Letter to the Editor
From Steve Pribulick
An open letter to The Wetumpka Youth League (WYL), its parents and players, Wetumpka Mayor Jerry Willis and the Wetumpka City Council:
To see the news out of my hometown today is shameful and despicable. It is nothing less than morally corrupt and heavy-handed governing.
History – My family had been involved in some way or form with what would become today’s incarnation of the Wetumpka Youth League since 1973. That is when baseball was played on Hwy 111 at a field provided and sponsored by the long since defunct Jaycees’s, a civic group. The city saw a need in the late 70’s for better facilities and built the Municipal Park with four fields. Since that time the city has always recognized the need for and supported the many youth programs in Wetumpka. That began to change a little over time and in 2014 when I was the Commissioner of Baseball under the leadership of Commissioner Michael Maddox, we were summoned to the Mayors Office for a meeting.
It was at this meeting that we were informed the $50k we had been receiving from the city to help offset the cost of paying for Umpires, would no longer be available. This was just about a month before the start of the Spring season. We would receive $25k that year, $5k the following year and no funding after that. It was a gut punch.
However, the Mayor was going to turn over the concessions to us, for the sole purpose of raising money to support the League and meet its needs. We would own it, we would run it, we would repair it. Commissioner Maddox was uneasy about this; however, I knew that it could be profitable if run correctly.
According to the city’s own accounting, it had made just short of $9k in the last year that they had managed it. I knew it could be more, much more. In the first year we made up the $25k difference. Skip forward 3 years and at the end of our terms, it was now netting a little over the $50k that had been taken away and still had much more room to grow. My only concern at the time was that another shoe was falling and would drop at some point.
I knew then that there was a larger plan, and today seeing this contract that the city has proposed to the WYL, it is clear. The city now sees a profit center where it once struggled to break even. Through their own admission that it was not making money as it should under their direction, they turned that loss over to the league. Now they see the potential and profit center and want that money back under their control. For the City to post on its face book page today that the City does not want to take the money from the League yet stand by its contract to the point of shutting down the season, is the most asinine statement I have seen in a very long time. Someone at the city, doesn’t understand plain English.
Section 2, Item C – “The League is to use all funds received by it for the benefit of the youth sports program, including but not limited to paying for the umpires, equipment, uniforms, food and beverage supplies, insurance, professional services fees, taxes, filing fees and other expenses reasonably calculated thereto. Any funds held in excess at the end of each year, less one-years’ operating capital in an amount determined by the City, shall be returned unto the City for the purpose of maintaining and/or improving the fields and the sports complexes.”
I do not know any plainer language that could have been used to tell you that the city is going to set your budget, determine what the excess amount is and keep anything over one year’s operating amount at the end of each year. There is no way that can be read any differently. I am actually surprised at the bean counter that formulated this for not even attempting to hide that any better. I can tell you from experience in that league that just because there is some profit in one year, does not mean that you will not need that money sometime down the road. The city has found what they believe is a new revenue stream for them.
To the Mayor and Council – To give away a cost center, allow people to improve it over many years and now at this point want to take those funds from that group of volunteers; is absolutely despicable. The city couldn’t run it in a profitable manner, but now you want to take volunteers money away from them that is spent on the youth of Wetumpka and that already helps offset some costs at the complex.
Who is going to be the next volunteer group in Wetumpka that you go after, who is making a little money, that you are going to strong arm into giving away their funding? To hold these kids playing time hostage over getting a contract signed that is to the greater benefit of the city financially, than it is to the league, is absolutely morally corrupt.
The city has long provided Parks and Rec to the citizens of Wetumpka because that is what Taxpayers are there for. If that cost has become so great that you have to take the money from the league, maybe it is time to evaluate spending, I promise you will find waste. I hope the voters remember this singular event in the next election cycle. I know 4 of the 6 of you personally and I am absolutely embarrassed that any of you would be a part of this.
To the WYL – I seriously hope you all get to play ball this year and many more years. I hope that this strong arming of your only funding is stopped. It is shameful that the city would use these kids in this manner. If the city wants to run the ball leagues, let them! Find a lawyer among you willing to help you make a clean break. Call an emergency meeting, park the money, and then dissolve the board. Let the city take over the running of the league so that you can sit back and enjoy your sons and daughters playing baseball and softball. Let the city worry about being good stewards of the money and take on all of the headaches which you know to come with being a board member.
I may have moved away recently, however I am proud to tell people about my Wetumpka …….. except for today.
