March 9 Council Highlights

Monday's meeting was the usual mix of new legislation and rehashes of sports issues from the recent past.

 Animal advocates crowded the courtroom to see final passage of an anti-tethering law. No one spoke in a public hearing before the vote, but later some thanked the council for approving the measure that will prevent dogs being chained outside in bad weather. Though referred to an as "anti-tethering" law, the ordinance does allow tethering under specific conditions. The full text can be seen online in the electronic packet for the meeting.

The council also approved a new taxi stand adjacent to the Park-Madison office building and a new rule allowing fares to sit in the passenger seat with the driver's permission. Previously, drivers were ticketed for having a customer sit in front unless all back seats were taken.

Once again a large portion of the meeting was devoted to youth sports concerns.

Council President Bridget Rivers called coach Lenny Cathcart to the microphone to discuss youth basketball, even though it was not on the agenda. Cathcart wanted funding for the program included in the upcoming 2015 budget and questioned why the school board is charging teams for use of its facilities. Rivers asked whether he was told there would be no basketball program and he said, "They're looking to go from staff to volunteers," alluding to the city's Recreation Division.

"Do you need your staff to run this program," she asked, and Cathcart answered, "Yes."

"How long have you been running this program?" Rivers asked, and Cathcart replied, "Thirty years."

Cathcart's pitch for funding brought a strong response from Councilwoman Vera Greaves, who said, "After hearing from you, I'm going to ask the administration to find the money."

After two mothers backed up Cathcart's claims for the program's positive influence on youth, Greaves asked Corporation Counsel Vernita Sias-Hill whether the council could have a line in the budget to put money in for Recreation.

City Administrator Rick Smiley said Recreation Superintendent Roni Taylor has not said the division doesn't have money. Regarding the use of schools, he said the city had reserved $7,500 and was supposed to have a memorandum of understanding with the school district on facility use without fees, but it has not happened.

School Board President Wilma Campbell was in the audience and Rivers called her up to ask about the memorandum, but Campbell changed the subject to a shared services plan that seems to have lapsed. She said the board had a "partial agreement" with the previous administration "and somehow that got lost."

Smiley said it was the first time he heard that the MOU hinged on the shared services question.

Later, former baseball coach Roland Muhammad repeated last week's pitch by Rev. Jason Greer for some city-owned sports equipment. Smiley said the equipment had been inventoried and could be obtained through an auction, but the city could not give it away.

Former Mayor Sharon Robinson-Briggs came to the microphone to say she had personally donated some of the baseball equipment and that portion should be given to Greer's league. Resident Kim Montford said as a taxpayer she felt the city should sell the equipment to the league "for a dollar."

Youth sports issues began recurring at council meetings about six years ago, when a previous council president allowed airing of organizers' concerns.  Last year, Mayor Adrian O. Mapp said he had settled the baseball problem by having one league, but by October the controversy was back in full force.

On Monday, despite all the rhetoric, it was unclear how the discussion would lead to resolution, unless both the school board and the council take formal action in the future.

--Bernice