as long as we live in the town we could use the name. Chairman Schoen said he would leave that issue with the Village's Council. Chairman Schoen asked Superintendent Bertolacci to tell us a little bit more detail about what you learned before this meeting in terms of fees and terms of other things. Superintendent Bertolacci said he would let the Travel Baseball group bring everyone up to speed. Committee Member Shaw said he would rather Superintendent Bertolacci speak. Chairman Schoen said he would rather hear from the Travel Baseball group. Little League sub-committee member Teddy Sabato asked if the Recreation Department is abandoning the travel program. Is Rec not going to have anything to do with the travel teams? Superintendent said it's still up in the air with that process. Obviously, if they move forward with our backing, we would not offer the program in the summer. Committee Member Finder asked Ted if there is going to be a Little League. Teddy said if I had a private team and there are so many kids in Rye Brook and some kids are left behind and all of a sudden the Rec department isn't doing anything for those kids.... Chairman Schoen thinks that is an issue and is something we need to discuss. Committee Member Gutner said that he thinks Teddy is asking if this goes forward without the Rec's approval, will the Rec department still offer their own program as it has in the past. Teddy said he was under the assumption that if travel gets privatized, Rec will do nothing for the kids. If the kids can't make this private team being an all-star and it's the first year for the team and there are a lot of demands, they might not be able to get funds and only have 4 or 5 teams this year and kids will be left behind. I don't think the town should take the stand of passing it onto being private, without Rec offering any program. Committee Member Shaw asked for a 5 minute recess. Chairman Schoen asked Superintendent to respond to Teddy's question or statement. Superintendent said the thought process here is that if the Travel Baseball Club takes over the travel portion of Little League, it would be run similar to the Rec way at least in the first year and the same teams would be offered through this group that I would have offered. Everyone would have the same ability to try out and make the same teams. The same opportunity is there. Committee Member Finder said there would be tryouts whether it is Rec or private and your son would have to tryout to make the team whether its Rec sponsored or private. Teddy stated that when Port Chester went private with their travel program they got $20,000 from the town plus the use of Lyon Park and Rec Park baseball fields. Teddy said we don't have 3 enough fields in Rye Brook and the worst scenario is that our home field would have to be in another town because we can't afford to pay for more than 3 or 4 practices a week. You can have a private entity but is the town offering anything. Chairman Schoen asked Teddy if anyone has sought his input in a more detailed and elaborate way given his baseball background. Teddy said he was told about a meeting at Dan Wurtzel's house on March 17. Rob Hauryluck stated that if in fact the privatization of the travel league develops, and it is no longer under the auspices of Rye Brook Recreation what assurances do I have as a parent that a kid from another town isn't going to come and take my son's spot. My son played for Rye Brook last year and the year before and now Rye Brook doesn't exist anymore, now it's a private club and two kids from Port Chester come in and two kids from Greenwich come in and now we have 12 kids on the team and half of them aren't from Rye Brook. Dan Wurtzel asked if he could address some of these concerns, it might clarify some of the questions and issues that have come up. We have been working hard the last several weeks to come up with a plan taking in all the concerns. When we had the meeting at my house it was basically a presentation to those parents who have been involved in Little League and the travel baseball program to get their input and seeing what the concerns are. Chairman Schoen asked if all the coaches from last year's Little League baseball/softball and travel teams knew about this meeting. Mr. Wurtzel said probably not. It wasn't an official meeting where everyone was invited and I didn't know everyone who was coaching. I haven't coached travel baseball. Chairman Schoen said when you talk about input that's your source of input. Mr. Wurtzel said one of the things that if we were going to do this in transition with the Rec Department, the program would only be open to residents of Rye Brook. We would not go and find some ringer from a different town. It would only be kids from Rye Brook. Committee Member Shaw stated that it is written in our By-laws. Chairman Schoen said to Committee member Shaw that he asked that question at our meeting last month and when he listened to the tape again the answer you gave was that, we couldn't say that in the by-laws. Committee Member Shaw said it is different now and we have made a decision. Mr. Wurtzel said if we are going to do this in unison with Rec and take over the program, it would only be for the residents of Rye Brook. There were some questions about how we were going to hold tryouts and how we are going to rate the kids. We scheduled tryouts for summer and fall the last weekend in May where we would have two full days of tryouts. We would have a comprehensive tryout where it's not just hitting 3 ground balls to a child and then letting him take 3 swings with a bat. Just watching the kid warm up and do a real comprehensive tryout, we can get a flavor of what the kids are all about and it is not a quick look. We are also going to talk to some of the coaches that these kids played under previously and get some of their input. This way we feel that a fair decision will be made on how the team will be formulated. We are talking about 13 kids per team. We worked on the costs and it is important that we disclose where we are with respect to the cost. 4 If we were to do a spring program whether we do it with the rec department or we do it separately because we can't work things out, we did make a commitment to Superintendent Bertolacci that we would not interfere with Little League because that is not fair to the community. No matter what direction we go in we would not abandon the Little League program but try and do something to support it. If we were to get an all-star team for the spring, the way it would be chosen is similar to what is done with rec basketball for the County Center teams. It would be a coach's decision with kids from other teams and we would then have those teams play a 10 game season from Memorial Day weekend through the third week in June and probably have 4 practices. Under that scenario we figured that the participant's fee would be $150 per child plus uniform. We want to make a real nice uniform which will be used for the summer and fall as long as the player fits into the uniform. We are organized as a non-profit entity and we are not in it for profit or to make money. In the summer we estimated 20 games with 8 practices at a fee of $275 per child. Again uniforms would be extra. In the fall we projected a 15 game schedule with 6 practices with a fee being $225 per child plus uniform. We are confined to weekends with soccer going on so we don't have as much time in the fall as we would like to. There may be some kids who want to play both soccer and baseball and the WBA said we could customize our schedule to accommodate soccer so we are not putting our kids in a position to choose one or the other or create problems for the travel soccer program. Based on that, we don't have a lot of time to practice. Chairman Schoen said 20 games in the summer and how many practices. Mr. Wurtzel said about 8 practices. They are going to be playing a lot and if they are playing a lot they will be playing during the week and evenings so there wouldn't be a need to have as many practices. Committee Member Gutner asked how many games were played last summer. Superintendent Bertolacci said we played about 16 games and about 14 games in the fall. Superintendent said the season runs from the end of June in the summer to the first week in August. Chairman Schoen asked Teddy how many times he practiced with his team. Teddy said he practiced 5 or 6 days a week. Committee Member Shaw stated that we are trying to keep the costs down. As part of the travel program for the rec department there is no cost for the fields. If we can get on the fields in the summer when nobody is there, there won't be a cost for the fields, but we do intend to pay for the fields and pay for the time we use them. Committee Member Finder asked if there would be a cost to the club if they don't have the time reserved but no one else is using the field. There is a risk that someone can come along with a permit or someone could be on the field before they are. Chairman Schoen said there is a risk that someone is paying for the field and that person can make an issue of it. Mr. Wurtzel said they recognized that in the summer there may be more flexibility with the fields because they may not be used as much and that is why we only allocated 8 practices. That is part of the budget. When I indicate practices, those are practices that we are renting the field and paying for the use at the current fee. Superintendent Bertolacci asked how many games did you budget to pay for. In the spring 4 games because it's busy because of softball, in the summer half and 15 games in the fall, 8 at home. We have certain sponsors lined up, although until I know exactly what direction we are going in, I don't have the full commitments but we do have some major sponsors and some local sponsors. Chairman Schoen asked if he can talk about that in detail. Mr. Wurtzel stated that he doesn't want to disclose them until I know for sure that they are signed up. Chairman Schoen said you should talk about it because it will help to defray 5 your costs. Mr. Wurtzel said one of the sponsors is going to be a Major League baseball team. We have to submit more information before it can be discussed and approved. We do have a couple of local businesses that we have spoken to. The more sponsorship that we can obtain the less pressure is going to be on the cost. If we happen to get more sponsorships than we anticipate that will knock down the price of what the kids are going to pay. Chairman Schoen said he wasn't concerned about getting more, but concerned about getting enough. That is why I am asking about who and how much. Chairman Schoen asked if he was willing to talk about that in more detail and you don't have to disclose the name of the Major League team. Mr. Wurtzel said we are talking about $6,000 to $7,000 in sponsorships for this year. Chairman Schoen asked how many different companies. Mr. Wurtzel said probably about 7 companies and that is just the start. Once we get the program going, we are going to talk to a local sports memorabilia company about getting some sports memorabilia that is inexpensive and auctioning it off as a fund raiser. Because we have certain connections, we have plans of having someone from the Mets and Yankees come up and run some clinics for the kids. . We would also like to go Cooperstown in the summer or fall to participate in one of the tournaments. This would be stepping the program up and making the kids feel good about baseball so that when they get into high school, baseball won't be a poor cousin's sport which I think it is right now. We want to give the kids that option by really promoting a program that is going to make them feel good about playing baseball and they will want to come back and want to play. It is an all-star team but they will have fun and learn the game. Another issue we talked about was if there is a problem, how would someone complain? When we have the tryouts and cuts are made, right now we have a four person board. We will be taking the phone calls and we'll have to deal with it. It will be our issue and that is sort of the pros and cons when you run something like this. Committee Member Gutner asked if the tryout fee was the same at $15 and Mr. Wurtzel answered yes. Mr. Wurtzel stated that once the teams are established we will have a parent rep from each team that can be called if there is an issue or a problem with a coach or something happens during a game that they are unhappy with. That parent rep will report to the executive board and we will deal with it swiftly and get back to the parent or the parent rep. I understand the hesitation and I know the Rec Department and the Rec Council want to make sure that this is done smoothly and Superintendent Bertolacci is comfortable with it. I have been coaching Little League baseball for about 6 or 7 years and have been involved in the basketball program and understand what the kids are looking for. We want to establish this for the long term benefit of the kids of Rye Brook. We are putting together our by-laws to have a succession plan. We want to have more parent participation, and committees that are under the executive board. This is not going to be a quick hit where we come in, establish something and then it falls apart. We want to lay the foundation for a long term program which is to copy what Committee Member Finder did for soccer and build something up for this community. Committee Member Gutner asked how Committee Member Finder handles parent issues. Committee Member Finder said the board is contacted and when we have a board meeting we sit down and we discuss it. You can't satisfy everyone but for the most part we have worked out the problems. Committee Member Finder stated that he told Dan and Cliff that the big problem is the tryouts. That is where the big issues come up. It is an evolving process even with the soccer and we have been doing it for I I years. The executive board takes the complaints. Mrs. Jablon stated that she has a couple of questions for Superintendent Bertolacci. I think there are a lot of good ideas here that have been discussed. When I went to the town board meeting several weeks ago and after reading the March 4th Rec Minutes, I had said that it has come as a 6 surprise to me that this was being undertaken. I thought it was something that was being looked at and not something that was already in the process of happening. At that meeting you said we were in the exploratory phase, and I haven't asked anybody to do anything yet but to get information. Clearly the Travel Baseball Club is saying you did authorize them to go ahead with this and it was not an information gathering phase but rather a privatized baseball. I guess my question is as a parent who has a son that plays travel baseball and another son who one day will play travel baseball, and our travel team belongs to our community, why were we not made aware that the existing system was not working and the program was going private? Is it within your realm to decide to dissolve the town travel program? Perhaps it would have been a good idea to involve the community and form a committee with many interested parents. Mr. Wurtzel put forth some tremendous ideas. There are a lot more people that would want to be involved and from there we could explore the various options together. If you have consensus it is going to be a lot easier to get a program to fly. My question to you is, are we in the exploratory stage or in the privatized baseball phase Superintendent Bertolacci said that back in September, I had asked Committee Member Shaw, Greg Picker, and Teddy Sabato to look into taking over the travel baseball program, and to explore options of the different ways to do it. It has been in the works and they have been gathering information over the months of October,November, December and at that point, I was pressing them for the information and somewhere between December and where we are now a proposal has been put together. Basically, that is how it evolved to where it is now. Mrs. Jablon said this is a community baseball team and it should involve the community. Can't we have great uniforms and go to Cooperstown too. Superintendent Bertolacci stated that we can do it all but at a cost to the participant. Superintendent Bertolacci says he can't afford to have this subsidized by the residents of Rye Brook. It would cost about $250 to $300. Mrs. Jablon asked if the fee would be more than what the private baseball club is offering. Superintendent Bertolacci said it would be more for us because we don't have the type of sponsorship that they have to offset these expenses. As it exists now, if we were to run the program this summer, it would cost about $250 to break even including the uniform. Mr. Wurtzel said the main difference of the cost between rec and a private program is whether there is backing from the rec or not, and the fields for the rec program are subsidized by tax dollars. We don't have the luxury of getting any subsidizing and we would have to raise more money and I am hoping to bring these costs down. If I can't do it in year one, I certainly expect to be in a better position next spring and grow. The more teams we have and the more kids we have participating in the program, the more sponsorship dollars we'll receive. The funds that the soccer club tournament netted are probably used to offset expenses for the fields. We would like to do something similar that soccer does to raise money. We know this has been a headache for the rec department and we want to do this for the kids in the community. Mr. Wurtzel said that we would like to know by the end of the week if we are going to be working together or not. I don't think we can continue to go through this process because it will never get off the ground. Our first choice is to work with the rec department and transition everything over. If you don't feel comfortable with our proposal, we probably will just form a small private club and go from there. Committee Member Shaw said that he already lost one team this year due to the indecision of the town. We had 12 or 13 fourteen year olds that wanted to play but the timetable ran out and they weren't able to play in Larchmont or Mamaroneck. It was a Babe Ruth team for 14U kids. Now only one of those 13 year olds is playing in Larchmont and the other 12 aren't playing. Mr. Wurtzel said we can pick that team up in the fall and summer. We have our name, 7 Federal ID 9 and have laid out my personal money to get it started and are willing to lay out more money but not until we know what direction we are going in. I am part of this community and want to do what is good for the kids and make everyone in this room look good. Yes, there will be some unhappy parents probably if their child doesn't make the team, but that is life. Mrs. Jablon asked again why we can't do this under the umbrella of rec. Mr. Wurtzel said either the program is private or it's not private. If there is a problem on a team, that parent should know exactly who to go to. They should go to the parent rep on that team and that parent rep would bring it up to the executive board. If there is a choice then they wouldn't know if they should go to the Superintendent, the rec council, oro to the executive board, I think it muddles the whole continuity of the program. Chairman Schoen asked Mrs. Jablon if that is the question she asked. Mrs. Jablon said no. Chairman Schoen said there is a program that existed for 6 or 7 years. What I am thinking is a lot of things you said are great but why haven't some of those things been incorporated into the existing program. Looking forward why couldn't they be incorporated into the existing program? I am not suggesting that I am for or against privatizing. What is the value that you guys are bringing verses what exists today in its current form outside uniforms and bats. Mr. Wurtzel said that with clinics we would have a more comprehensive program and we will raise the quality of the program and it's not a knock on rec. You have 19 towns and villages in Westchester that run private baseball clubs and two that do not. Mr. Wurtzel has spoken to the towns that have private clubs. If its 19 to 2 there must be a reason why the 19 are doing it on the private side, and it works. Chairman Schoen asked Mr. Wurtzel what towns he talked to. Mr. Wurtzel said he spoke to one in Harrison and one in Jersey. They have said they don't even deal with the town; we just pick our own team and don't get involved in the town politics. It is a very close knit club. Chairman Schoen asked if their Little League is under the town. Mr. Wurtzel said the Little League is under the town. Committee Member Kornblum said he talked to a father whose son was on travel and he said because travel is under rec and in order to play travel you have to play Little League. Chairman Shoen said that was correct. He also said that if travel becomes private, and he wants travel to become private, he is pretty sure that the top players will no longer play Little League. If these top players don't play Little League it could really hurt Rye Brook's Little League program. Mr. Wurtzel said that is why we are not proposing a full spring program. Just like the County Center team with basketball, if you want to make that team you have to play rec basketball. If we were to have a spring season through rec, in order to play that travel spring you would have to play rec baseball. Committee Member Gutner asked if that statement would be in their bylaws. Committee Member Shaw said we could put that in our bylaws. Chairman Schoen stated that he would extend that in the summer and fall. Committee Member Shaw said their intention is not to interfere with the rec program. Mr. Wurtzel said the issue with excluding kids who don't play in Little League for the summer or fall is unfair. There are kids who don't play Little League due to other commitments in the spring. I committed for the spring program that they have to play rec baseball and for the summer and fall it's a tryout and whoever makes it will be on the team. Chairman Schoen said there may be issues on the schedule for that group of kids because traditionally Little League goes to the first week of June. Mr. Wurtzel said he would sit down with Superintendent Bertolacci and work it out to make sure there are no conflicts. If we can't do the program for all age groups because of time constraints, we will do it for the age groups where it can work. We want to have a two day tryout, May 31 and June 1. That would be for both summer and fall. The application that would be given to us will be checked off whether 8 they want to play in summer or fall or both. After the tryouts we would announce the summer team and in mid August we would announce the fall team. The kids that are in camp who want to play fall baseball will have already gone through the tryouts and we could start practicing and be ready to go Labor Day weekend. Committee Member Gutner said that we have had problems in the past with kids who have played in the summer and didn't make the fall team. What do you do about the kids who made the summer team by default because there weren't enough kids around and played good but didn't make the fall team. If there was a tryout in August, he would probably make the fall team. How would you handle that? Mr. Wurtzel said they weren't going to commit to establishing the fall team until the middle of August. If that 13th kid on the team has improved dramatically, we will sit down with the coaches who are going to coach the fall team and say here are the players. For the fall we are not going to preselect the team until mid August which would give us some flexibility. Committee Member Finder asked if a child can play himself off the fall team by not performing well in the summer. Mr. Wurtzel said the same way they can play on they can play off. We want to limit it to 13 kids on the team to give them enough playing time. It will be a decision that will be made with the coaches. One of the things we will look at is a kid with a good attitude verses a bad attitude. Chairman Schoen asked what to do with kids that go away for a month during the summer who would typically be on a team if they were home for the summer. Mr. Wurtzel Said those are things that would be on the application to let us know if their kid is going to camp. Teddy feels that the town is putting restrictions on it instead of being unison. Chairman Schoen asked Teddy what he meant about the town putting restrictions. Teddy said they have to pay a fee just for practices and to have only 8 practices in a 3 month period is being restricted. The kids are sitting around when they could be in the field practicing. Mr. Wurtzel said this is a new enterprise and we will have to iron them out and we don't expect to have a perfectly smooth operation in year one. If we make mistakes in year one we correct for year two. We will learn and that's how you succeed. Chairman Schoen asked Teddy if his advice, opinion, expertise was for by the travel club. Committee Member Shaw said he reached out to Teddy on several occasions but Teddy was sick and calls weren't returned. Committee Member Finder stated that the travel club reached out to him so they can tap into the experience I had setting up the soccer club and I sat down with them. Mr. Hauryluck said he only coached a team and all the back room stuff they are doing, I think they are doing a good job. I respect and appreciate the fact they called me to attend the meeting. Teddy asked where are we with the town. He thinks the town isn't going to work with the Travel Club. Port Chester gave $20,000 plus we had fundraisers and carte blanch with all the parks in Port Chester. Mr. Wurtzel stated that it will work like AAU basketball club works. It was $500 for the spring season, and they get no subsidy and no sponsorship. We are anticipating not getting any funding from the town. Teddy said why block them from doing it and the town shouldn't abandon the program. Just because someone wants to privatize doesn't mean it's an end to the program. Mr. Wurtzel said he agreed but if that was the case Ken would be cutting in front of the line because soccer has to be self sufficient. Committee Member Finder said the soccer program has never gotten a dollar. Mr. Wurtzel said soccer runs like a hybrid for the younger kids because they take everyone and don't make cuts and create 2 teams whereas in baseball, the Little League is the rec program and this is the all star program. If there are specific questions that we haven't addressed, ask them now. 9 Committee Member Gutner asked what about the girls. Mr. Wurtzel said if we take the program from rec we will take the softball. We have a fifth spot on the executive board and want to offer to a parent who has a daughter in the softball program. Committee Member Gutner asked if they would have a team for the girls in the spring or just boys. Chairman Schoen asked it they thought about tryouts. Committee Member Shaw said they were thinking of having the tryouts on those two days for the boys and girls. We did reach out to a parent for softball but she didn't have the time to do it and she would have been the fifth member. Janice is going to provide a list of interested softball parents to Cliff. Mr. Wurtzel said we'll take the boys this year and the girls next year so we can get established. We are not looking to exclude the girls and we want to whole program but we will take one step at a time. Committee Member Gutner asked if you take the boys this year what do you do with the girls. Mr. Wurtzel said the rec department would run the girls division this year and we would take it over next year. Mr. Hauryluck said last year for the 12U team he had 13 kids and after one practice was down to 12 and during the course of the season we were down to 11. If the team figure that I hope to see is $275 a player and for some reason you don't get those 13 players and you don't get all those sponsors, do you have a back up plan. Mr. Wurtzel said we may have to merge some ages together like 9U and IOU and make one team of IOU. Mr. Hauryluck said that happened to him last year and was forced to take somebody he didn't want. Mr. Wurtzel said one of the things they want to do is have the volunteer coaches be part of the process. Committee Member Shaw said part of it would be who shows up for each age group to tryout. Mr. Wurtzel stated that last year the 12U team who were actually I I years old played up and did pretty good and it was a great experience for them. They won a bunch of games and were competitive. Chairman Schoen said he needs to know more detail about their sponsors because the numbers I am doing here you guys are making it happen. You have to let us know who and how much and also I want to know how that is going to conflict with rec. If you guys are going to the same sponsors Superintendent is going to that is not good for Little League program. Mr. Wurtzel stated that he doesn't think he has enough information to give out right now. Chairman Schoen said you have 6 or 7 you are talking about setting aside the Major League team. Mr. Wurtzel said he needs to know if we are moving forward or not with you because I can't go to sponsors with 50% of a plan. Chairman Schoen said you need to talk about the full plan to this group. Mr. can't officially raise money until I know what kind of program we are going to have. Chairman Schoen said you can talk about what you are hoping to achieve and what you think you can do if you get the go ahead. Mr. Wurtzel said there are some non-local sponsors who don't have anything to do with baseball in Rye Brook and are willing to sponsor us as an anonymous donor. I am confident that I can raise the money that is needed and if I fall short, we may have to kick in some money to bridge it until the next year. Mrs. Jablon asked what is the advantage to the parent of the child if the travel program goes private. What is going to be done that is not done through rec. Chairman Schoen said its another way of doing it and there are a lot of advantages to going that way, flexibility that a private organization has but the cost basis is important and if you guys don't want to be forthright about what your doing. Mr. Wurtzel said we are committed to the cost bases and that should be enough of a comfort level. Chairman Schoen said you are only offer 8 practices budgeted per team verses the experience that the kids who play in summer get which is more like 20 practices. Mr. Wurtzel said your current program is subsidized by tax dollars. Chairman Schoen asked what the value out of the program if you are offering 8 practices verses 20 practices. With the numbers that you arrived at, you are not breaking even. Mr. Wurtzel said our objective is that 10 we would raise the quality of the program and we will accomplish that. Mrs. Jablon asked if need be would you be willing to do the same thing under the umbrella of rec. You can have the insurance paid for and the fields paid for. Mr. Wurtzel said he doesn't understand the difference. Chairman Schoen said the difference would be a lot less expensive for the people who play. Mr. Wurtzel said if a kid doesn't make the team and the parent makes an issue of it, and says my tax dollar pays for this program, we don't want to be part of that lawsuit. Chairman Schoen stated that our Village Administrator is not worried about that and Mr. Wurtzel said he is. Chairman Schoen said if you are under the rec umbrella, you're not on your own. Mr. Wurtzel said then why do you need us. Chairman Schoen said that is the question to you guys, what you are offering. Mr. Wurtzel a higher quality program year round that is going to benefit the kids of Rye Brook. Chairman Schoen said with few practices in the summer. Mr. Wurtzel said if you are not comfortable with what we presented, no problem, we will do our own thing if we want to. I made a commitment to Superintendent Bertolacci that we wouldn't do anything to conflict with Little League. If you were to say that you're not endorsing this, do it on your own and you hear great things, you may come back to us and say we like what you're doing, pick up the rest. Chairman Schoen said if that happens then people would be free to select this program, Frozen Ropes, Big apple or somewhere else. Committee Member Finder said this community is too small to have a private group for travel and a village team. Mr. Wurtzel said his private team may start hand picking kids without a tryout, because we wouldn't be obligated to do it that way, and it may not necessarily be kids from Rye Brook. We could do whatever we want but it would be more detrimental to the travel program because if we are skimming the product that the rec department is going to have for a travel program is just going to be inferior to what is there now. That is not choice one for us. Trustee Rosenberg said this Village has to make a decision on whether or not it wants to participate running a travel program that is cutting children. We are only one of the two municipalities in the County that are cutting children on a tax payer subsidized funded program. This administration will work with Superintendent Bertolacci and Chris Bradbury to make a decision of whether we want to continue doing that. Obviously, they are free to run their own program and would be in everybody interest to do so. If Bert and Chris feel that this is something the Village should embrace, we should embrace it fully and we should move forward. We don't want to see Bert with a program that going to be decimated because there will be children trying out for one program and not for another. With that being said, a decision has to be made by Chris Bradbury and Bert. Once they make that decision there needs to be more of a public airing of this decision. This board has basically stated that there would be a public forum to discuss from beginning to lend what is going to happen, what changes if any will be made. Mrs. Jablon asked how is the cutting from a travel team any different from the County Center All-Star basketball team that children are excluded from. Village Trustee said he was not familiar with the County Center All-Star basketball program. Superintendent said the County Center basketball team is an enhancement of the existing basketball teams. Chairman Schoen said you play out the basketball season and all the coaches within the divisions pick 8 or 10 players not including players from their own team. Each coach submits a ballot and Janice picks the last 2 spots because she tends to see everyone play and to right a wrong if there has been a wrong. It is based on the rec program and the coaches get to vote on it and they get to play at the County Center. It's an all star team and basically it is the same thing that is being suggested for the spring baseball team. Superintendent said the County Center team is like an enhancement of our basketball program. I am not excluding any kids from participating in our basketball 11 program. It is like a reward for the kids who do well on our basketball program. Mrs. Jablon said that it is only open for the children that are selected by the coach. Not everybody gets to do it and a lot of kids who want to do it don't get the opportunity to do it. Chairman Schoen said he reviews it a reward and kids are not getting cut from it, they are being asked to so something additional at the end of the program. It lasts about 2 weeks between the practices and games. I don't view it any differently than what is being discussed here about spring baseball, taking kids from the team and giving them the opportunity to play more in the spring so long as it doesn't interfere with the Little League program. Committee Member Gutner stated that he got a call from a father who coached softball last summer and also spoke to other parents and their concern is that the girls program is just going to fade away. I think the concern here is that you are talking about taking the boys this year and possibly the girls next year. Committee Member Shaw said their intention is to take the whole program this year. We are not sure exactly what is going on here. Also as stated before, we are looking for a parent who has a daughter in the program to be on the board to help us with the girls program. Committee Member Gutner said if there is a public forum and we are not going forth this year with the girls, then you better be ready to answer the questions of parents who will want to know why. It's a building program in this town and parents of daughters are equal. Committee Member Shaw said we would have the girls program and are looking for some insight as to how we are going to move forward. Mr. Wurtzel said if we had more time, we would be able to work out both programs. In the interest of time and not tripping over ourselves, leave the girls program for this year with rec. We need to find somebody for our board who has a daughter in the program who will volunteer. Chairman Schoen asked if their by-laws are done yet. Mr. Wurtzel said they are nearly done. Chairman Schoen said they have been nearly done for awhile and it doesn't take long to create by-laws. Mr. Wurtzel said it does take long because it has to be customized to fit what we want. We will have our by-laws probably before the kids start playing and by the time we have our tryouts, our by-laws will be in place. It really depends on also what direction we are going in, whether we are working with you or not. There are blanks in our by-laws that have to be filled in once we know what direction we are going in. Chairman Schoen asked if they can provide them. Mr. Wurtzel said that this is a working document and when it is done, we will be happy to provide it to you. Chairman Schoen said there is a lot of catch 22 going here. You're saying you will provide the by-laws when it is done and we will tell you about sponsorship once we know. Part of the people's decision is to know more about what you are doing now. You guys have talked about the interest of time and you have had a lot of time going back to September and October. It seems a lot of time has gone by where a lot of things could have happened. I get a little concerned that things are getting done a little hastily and there may be some other ways in which you can benefit from maybe not doing it quite yet. Chairman Schoen asked if they would consider a 7 member board. It concerns me that only one person has younger children who is on your board. Mr. Wurtzel said right now we are a 4 member board. If we hear from Bert and work with you we could go on that path after, finish the by-laws and then we could start locking in our sponsors. It's inefficient to run two paths right now. As soon as we get the indication this is what we are going to do, we could steam roll ahead and get done everything we need to get done based on going in that direction. Chairman Schoen asked it they would consider a 7 member board where the other board spots would be filled by people that have a stronger affiliation of softball and have younger children in 12 the program. Mr. Wurtzel stated that he didn't want to make that decision because it is not my board or my decision. Chairman Schoen said it is your board and I am not asking you to make a decision but would you consider it. Mr. Wetzel said they would consider it. Chairman Schoen said what people are looking for is more inclusion and the group being more open and to make sure that different constituents are represented as part of its board and its formation. Mr. Wetzel said they would like to have representation and committees that will help us make decisions and give us recommendations. Trustee Rosenberg asked Committee Member Finder how many people support his board. Committee Member Finder said when we first started there were two people on the board myself and my wife for 7 years. We now have a 7 person board with a max of 9. Committee Member Finder said if we were put under this scrutiny and given all these restrictions about, did you look at this or that; there would be no soccer program in this community and I would have walked away. Chairman Schoen said you can compare them, it's a different situation. Committee Member Finder said you can compare it to a certain extent. Chairman Schoen said one never existed under a municipal frame work and one has for 6 years. While there are some things people would like to see improved about it, it certainly isn't broken. There were a couple of teams that did extremely well. Mr. Wetzel excused himself from the meeting. Chairman Schoen asked if the committee wanted to take a quick 5 minute recess. Superintendent Bertolacci said that Rob Hauryluck wanted to discuss another baseball issue. Teddy said there are a lot of things that were brought up that we have to look into. I don't see this working. Rye Brook is like a two season town, kids that go away and kids who don't go away. You have 4 on the board looking for a 5th to represent softball. Sari Jablon said all self- appointed with no community involvement at all. Teddy said not one on the board was represented at anytime in the summer. I don't think anyone was a coach. Teddy said he coached the summer program the last few years and only two kids on his team made the fall team. Speaking as an outsider you feel more trust in a town program that is committed. I was only told about the meeting at Dan's house the day of the meeting. I was told things were going to be presented and I haven't heard one thing. Trustee Rosenberg stated that if a resident ask to meet with us we are going to meet with them. Teddy said they will need a lot of help from volunteers and it's a major task. Chairman Schoen stated to Committee Member Shaw that as a member of the Little League committee you were asked to help with this and you took the bull by the horns and we give you credit for that. Chairman Schoen asked Teddy if he was asked for his input along the way or did you just get a call about the volunteer meeting on March 17. Teddy said that Greg called him a couple of times but he was in the hospital from January to March. At another time I had a discussion with Cliff and Greg. Committee Member Shaw said that at least 3 times we reached out to Teddy and unfortunately he was sick and we were hoping to use your input and use your experience in our decision. Teddy said you need a lot of time to plan this. Chairman Schoen asked how long it took to do the privatization in Port Chester once people worked in earnest on it. Teddy said probably took about a year in planning. There was a whole community of parents that were involved, and a lot of fund raising. Chairman Schoen asked Teddy if he envision it being different than what it is today. Today they have the teams that they have the last few years for travel. Teddy said in Port Chester if they heard you talk badly about a board member, you would get thrown out. 13 Chairman Schoen said if the rec said the private group could go ahead on their own, and the coaches Teddy, Rob, Scott Zecker and John DiCanio who have been coaching the travel teams under the Village's program decide to continue to coach for the Village. That is not a good situation for the private program. If we got in that situation where are the guys who have coached in the past going to coach? Mr. Forrester said I feel a little contention going on here and is very disturbing to me. I am a lover of the sport and I care for the kids. If there is a privatization and some program with the rec that can co-exist, I think both sides benefit. Clinic wise you run programs that incorporate both teams. There is no summer program with rec and no fall program with rec baseball. The kids that play Little League with the rec department in the spring get transferred over and I am speaking for myself as coach, would be happy if they had the time to volunteer both for the rec and the travel program because they don't conflict specifically in the spring. I don't see why this all can't work out where there is a private and a rec program controlled under one umbrella. You can have the benefits of privatization and more advanced programs for the kids and still have the opportunity for the kids to play in town. Chairman Schoen said he agreed with that and you guys made a commitment not to overlay with that so I didn't think that was an issue subject to the things we talked earlier with how long the season goes. When you get into the summer programs and the fall programs which is the bread and butter of what the private group is proposing to take on, it comes down to who the guys that are coaching these teams. If Superintendent Bertolacci and Chris Bradbury and the trustees feel that we should continue to offer a rec travel program and then as a group you private people decide you are going to go do your thing, which obviously no one can stop you from doing, it would come down to it. Mr. Forrester is assuming that if there is a rec program and a separate travel program, I didn't take into consideration that the town would actually run the travel that you are running today. Chairman Schoen said that when you talk about some of the contentious, some of the feeling from some people you talk to is that the contentious comes from not knowing that this was all in the works. Had there been a more open discussion about it back in December, back in January, where you got the Little League coaches involved of what was going on, people may have said I would like to help with that. Mr. Forrester said that he was one of those people that were out of the loop and I heard rumbles that there were some things going on, but at the end of the day I am all for what is best for the kids. What I think the kids are missing is an opportunity to get as much baseball as they can possibly can. Teddy made a good point, in the summer there are some kids around and some are not and you have just so many kids to pool from. In the fall, baseball took a back seat to soccer and football. I know soccer coaches who say if you don't make practices, you're not playing. We had a team picked with 13 guys and I kid decided to play soccer and another kid decided not to play and we were down to 11. We were coordinating hopefully that the kids would show up for practice but soccer always came first. I just think that these kids deserve as much baseball as we can give them at the highest level with everybody being happy about it. Chairman Schoen said there was a lot of good stuff in what was said but when you go into it budgeting for 8 practices in the summer time, and your saying give them as much baseball as they want to have, that not 8 practices. There are 6 or 7 weeks to the season and with two practices a week that's 14 practices. Now you circle back to cost and you circle back to what the fund raising and the sponsorship like. If you have two offerings, you have private or Frozen Ropes or there might be a Rye Brook offering. If Teddy coaches a team, he would have the kids' practice 24/7 when they aren't playing a baseball game. Somebody who is choosing what program they are interested in, I would want my kid to play a lot of baseball. Not only will that 14 program be less expensive, they will get more baseball and get instruction from a super great coach who really knows what he his doing. We either have to agree and get it together and make it work or if there is not enough there to make it work because people are still a little uncertain about it. That is why I asked about 7 person boards, getting more people incorporated from the younger grades. You have the youngest kids out of the group of people on the board. Two people don't coach, one person coaches and is not around in the summer or fall season. Committee Member Shaw said we are not coaching by choice, we feel it wouldn't be appropriate for a director to coach a team. Committee Member Gutner asked if Greg would coach. Committee Member Shaw said no. Chairman Schoen asked if Dan would be coaching. Committee Member Shaw said probably not. Chairman Schoen said just about every organization I know that has been involved trying to do something like this; the guys that are running it are coaching. They are giving their blood and sweat. Chairman Schoen asked if Committee Member Finder coached teams. Committee Member Finder said for the first two years he coached. You are counting on recruiting guys that have coached in the past excluding Dan and Greg, Teddy and Rob, Scott Secker, John Decanis and other guys that we don't know about. Committee Member Shaw said we are just talking about the Board of Directors. Teddy, Rob and John could coach and if we need a coach, Dan would be more than able to coach as well but the preference is for the fathers who have kids on the team to be the coach's for that team. We have also talked to Jim Spano We have also talked to Jim Spano and we are trying to get some high school kids to help out with the teams as well. Chairman Schoen said that is a fantastic idea and good luck with it. It's a great idea but practically I don't think it's going to work real well. Mrs. Jablon said that she is hearing from Trustee Rosenberg that the Board is obviously going to make final decision. Trustee Rosenberg said this is not going to be a decision made by the board in a public session. Our town has to take the philosophy if the town wants to offer programs that are not open to everybody. We offer programs now that are not open to everybody. We offer a tennis program where half of the kindergarten, 1St and 2nd grade were closed out because they did not get onto the computer on time. At least with baseball, if anybody who wants to try out has the opportunity. There are kids who want to play tennis and don't have the opportunity to play tennis. Trustee Rosenberg said at our budget work session last week we went through the recreation budget, and the recreation department received loud and clear instruction from this board that we are unhappy with that and it is unacceptable. Actually, I went on the computer 5:30am to sign up my 1St grader and I was shut out of the program. Last week Joanne Citrin, who does the scheduling of the tennis classes, called me because they were able to expand the classes for Kindergarten—2nd grade. Obviously now the rec department has heard guidance from the board that it is not acceptable to shut out kids from a municipal village funded rec program. Mrs. Jablon said there are always kids shut out of programs. Our town has gotten so big and there needs to be consistency across the board. Talk to any number of people especially parents of younger children, there was just a baseball program and they took the first 20 kids at Belle Fair. There are a lot more than 20 kids that wanted to play. If you didn't sign up on the Monday that it was offered by Tuesday you were done. The floor hockey program in the fall, 20 kids and if you weren't one of the 20 you were shut out. Kids that want to play were not given the opportunity. Trustee Rosenberg said he completely concur with you about that and one of the things that we as a board stressed going forward that we want to see children who want to play in municipal rec funded programs be able to play. If it is a matter of scheduling issues or venue issues then we have to put on our hats and come up with other venues and vendors to schedule 15 programs. I don't disagree with anything you said. I think here it is slightly different because we are not excluding them because we don't have enough court space or we don't have enough vendors, or we don't have enough people in the rec department to teach the program; I think they are cutting the people because of skills. Mrs. Jablon said one year when her kid got cut from the team and he is a great player, my husband and Dan went to Bert and said we will take another team and they agreed to field another team. It is not going to be perfect but in the rec we can make it better because there are more kids included and we have enough coaches and more kids step up, it's not going to be so competitive and cut throat. Trustee Rosenberg said he agreed with everything said about all the other rec programs and how people were shut out at 12:07am. Bert heard it from me loud and clear and he heard it from the other trustees. We would like to extend those programs because no one should be cut out and we also agreed that we shouldn't be keeping people up until midnight to sign up for programs. As I mentioned earlier in the evening, in terms of whether or not we move forward with this, this is a decision that Bert is going to make in conjunction with Chris Bradbury. The board is not going to take an active role in holding public hearings, but they will bring us the details. Mrs. Jablon said she misunderstood and thought that Trustee Rosenberg said they would determine whether it was Rye Brook's philosophy to have teams where there were cuts made. Trustee Rosenberg said he was not going to speak for everyone on the board but I know that one other board member feels that we don't want to be in the business of municipally taxed funded program cutting children because of skills. Chairman Schoen said that under this plan Dan Forrester would not be coaching. Your eyes popped when that was said and clearly it caught you off guard. I would urge you to strongly reconsider it. You look at the soccer board and every other board and these guys generally coach. In order to make it work they give their sweat elsewhere to help administrate the boards of these private club, otherwise it doesn't get done. The guys that love to coach are the ones that are passionate about making it happen. Committee Member Shaw said our goal is teaching the kids, working with the kids, skills, and things of that nature. We want the parents to be included and be coaches of the team to include more people and parents. Our role as a board is to work with the kids and structure. Everyone on the board has played ball and we want to instill that knowledge into the kids. That is what we see as our purpose, but if we are short a coach, one of us will step in. We see more of us as teaching the kids, working with kids and individualized skills which the rec department doesn't do. We want the parents of the kids that are playing on the team to be able to coach the teams if they want to. Dan Forrester is fairly new to the board and wasn't at the first couple of meetings. We felt we wanted to be more of skills people as well as bringing in more people to teach the kids and that was the explanation. Teddy said if I wanted to get a team and be private and didn't want to be with the club, then I could get my own insurance and take all Rye Brook kids. Now we go to Pine Ridge Park and it's not being used and I have to pay for the field. Trustee Rosenberg said that he does a father son baseball every Sunday morning and in the past we didn't have to pay for the field. If Pine Ridge field was being used we go to other fields if there not being used. This year, we are paying for the use of the field to guarantee that we have use of the field. Teddy said if I were to get a pickup game or get a team for the town, why would I have to pay to use the field if it is not being used. Trustee Rosenberg said if you want a permit to use the field it is the policy of the Village. Teddy said if I were on the field would I get thrown off? Trustee Rosenberg said if someone has a permit, you would have to leave the field. Would a resident call the police because I am on the field with 15 kids? Committee Member 16 Finder said you can't have police sitting on the field. Chairman Schoen asked if people across the street from the field call the police to check for permits. Trustee Rosenberg said that this is a ridiculous conversation. I get the police blotter every Friday and that doesn't happen. The police are not called to the fields because someone is worried that there on the field without a permit. Chairman Schoen said that it hasn't happened because you haven't had the kinds of discussion we're having and what they can become. It hasn't been contentious in the past. You are participating what might happen. Chairman Schoen stated that it will be in Superintendent Bertolacci, Chris Bradbury and the Board of Trustees hands. We heard a lot of great things tonight, I am not for or against travel baseball, in fact if done properly, travel baseball would probably be better if done in a private context. What I do think is what is being proposed here has not been done with enough fore sight and is being put together hastily. It's not saying it won't be successful at some point but its best chance of success, I don't think it should be going on this spring, this summer or maybe even this fall. I think there should be some more inclusiveness, folks that are interested in helping either from a board framework or a committee framework that would give folks more opportunity to fundraise and do all sort of things to defray costs and really get a sense to whether it is feasible. It won't force you into offering a summer program that is going to be budgeted to 8 practices which I think is inferior to what the village offers today. With the coaches that the village was having coach these teams, I think the private offering as it was described is an inferior product, my opinion. I believe learning comes from practice not the game. The games are fun but you learn how to play ball during practice whatever the sport. We would be better served as a community and as a village and for the benefit of the program to not rush ourselves into it but maybe with the goal to make it happen. This issue with fees for fields may not be something that the village can get over. The soccer clubs deals with it and the private baseball club would have to deal with it. It would be my opinion that it would be hasty to go into this and so much time has elapsed where not a lot has been happening and all of sudden these things are trying to happen in a short amount of time and I ask why, what is the rush? What's in it for the kids? Nobody has been able to answer it even as articulate as Dan Forrester was; he wasn't able to answer that value proposition. Why it is going to be better for the kids? I think it would be a mistake and that my two cents not the council's. You guys are going to decide and based on that decision, Cliff, Dan Wurtzel and Dan Forrester; decide what you want to do. To try and bring it to some closure, I think that having something along the lines of travel baseball committee under the rec, and having no overlap between the council and travel baseball committee or the Little League committee and the travel baseball committee would be the best approach to try to make this happen in a good way where everybody is working together. I don't understand what the resistance is all about. Committee Member Shaw said that he is a little confused that you were one of the people sitting at this table who did approve it. Chairman Schoen said subject to Superintendent Bertolacci's final satisfaction of all the issues. Committee Member Shaw said we have been talking to Superintendent Bertolacci, Trustee Rosenberg, and to Mayor Elect Feinstein and we'll let Superintendent Bertolacci make the decision and we will go from there. Chairman Schoen said ultimately Superintendent Bertolacci will find it's a decision that will be shared with Chris Bradbury, and the Board of Trustees. Committee Member Shaw said he wasn't exactly sure why Chairman Schoen voted for it and now you are not voting for it. Chairman Schoen said the reason he voted for it because as we talked about it, and you are free to listen to the tape as I did today, you will see that people kind of struggled with what exactly we were recommending. From my prospective, I asked a lot of questions that I feel didn't get answered. I didn't see any 17 reason from stopping you guys from plugging away with what you were trying to do. From that prospective it doesn't mean you were not doing a good job preparing and I did say in the Minutes that it is subject to Superintendent's final satisfaction and being comfortable with what is going on. I e-mailed Superintendent after our meeting to ask him what his criteria is because it wasn't really clear. He mentioned a few things which he was basing that decision on and I had my own thoughts about what some of that should include. I didn't bring that up in the context of the meeting because of the tone of the discussion and where it was going. We are where we are now and we should make sure we are doing the right thing. Committee Member Shaw said we should just leave it to Superintendent Bertolacci and Chris Bradbury and let them talk and make the decision. Committee Member Gutner said that besides Chris Bradbury and Superintendent Bertolacci, the Village wants an open forum. Whether you guys are for it or not, that is what they want. Chairman Schoen said that the trustees stated that is what they want. Chairman Schoen said even if the tide is against it happening, that doesn't stop you guys from doing it but brings about other complications for both parties and ultimately the kids. What we have is not broken, actually it has gotten better each year and the quality of baseball has gotten better too. Rob Hauryluck said he has been involved in Little League for the past few years. I was involved with the travel for the past few years. This summer I had a situation with one of the parents during a game. I always felt that the Rules of Conduct was pretty important particularly where it says that parents who violate this would be subject to sanction including suspension. I was pretty dam shocked when I found out that the parent involved with this situation at the field in front of the umpire and the other team is not coaching Little League. When I found out that he was coaching Little League I had a discussion with Superintendent Bertolacci and I said it's either him or me. They chose him. I want the council here to be advised that from a parent, I wouldn't want this guy coaching my kid. I can't speak for the parents of the kids that are going to be coached by that guy, but this guy has a pattern of being a real trouble maker on the field and I don't think he deserves the privilege of coaching these kids. I heard what you all said before that you make recommendations and it is ultimately up to Rob. I just want to make sure you guys are aware of it because it really hurts me and I can't coach my kid. I am not going to be on the field with this guy and I am sure you all can figure out who it is. If we are going to have this Parental Rules of Conduct that I handed out to every parent for the past three years and every parent of travel team, it is useless, throw it in the garbage. Mr. Forrester said the same exact thing happened to me. Mr. Hauryluck said when it was his turn to bat, the kid walked off the field and we had to take an out. I just want to make sure it is on the record that I am displeasured with this whole situation. Mr. Forrester said that he hoped the Parental Code would be enforced. Two years ago a father confronted me on the field, got in my face in front of my team, his kid, the umpire, the other team but thankfully he got pushed aside. But he went on to coach in Little League the following season. Mr. Hauryluck said this situation was because I needed another kid and Bert gave me this kid who was 13 years old turning 14. I had problems with that because I had a 12U team. Bert said I had to take the kid so I took the kid. Pine Ridge Park has a big sign there that says this field is for 12U. I fought taking this kid because I didn't want to be held liable. I thought it was a liability issue and I wanted to see it on paper. Superintendent got the paper and it was eventually satisfied. Now I had to take the kid. I put the kid in the first game and he played every game at 1St base. For defensive purposes I took him out in the sixth inning. I told him he would be a designated hitter and he walked off the field. With that the father proceeded to tell 18 me how poor a coach I am. The kid may have played 3 games. Mr. Hauryluck thanked the committee for their time Committee Gutner stated that there were 2 incidents and it should be addressed. Chairman Schoen stated that Superintendent knows about the incidents and asked him to give the committee some background. Superintendent said we talked about that particular situation last September at an Advisory Council meeting and at the Little League level. The Little League committee came up with their findings and they thought in this particular incident that this kid was justified in walking off the field. It was a combination of the coach and the parent. Both ends were wrong, the coach was hesitant to take the kid on his team. In the committee eyes, the coach really didn't give the kid a chance to become part of the team so the kid walked off the field even though we didn't condone what he did. The committee thought it was faulted by both sides. Chairman Schoen asked how the parent reacted and then allowing the parent to coach the following season based on that reaction and quite frankly based on the history of this particular parent. Committee Member Gutner said there were two different parents involved in two separate incidents. Superintendent said we are talking about Rob's situation. Both incidents were with travel teams. One issue was when he was assistant coach on a travel team. He decided that he didn't want to play the last game which was a playoff game in New Rochelle. Last year the parent allowed the kid to walk off the field and I believe there was no altercation from the reports we got. Superintendent said he planned on speaking with that parent coach prior to the season and letting that parent coach know that he is on a thin rope and one mistake or one bad step and he will be removed from the sideline. Chairman Schoen asked if the other parent referred to earlier coaching Little League. Superintendent said that parent is not coaching this year. Chairman Schoen said hopefully that the conversation with that parent will be strict. Superintendent stated that he will have that conversation either this week or early next week. Chairman Schoen suggested giving Rob Hauryluck a call as a follow up. Superintendent said he would follow up with Rob also. Chairman Schoen said it is a shame that he feels as though he is put in a position to make a choice not to coach and despite all the challenges his team had last summer, they won the championship in their division. Little League Baseball Rules: Superintendent met with the Little League committee last week and talked about some of the rule changes for baseball/softball league. Superintendent reviewed the comments from last year's public forum and most of the comments were geared toward the Rookie League. It had to do a lot with the coaches. Rule Change—Minor League Baseball 3rd& 4' Grade IOU We wanted the coach to pitch instead of the pitching machine. The rule as it currently exists that you can pitch a maximum of 2 innings per game but you can't pitch 2 innings in back to back games. The committee discussed they want just pitch a maximum of 4 innings per week. Chairman Schoen asked about the use of the pitching machine. Superintendent said it's hard to pick up the ball off the machine. It is much easier and it gives more of the feel of the baseball atmosphere if you have a live pitched ball. Committee Member Kornblum asked if they do pitch count, a kid could pitch a hundred pitches. Are we considering 60 pitches a week considering the welfare of the kids? Chairman Schoen said also one of the rules is you can't do more than bat around. Committee Member Shaw at that age they are not throwing the ball very hard and they are not throwing a curve ball. With the machine it can be detrimental to the kids because 19 the machine is not as accurate as the coach pitching. In the past kids would drop back and then they a little nervous to get up to the plate. Also the machine has to be adjusted and then take it off the field after 3 innings and its 20 minutes getting back to the game. There is also the situation of the extension cord that the player can trip on. Also the committee wanted to layout how the fielder should be. In past years the outfielders came into the infield. They have four outfielders that have to start in the grass. Chairman Schoen asked if a fourth outfielder come in and cover second. Superintendent said he can. Committee Member Gutner asked if there was any talk about having a coach in the field. Superintendent stated that there will be no coach in the field. Superintendent said that was one thing that Teddy wanted was a coach in the field. The curfew rule during the week when there is no game following, there is no curfew. Weekend game for the last game has no curfew. That will be put in the rules. Committee member Shaw said to make sure the umpires know this rule. Minor League Softball: The rule that exists now has the final 3 innings in mid May to be pitched by live pitching. That didn't work out well last year. The committee recommended that we change it to 2 innings for the live pitch. Chairman Schoen said getting back to the pitch count and it is a potential issue, by observation of the minor teams there tends to be more of an opportunity that kids pitch potentially that might not pitch if they want to win situation. They are only playing 2 games a week and you get some coach instruction. Generally, it doesn't look like the kids are hurting themselves. We have to watch the kids who can pitch and tend to throw the ball harder and may throw a curve ball. Committee member Gutner said he received an e-mail from a softball coach regarding the steal rule. The rule that exists now that says there are 5 steals per inning and he feels that the rule should be reduced to 2 steals per inning. If there is a runner at 2nd and 3rd and a player fields a ground ball the only play would be at 1St base because there is no force at the bases. Chairman Schoen said for travel softball rule was 6 a game and you could use it whenever you wanted. Superintendent was all for reducing the number of steals. Chairman Schoen asked if the changes would be communicated to the coaches. Superintendent said that Janice and John would e-mail the coaches with the changes by the end of the week. Superintendent said the Opening Day Parade is on April 12th at 12:30pm, Ridge Street parking lot followed by the Pitch, Hit and Run. Committee Member Shaw stated that he was looking for volunteers for the Pitch, Hit and Run and would appreciate if anyone here can make it to help out. It has been very successful and has been successful because of the parents, coaches and everyone that is there. You can call or e- mail me to let me know if you can be there. Superintendent said all Minor and Major leaguers march in the parade. Chairman Schoen asked for a motion to adjourn the meeting at 11:45pm. The motion to adjourn was made by Committee Member Shaw and seconded by Committee Member Kornblum. 20 The next meeting would be announced. Minutes prepared by Carmella Swick. 21