Youth Sports Coalition to dissolve as council-created advisory group

The Roseville Youth Sports Coalition (YSC) opted for dissolution as a council-created group at the Oct. 4 City Council meeting. According to Parks, Recreation & Libraries Superintendent Kristi LaRoche, the YSC was created in 2008 by the Roseville City Council as an ad hoc advisory committee. The committee represents 7 youth sports leagues in the area including Roseville Youth Soccer, Granite Bay Youth Soccer, Roseville Little League, Maidu Little League, Woodcreek Little League, Pony Baseball and Roseville Girls Softball. Unlike other advisory groups, the council does not appoint the members. Rather, representatives from each league attend the quarterly meetings. "The group meets quarterly to discuss field needs, field allocations and project reimbursement approval," said LaRoche. "The original purpose of the YSC was to provide an organized forum for open communication and cooperation between the City of Roseville Parks, Recreation & Libraries and the sports organizations, and to make advisory recommendations to the parks and recreation commission regarding youth sports projects throughout the city." Discussing the needs of the sports community as a whole was the initial reason the YSC was created, however the way in which the group functions has changed over the years. League-related projects have always been funded by per-player-fees, which is a cost paid by league players. In 2008, the fees were split as follows: $5 for city general fund, $2.50 for general sports field projects recommended by PRL, $2.50 for projects benefitting the youth sports community as a whole. "In 2010, the Youth Sports Coalition decided that $2.50 of the per participant fee that previously went into the YSC pooled fund for projects, that was voted on as a group, would now go into individual League accounts," said Parks, Recreation & Libraries Manager Jeff Nereson. "In other words, the YSC would no longer collectively vote on projects for the benefit of all youth sports as a whole, rather the individual groups would now fund their own projects." This decision was due in part by the lack of representation for soccer leagues. According to Nereson, there are a total of 5 baseball/softball leagues with a total of 3,362 participants and 2 soccer leagues with a total of 6,011 participants. Despite having more participants, representation was based on number of leagues, therefore the soccer leagues felt they had less representation. "There was not enough voting power to advocate for all the sports equally," Nereson said. With leagues now funding their own projects, there came another issue. Leagues found it took weeks, sometimes even months, to have project reimbursements approved. The reimbursement would have to be proposed at the quarterly YSC meeting, then brought through a series of city boards because of the group's status as a council-created ad hoc advisory board. "Due to increased maintenance costs, plus an over-increasing number of sports fields to maintain, distribution to the general fund for maintenance has increased over the years, while the amounts distributed to the projects have remained the same. Practically, leagues pay for their individual projects, then seek reimbursement from their league accounts at the YSC meetings," said Nereson. "This has created a hardship for the sports organizations to receive timely approval or reimbursement of their funds since the group meets quarterly." Parks and Recreation Commissioner and Youth Sports Coalition Chair Matthew Bridges said that despite the dissolution as an ad hoc group, they still intend to meet regularly to discuss local sports needs. He said, "They agreed that they wanted to continue meeting, having the open forum amongst themselves, but the benefit of being able to be reimbursed within a matter of weeks versus going through waiting for the YSC schedule, and then a Parks Commission, which may not be every month. … and then having to go through council could delay reimbursement or their funding by several months. …They felt it would be a benefit to do the dissolution." Vice Mayor Krista Bernasconi agreed that dissolution was the best solution, saying, "It sounds like you all have done your research and you know what works best and works most efficiently." The Roseville City Council passed it unanimously. The YSC will return next meeting with an official dissolution.