Buckingham County Board of Supervisors Joint … Minutes/2017/June 22 2017 youth... · BUCKINGHAM...

BUCKINGHAM COUNTY BOARD OF SUPERVISORS/YOUTH LEAGUE JUNE 22, 2017

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Buckingham County Board of Supervisors

June 22, 2017 Joint Meeting with

Buckingham County Youth League

At a reconvened meeting from June 12, 2017 of the Buckingham County Board of Supervisors held on Thursday, June 22, 2017 at the Peter Francisco Auditorium of the Buckingham County Administration Complex the following members were present: Danny R. Allen, Vice-Chairman; Donald E. Bryan; Don Matthews; Joe N. Chambers, Jr.; E. Morgan Dunnavant; and Harry W. Bryant. Robert C. Jones, Chairman was absent. Also present were Rebecca S. Carter, County Administrator; Karl Carter, Asst. County Administrator; and E. M. Wright, Jr., County Attorney. Re: Establishment of a Quorum Vice Chairman Allen certified there was a quorum. Six of seven members were present and the meeting could continue. Re: Invocation and Pledge of Allegiance Vice Chairman Allen gave the invocation and the Pledge of Allegiance was said by all who were in attendance. Re: Call to Order Vice Chairman Allen called the meeting to order. Re: Work Session with Buckingham County Youth League Allen: This meeting is like a special work session for us and the Buckingham Youth League. And the list I have here, I think everybody got it. It says the County has received the following complaints: Do yall want me to read them out? Bryan: Can we address them one at a time? Allen: Alright. First thing I want to say is this is a meeting trying to figure out what is going on. A lot of here say back and forth instead of waiting and talking about it in public, well we are in public because it’s a public meeting, but instead of running behind everybody’s back we figured we’d just go right here now and make the statements and we can get answers then hopefully calmly we will work this thing out and see what’s going on.


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I don’t know how you want me to work it. You want me to just read one and work on that at a time. Chambers: One at a time I think is what they said. Allen: Alright, #1 There has been people who have been drinking alcohol at the park on several occasions and/or coaches who have been drinking alcohol while coaching; 8-E Carter: On the permit. Allen: On the permit that this is a violation of. There shall be no alcohol allowed. Ok. And, who wants to…I figured we’d go ahead and make statements and then get answers. Donnie, you want to say something. Bryan: I’ve gotten phone calls on it. You know, I’m just concerned that there is people…I don’t know if they are drinking down there or maybe having one or two before they come down there. It needs to be put out there that we are among children. Allen: You at the point you don’t know if alcohol is at the park or whether people have been drinking… Bryan: I don’t think it’s at the park but the person said you know they smelled the alcohol. Allen: People had been drinking before they came there. Let me come down the line. Mr. Matthews, you have anything? Matthews: I’m just concerned with the behavior whether it’s here say or true, an athletic field there is no place for alcohol or tobacco in that area. I mean, that’s bottom line, period. I know a lot of these people. I’ve coached against a lot of guys that I see here today and I’ve had a great relationship and a lot of respect for the Buckingham County Youth Association. My son participated with the 18 and over team for a couple years and I don’t have anything but positive things to say from that type of experience. But maybe this is a new day and time and there is new people operating the situation but I do think that this a very serious offense and if it is true then something has got to done. An athletic sporting event is no place for alcohol. That’s all I’m going to say right now. Chambers: I haven’t got a lot of complaints. The one I’ve got was the President and Vice President that don’t know how to talk to people. They don’t have professionalism down there and I don’t think that’s good for leaders to act like that in public. Allen: We’ll address that a little further down. Dunnavant: I have a child that was in youth league some years back and we took her out because of the way things were going with it. The Youth League is not about winning and losing. Its sportsmanship, teamwork and fair play, doing right by others, playing by the rules,


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personal responsibility and sportsmanship. Yall as adults in this youth league from what’s gotten back to me, yall are not setting a real good example particularly playing by the rules part with the rules being this, not the rules of the game but rules using the county facility with the condition of the concession stand was left in. The health department basically gave yall a waiver on the standards they are looking for on that and it was found on Monday morning in just abysmal shape. That is part of playing by the rules and setting an example for the kids. Yall are supposed to set the example. That covers all the subjects here, the bottom line is yall are supposed to be the example. That’s all I’ve got to say on this subject. Bryant: I have not seen any alcohol down there. I’ve been to quite a few games. If there is some, it certainly needs to be stopped as of right now. There is no need in the world for anyone to be drinking alcohol down there. I think the League has done an awful good job on what’s good for the kids and the kids are still #1 in our book or in my book rather. We need to do what’s best for the kids. I’ve heard right many complaints but my biggest complaint has been with the concession stand being dirty. That’s all I’ve got to say about it. Bryan: If we are going to touch on that, I got a phone call today and I went down to the concession stand. Do you have the pictures Karl? Allen: Do you want to wait til we get to #3? Bryan: Yeah, we can wait for #3 for that one. Allen: Alright, that way we will take care of them as we go. Either one of yall want to say anything about the alcohol? Stacy Hartless: I haven’t seen a report of any alcohol whether you know, used at the field or used prior to the field. I haven’t received any complaints. This is actually, well the email was the first I had heard of this situation. Matthews: What is your name, maam? Hartless: Stacy Hartless. I’m the Vice-President. Denise Bryant: I’ll just speak that its quite concerning that we get multiple issues listed when we’ve been given in our permit responsibilities to handle issues as they come up with a time frame on it. We have 14 days to settle any issues that are brought to our attention. The first thing is alcohol at the park and/or coaches who have been drinking alcohol while coaching and we receive this complaint pretty much after our season is complete. That’s quite concerning. If someone is picking up the phone and making these reports to whomever, why wasn’t it addressed to the people at the park at that time? Allen: To me these are just issues that we’ve heard and we are trying to sort them out before it gets any further.


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Bryant: I think we are all in agreeance that if this is true, as Brother Bryant said it should stop immediately. Again, I mean, I’m not sure what you are looking for us to do about if we are going line item by line item, #1. What do you want us to do about that? Allen: Right now, I’m just trying to figure out if it’s something known or somebody starting rumors. That’s my part. D. Bryant: Stacy nor I… Carter: It just happened right before this was sent out. I did receive a phone call and I’ve had several people come to me and tell me that there was a coach was alcohol was smelled on their breath while they were coaching. Several people have brought that to my attention and might as well put it out there. Then during a game a particular coach was asked to leave the field that you as president stood up and overrode that umpire’s decision. I don’t know if it’s true. That is what I’ve been told. D. Bryant: That is not true. Dunnavant: Question, Mrs. Carter, on the supposed coach that was supposedly drinking, we don’t know for fact, did the complainer give you a name of the coach? I’m not asking you to put that out in the public but I’d ask that you would share that with the youth league so they can look into it. Carter: I wasn’t there, so I don’t know. Dunnavant: I would think…like I say, yall address it, but we don’t want to get these complaints coming to us. We don’t want to get them. D. Bryant: It should have come to us. Bryan: I understand that. I’ll address that too. Because I’ve tried to sick them on you. D. Bryant: That’s my job. Bryan: Yeah, absolutely. I’m not going to argue that Denise. That person said they don’t feel comfortable talking to you guys because nothing is going to get done. I mean, you know, and I’m going to be honest with you. They said there’s the same clique, whatever that means, I have no idea, I’m not involved with the youth league. But they said it was the same clique as before. Whatever that means. Its two warring infractions. It’s not about adults with egos. This is about children. The seven of us, that’s our concern. I’m tired of getting phone calls about the egos of the adults when it’s about the kids. I hope you share my statement. D. Bryant: I do. We’ve received several complaints.


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Bryan: Right after your election I got a phone call at home. The person told me, what are you going to do about it. I said nothing. I can’t do anything. You guys did everything we asked you to do as far as reorganizing. I told this person who got elected what and where was up to the people. This person said well, I guess it’s going to be just like it was before. I don’t know how to address them. Allen: Any more talk about the alcohol at the park? Matthews: Mrs. Bryant, what you are asking do yall want to address each one of these, I think we want to get some language between us and yall. Feel free to interject but my thing with the alcohol too, have you ever thought of hiring one of the sheriff’s deputies on an off day to come down and possible police that area. D. Bryant: To my knowledge that has never been a dialogue. We’ve not had that dialogue amongst this board. Matthews: If this truly is a problem, maybe that’s an avenue we need to look at. They would be paid out of your funds or you would need to account for that out of your funds but if it gets much worse than some of the accusations that are going on, something is going to have to be done. Seriously. Allen: They are saying they haven’t heard of this before so this is an issue for them to look into and take care of in my opinion. Anymore about the alcohol. Let’s go to #2. Not keeping cars in the parking area. (allowing vehicles to drive to the fields) 8-J Motor vehicles shall remain in designated parking areas and not be allowed in other areas. I’m the reader. I don’t know what’s going on. Bryan: Todd, can you address that please? Todd Shumaker: Yeah, on the new field area there is a parking lot there. We don’t want vehicles driving over to the new fields because you ride by bleachers. A kid steps out, there is no way you can stop in time. So what I’m asking is for everyone to keep their vehicles in the parking lot. We’ve had some issues lately, well throughout the season, as I see them I’ve made them aware of it. Two Saturday’s ago, Denise and I talked, along with another commissioner was standing there and I contacted another two commissioners for them to make sure the coaches are aware to keep your vehicles in the parking area. You are looking at the safety of the children. We don’t need them having to dodge vehicles. Dunnavant: Todd, is there such a configuration that when they are having game day that the youth league can put a barricade up like saw horse barricade to stop them. Shumaker: I met with someone about that area of blocking it off period. They are going to put a gate up there. The gate is locked so we are going to block the whole area off unless you drive


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through the gate and the gate will be locked. A key will be given to the youth league so if an ambulance or something needs to come in there they can unlock it but the gate will be locked. Dunnavant: That goes back to setting a good example and playing by the rules. You don’t go beyond the gate even though there is no fence. But if a gates across the road and you drive around it, you are not playing by the rules. If the rules are you don’t go beyond the gate, even though there is no fence but the gate is across the road and you drive around it, another example of not playing by the rules. D. Bryant: We do know that handicapped persons have been driven over and dropped off. But of course there is a spotter person to watch for children because you do have to watch when you drive through there but that was discussed when we got this permit that would not be an issue that those people could be taken to those fields because it’s quite a walk for handicapped. Bryant: I talked to one of the coaches and he said there is no electricity down there and he carried his pickup and a generator down there to run his pitching machine. He got slack for that. If you not supposed to be there, you are not supposed to be there. He’s certainly a find gentleman and certainly knows how to raise kids and knows about kids and certainly wouldn’t do anything in the world to run over top of or do anything to harm a child. He got perturbed about it because somebody said something but he was carrying his own generator down there to run a pitching machine for the kids. Shumaker: I spoke with him. I mentioned if there was anything we can do because I had asked if they could come a little early, pull in and unload because that’s not like carrying a regular ball bag that’s something heavy, if they could show up a little early, unload it and get back out of there then that’s understandable. That’s not an everyday thing and when I mentioned it to him he said he’s got to rush there from work and if I could help him in anyway then I would. So that’s ok. We worked that out. D. Bryant: We know that the mounds, the portable mounds, if they have to be moved from one field to another, coaches have come early and parked their vehicles out of the way and left after everyone else has left as to not cause an issue with a moving vehicle at times when people are on the field. Shumaker: Any of those things, those are things that are common sense. They are maintenance type issues and we work together on that. It’s the thing of coaches riding over and the safety of the children. Allen: Any more discussion about the car parking? Alright. Issue 3. Issues with the concession stand in violation of 8-B; 8-H; 8-B; and 4-F. A. Dirty conditions; B. Children in the concession stand; C. Non-compliance with the operating procedure offered by the Health Department. Who wants to start talking about that? Bryan: Harry, do you want to go first? Allen: Mr. Bryant, do you have something about the concession stand?


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Bryant: Yes, I was down there, I go to quite a few of the games and I was down there and seen three kids back there in the concession stand but they didn’t stay there but a little while because I came back maybe 10 minutes later and they were not in the back there. The dirty conditions is simply dirty conditions. If anybody looked back there where the food is being prepared, it’s just that you won’t want to eat anything out of it. It was just absolutely dirty. Dunnavant: The pictures that were shown to us at the last meeting, do we have a way to get those pictures on the overhead? Bryan: I don’t think we have those, I have some from today. Carter: We can get them on there if you want them but we have some that we got today. Dunnavant: I had a conversation with somebody because I was the only supervisor that could be found that day prior to yall entering into the agreement for yall to do some preliminary work down there. I told the party I spoke with that we are going to enter into an agreement and we know the concession stand is a money maker for yall and yall have to do this preparatory work to get the health departments approval on it. Go ahead down there and do what you need to do. The thing is it’s not a backyard cookout operating where its invited friends only. You are selling food to the public and there is an expectation of what’s going to transpire on the working side of the county with food being sold to the general public. The health department offered yall a substantial reduction for a nonprofit group standards and worked with you going up there and looking at it earlier on and like I say the trash not being taken out; the counters not being wiped down; things left in disarray were the pictures that we were shown. That’s completely unacceptable and that needs to get a handle on it. Jack Stearrett: My name is Jack Stearrett. I do the concession. I order stuff and everything. I agree 100%. I agree with the by-laws and stuff in the code. We’ve got a group of people that work at different times and Mrs. Bryant sent out the concern letter. I thought we were doing pretty good. I mean really. I got everything set up. We’ve got the gloves, bleach water, pine-sol and everything set up. So I took off from work that day. I said this ain’t cool. I went down there and I said wow. The floor was dirty, not dirty, but hadn’t been swept like it should have been. We hadn’t mopped it. We played late that night, but no excuses, it’s supposed to be done regardless. So I went up there and swept real good and moved everything and it was right bad. The table that was messed up was by the cash register and we don’t have no food but I tried to clean that the best I could. We bought all brand new tables. I mopped it a couple times and it was dirty. I know yall say yall went down there this morning. Now, our last game, myself and three or four of the young ladies they worked, I just watched, we cleaned it up what I thought was very well. I was there last night to make sure there wasn’t any old bread down there because of the date and I threw a bunch of stuff away because it was July 18, I mean, June 18th and I could still smell the pine-sol. Ain’t nobody been in there the last week or so. We haven’t had no games. We didn’t have nothing going on. The grease was covered like Mr. Moore said to do. Food was put up. There was nothing in the refrigerator to my knowledge and it had been 48 hours of cold, like onions, tomato and lettuce. It was dirty that day. We acted on or I thought we


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did. I said wait a minute, I’ve got these signs I’m supposed to put up. Mr. Moore had said, I hadn’t made them, well I had made them, well I put them up just to remind people to sweep floor, mop the floor daily, cover the grease, no children allowed. If there has been a child in there, I can honestly say that I personally haven’t seen it because that’s one of the big rules, no one under 18 years old that we are supposed to enforce. I’m not down there every day obviously but I think we got a feel on it. We do pick the trash up, supposed to dump it every night. We set it outside and get some people to haul it away to the dumpster. I assume it was being done. But it will be. It will be done every day. Sometimes we leave late at night and it doesn’t always get done but it should be. I’ll let you know it’s nothing intentional that was where someone said the heck with it. You see what I mean. Dunnavant: I understand… Stearrett: I thought we bought everything, the gloves, we got the aprons and we rotate everything. You know what I mean. I got gloves from XSmall to XLarge. We mixed up the solution to spray on the tables. So much bleach per 409. Stuff of that nature. We separated everything. We’ve got the chemicals over here. No food items with the chemicals. I thought we were doing good. Dunnavant: Like I said, I don’t know the health department specifications either. I don’t know which part is in your organization is entrusted with which duties, but I do know the health department takes it extremely seriously. Extremely seriously. We’re responsible along with yall because we own the facility. Stearrett: Yes sir. Allen: Does anyone know when these pictures were taken? Bryan: Today. Allen: Today? Bryan: Today. Allen: They went down there and it was opened up…


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Bryan: Yes sir. Ok. This is the way the microwave was left. There is dirt in there. Stearrett: I see that. That’s not acceptable. I didn’t know that but that’s no acceptable.

Bryan: No, sir. Looking down into the sink. Dirty.


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Chambers: There was dirt in the sink like that. Bryan: Yeah.

Bryan: Salt on the table too. Next.


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Bryan: That’s the hand washing area. You can’t get to it. Allen: You can’t get to it. Stearrett: It should be better organized. Bryan: I’m not denying that Jack. You know. I’m just showing what I saw. You know. There was nobody down there. Maybe they just stacked it there. Next.


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Bryan: That’s a bucket in one of your freezers for I guess freeze pops. Stearrett: They are supposed to take it out and wash it. Bryan: Yeah, it should have been cleaned. Stearrett: I agree.


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Bryan: There is a rag on the county. There is a coffee lid right there. Next.

Bryan: Here’s two receipts that were down there. Just lying there. Dead bugs on them.


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Stearrett: I don’t know who did that but it’s not supposed to be there. I understand. It’s not supposed to be there. Bryan: I don’t know why people didn’t take their receipts. Next.

Bryan: There’s ball equipment on the counter. Plate brush from somebody. Looks like an umbrella, sunglasses. That’s on one of the counters. Next.


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Bryan: That’s ball equipment that was stored just inside the door. Why is there play equipment in the concession stand area? I don’t know. That’s it. That was today. I went down today. I got a phone call at home. In fact I asked Todd, he probably told you, I got a phone call two or three weeks ago again, and I went down there, Todd, thank you for going with me and it was clean. Stearrett: We try. If somebody leaves something at the park… Bryan: Not to have been used for so long, your last game was June 10th. This is June 22nd. Donnie Davis: They’ve been practicing down there for All-Stars now. Bryan: I didn’t try to go in there and find the dirty stuff. Stearrett: I understand. Dirt is dirt. Carter: The Board also seen the clean pictures also. Bryan: The grease was covered up where you cook French fries and stuff. Stearrett: I understand, before we leave at night obviously we are going to have to…I’ve got a checklist but obviously…I’ve got signs everywhere, but obviously if I’m going to in charge, I’m going to have to carry my butt down there and make sure before I leave that everything is good. I agree 100%.


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Dunnavant: I think that’s what you are going to have to do because the concession stand, the rest of we can work out and work with you on the other issues but the concession stand issues are beyond us. I do believe that if you can’t be there yourself, Jack, that you are going to have to have a responsible party there that will report to you and you can take their word that they’ve looked there at the end of day, they’ve looked at the concession stand and say yes, it’s up to standards. If the health department comes in, we can’t do anything with them folks. Stearrett: I’ve invited Mr. Moore to come down there. He’s been there before. We are not trying to be funny. We are not trying to hide. That’s safety. I personally scrub that thing all the time. I don’t know if somebody dropped something and dumped the mop bucket. It looks like dirt from the mop bucket. I don’t know. I personally scrubbed it. That table, I didn’t see that. When I leave here I’ll go down there and check it and make sure it’s right. Bryan: You understand the rules right? Stearrett: Yeah. Bryan: I’ve got an issue, I got another complaint. I guess it was a conversation with you and Mr. Chandler. You said you want to sell drinks and candy when we are there. Mr. Chandler’s response was I’ll pretend to sell to avoid a potential violation of Row 3 Subsection B-1. I mean this is not pretending. I will pretend to sell to avoid a potential violation. This is not a game. It’s obvious with this conversation back and forth, you know, that it’s a game. Stearrett: I didn’t say it was. He and I were joking or whatever, that’s fine. No it’s not a game. If somebody was offended by it, I’m not trying to be funny, but they should have come and asked me. We are all grown. I’d never say anything like that. I actually spend a lot of time and do a lot of stuff down there for real. He’s a grown man, you can ask him. Him and I talking, that’s our conversation. If somebody is offended by it or bothered by it, they are more than welcome to come over and ask about it. Bryan: Can you address that Joe? Chandler: What would like for me to say, sir? Bryan: I mean, you know… Chandler: Jack and I have worked that ball park, for me 18 years. Bryan: I understand that and thank you. Chandler: We clown greatly. Bryan: I mean, the comment to pretend. I don’t take that as a joke. To follow the rules from the health department and the by-laws from this Board. You know, they are not a joke.


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Chandler: I don’t think we were making jest of the Board. Bryan: Then why the comment I pretend? Chandler: We have a lot of humor in the course of conversation. That’s why we are there. We have a good time while we are working. Other than that, there are a lot of growing pains with a lot of this. Everybody here is trying their best. I think there needs to be like you said and Mr. Allen said, dialogue to be able to sort through some of these things. I’ve been in the concession stand maybe half a dozen times probably, so I’m not really in there all that much. Again, unless you know Jack and I and our communication (inaudible) Bryan: It came over back for this person, you know. Chandler: They should address us instead. Bryan: I understand that. I wish you phone would ring as much as mine. Chandler: I’d be happy to account for some of it but I don’t know what else to say. Carter: If I could say one more thing, you said you wish they would have addressed it with you, that’s part of the problem, you all are not addressing these things with each other. You are calling us and telling us on each other. You all really do need to work together and I think all of this could work well if you could address it to each other and work it out between yourselves. Allen: Issue #3, is anybody else got anything else to say about it? D. Bryant: I’ll just note that all the Board members received a copy of what Mr. Moore assigned and approved for us to use so everyone should be aware, whether its Jack in there or not, all of us have been issued keys if we are in there, every person is responsible that goes in there with their key for the night should make sure that all these things are followed. Everyone got a copy of it. Allen: Last one out should, not for Jack have to come out and check behind them. D. Bryant: We received some complaints about the concession stand and I sent out just a quick email to all the Board members on June 8th and that was one thing that I did mention. The procedures are attached to this email so they received them twice. The concession stand is not a hangout place nor a place to conduct sign ups. The service window must stay closed when not serving customers. We are hosting the two district tournaments and we want to use the concession stand as a fund raiser in these tournaments so we must adhere to all the procedures listed in the document. Concerns have been brought up regarding the cleanliness of the concession stand. These procedures we are supposed to be following. I just want you all to understand that we did receive a complaint to our board and I let the board know that we had received this complaint and again, just gave them this information again to make sure everyone is aware. Everyone is responsible for it.


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Carter: Some of the volunteers that are working it, but I don’t know if Mr. Moore said to you but he said he’s willing to have sessions to help train people and show people and go over everything, if yall might be interested in that for the next go round. That way some volunteers might not realize what all has to be done. Do you have a checklist in there? Stearrett: Yes, Maam. I put signs up in every area to clean, grill must be cleaned; wash your hands, sweep the floor daily, tables must be wiped. Allen: A list saying this must be done before you leave. Stearrett: That’s a good idea. Mr. Moore told me to put signs everywhere. I’ll come up with that. Chambers: What I’m looking at here, nobody is taking the job seriously. If she sent out on June 8th, this is June 22nd. The pictures were taken today. How can you explain that? The President or Vice-President, how can you explain, you had a last game June 8th, you sent out a memo concerning the concession stand and this is June 22nd and the pictures were taken today. Everybody is lax down there as far as I’m concerned. Yall need to shape up a little bit and get it together. Yall are showing a bad example as leaders. You should face it. You are President and you are Vice President, you are in charge of the concession stand, you had a game June 8th and here it is June 22nd, you got a mess like that down there and you telling me you are doing a good job. Ray Charles can see that you ain’t doing that. Allen: More or less, we can go back to see who was there last and help train them to do better is what I say. Any other issues? You said tournament, when is your tournament? D. Bryant: June 30th. Allen: Is it a one day tournament or weekend tournament? D. Bryant: It starts June 30th. Dunnavant: It runs to when? Anticipated? D. Bryant: Probably Wednesday or Thursday. Matthews: I’ve got a question for Mr. Stearrett. What is your, I know you are relying on volunteers to help you but do you have a schedule or something? Stearrett: Sir, we have…put it out for volunteers to help us. I’ve got two calendars down there. One for Board members to sign up to work and one for volunteers. As of this date, besides one young lady, nobody has every approached me volunteering to work from the community or coaches or all that. Our board members come in down there and we work and I think it’s just my responsibility but people are going down there and most of our board members coach and volunteer in different areas. We came up with that when we first started. We put the word out


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and volunteers…they are going to watch their child play and now we’ve got so many fields, that’s great, but we are not down there as much. So they are going to watch their child play and we are using four fields, they go home. They are not going to work…not most of them. It’s mostly us to watch the concession stand and clean it up. We will take all the help people want to give but of course obviously. I’ve got a calendar down there, I don’t know if yall saw it but it’s down there by the cash register. I haven’t been down there but a little bit. Nobody ever signs up as far as volunteers go. We are a volunteer organization. All of us are volunteers obviously. Matthews: Is there a better way? Stearrett: I’m not going to tell you a lie, I went down there last night, I know yall found that stuff, I didn’t check the microwave, I actually smelled the pine sol and saw some people that walked by and get some drinks and leave a little money there. Somebody might get some drinks and leave some money there for drinks. We hadn’t been open per say. I kind of thought it…I threw the old bread away, I thought it looked…I didn’t look at everything but I thought it looked pretty decent. With the pictures, I can see it’s not organized with the mop bucket and stuff. I didn’t see that but it won’t happen no more. Allen: Different angle. Different way of looking at things. Picture tells a lot of things. Stearrett: We’ve got space outside in the breezeway that we put the mop buckets anyways. Mary Stearrett: I’m the secretary of the Youth League, I think one of the things we need to do is put a clipboard down there for the people who are working to sign the day they are working. Perhaps sign in and sign out so Jack or whoever has a better idea of who was in there. I know there are nights where a board member will open up and sell some candy or drinks or something and Jack may not be down there. So perhaps they will have to sign in when they work. Allen: Accountable for what they do. Matthews: Right. Responsible. Dunnavant: That’s on yall to take the initiative to do what needs to be done on yalls end to hold up yalls end of the bargain to comply with the stipulations that we put forward for using the county facilities. I can assure that the seven of us here, everybody in this room wants to see the youth program in Buckingham be successful. Period. Bryant: Absolutely. Matthews: I don’t know what the solution is as far as getting you more help but I guess you know, sometimes you can call on some of the parents on some of the nights that their kids are not playing. I know how important it is to see your child play and everybody wants to do that, but you have a great little organization here I’d like to…it’s helped a lot of the youth here in Buckingham County and surrounding counties. I’d just like to see it flourish from this point forward and organization is a great tool and unfortunately everybody is not as organized as the


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next guy buy it all starts at the top unfortunately and you know, I’m just trying to look for answers for you to help you in a scenario that I feel like the youth in this county needs. Whether it may be kids, I know there are some very responsible young children, I mean not young children but teenage kids that maybe can help you in that concession stand and I know you don’t want anybody in there under 18 years of age, but you know how about some college kids that are home for the summer or something like that. Let’s exhaust all the avenues we can to get you some qualified help in there that will make it a little bit easier for you. Allen: Anybody else have any discussion on #3? Next, Use of profanity and abusive language. 8-F. Bryant: I haven’t heard any myself. I don’t go to all the games of course but quite a few. I have not heard anything like that. Allen: I haven’t either. Anybody else? It’s on the list. Bryan: There are signs down there, right Todd? There are signs all over the place. Allen: It is an issue, not an issue? Anybody heard of anything? Dunnavant: How did it get on the list if nobody’s heard about it? Allen: That’s what I’m asking. Carter: It came along with some of the issues earlier. Dunnavant: I do know in years past it’s been an issue. Carter: It could probably be put up there with #1. Dunnavant: We are not concerned about years past. We are concerned about now. Matthews: Whose jurisdiction is it, the umpire discretion to make that call? Shumaker: If the umpire hears it he can make that call but if someone from the youth league does they need to settle it during that time. If they hear it they should approach the person. Dunnavant: The question still begs to be answered. How did it get on our list? Carter: Because we did hear that it was and it could probably be put up there with #1. Dunnavant: We did get a complaint on it? Carter: It was addressed with the alcohol.


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Dunnavant: Ok, it came from that same complaint. Matthews: Has the president or vice-president heard of anything? Bryant: We haven’t. Allen: #5 The Board has not shown professionalism or compliance with the rules; 8-A. Joe you had started talking about earlier. Chambers: The complaints I got from different ones you know if you are a president or vice-president then you have a position and people are looking at you and you have to be careful how you talk to people. I’ve heard some…and some of you have heard it too because you’ve discussed with me so I just want to see them shape up. Just because you are the president or vice-president, you can’t talk to people any kind of way. Neither can you, chairman of the meeting. I just want to say that’s an area you need to work on. D. Bryant: Is the complaint specifically with the president and vice-president? Chambers: About you. D. Bryant: About me? Ok. Chambers: Both of you. Other board members agree, they heard the same thing and the county administrator. D. Bryant: I just want to know. If there is a problem, I’d say just like Joe did, if I don’t know about the problem then I can’t fix it. Hartless: A parent or someone approached one of us and we acted inappropriately or spoke inappropriately or what was the context? Chambers: It was at a board meeting. This is what I was told. I don’t know. I wasn’t at the Board meeting. I don’t know if another board member was there or not. I hope you can straighten up and do a better job down there. That’s what I hope can happen. If it don’t happen, I will be the first to say we need a fleet of new officers, clean the whole house out down there and start all over again. Allen: What it sounds like is at one of your board meetings that…I know it has happened and it’s happened here before, it got out of hand. What we are saying on it now is to try to get a better hand on it. Anything else on #5? Bryan: Mr. Chairman, I have a question. Professionalism. When money exchanges hands, registration money, a receipt should be written then. Not written down on the back of an envelope. Ok.


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Bryant: I also addressed that in this same email. We got a complaint about that. That’s exactly what I wrote. Receipts must be issued upon collecting any money in the name of BCYL. If you don’t have a receipt book do not accept the money. Bryan: I mean, looking at the financials there is no record of baseball money being accepted. Softball. Bryant: It’s in the updated budget. Bryan: I looked at what we had today. Carter: What we have today is budget with estimates. Bryant: I have an updated budget for that was for 12 U that was presented at our last meeting. It has actual figures. I do have that. Bryan: Then it just reduces the idea that someone is going to pocket money. Allen: Accountability. Bryan: Denise, you know very well that selling donuts, I wrote a receipt if somebody gave a $1 donation. Call it trivial but I didn’t want anybody saying that my hand was anywhere. It was going to hand to pocket. No. I just have concerns about that. I don’t want to see anybody get accused and it’s hard to wash that stigma away. There’s a woman in Randolph Henry that got accused and… M. Stearrett: Was that a recent occurrence? Bryan: Yes. Within the last year and a half. M. Stearrett: No I mean the occurrence… Bryan: Yes. M. Stearrett: Since baseball…I mean very recent? Bryan: Yes. Yes. M. Stearrett: I bought receipt books for all the baseball, softball. Bryan: Yes. T-ball All-Stars, Mary. M. Stearrett: T-ball All-Stars?


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Bryan: Yes. Pictures. You guys collect money for picture. For youth league, there were no receipts written, I was told. I don’t know if that’s true. I do know the t-ball for fact. I got a phone call on that. D. Bryant: I understand the picture money was collected by the team. There was a receipt issued to the coach with each child’s name listed on that receipt. It was collected by the team and one team receipt written. Bryan: Who is to say that little Johnny paid for his picture? That’s my concern. Little Johnny comes up and says hey, where’s my picture? Someone says, well I don’t have you name written on the envelope. What’s an envelope? That’s not a receipt book. Allen: Anyone else? Carter: I’d just like to say that as Supervisor Bryant said before, there are a lot of positive things going on at that park and when I saw the roster that you all sent me of the number of children involved in those programs, it is fantastic. And he said there’s a lot of positive things and there are a lot of positive things and when I hear things aren’t any better than what they were. I just want to say this so you all can think about it. We are not hearing as much about from parents. Parents are saying they don’t involve us in anything. We don’t think they want us involved in anything. They don’t know about your meetings. Who tells on you all is you all tell on each other to us. Is that right? Chambers: Exactly right. Carter: It’s you all. That’s what we’ve got to work on. When I saw the number of those children that is just fantastic. Yall are doing a lot of positive things but you’ve got to get along to do it. My rants over. Bryan: Congrats. T-Ball. District Champs. That’s a good thing. Allen: Anybody else? Also asked for copies of Code of Conduct, Roster of current officers, directors and members; updated schedule as called for in 7-C; items called for in 7-D and 7-E, copies of all minutes since the permit has been issued. Carter: We’ve received everything except most recent financial report and they have that. Allen: She has a copy of that. Maybe give it to one of them and they’ll make a copy. And hand it back to you. Carter: I couldn’t remember how late I stayed last night so I looked at the last time I emailed with Mary Stearrett. Sometime this morning. Stearrett: I would like to ask you too, if we have a meeting with a parent, do you also want a copy of those minutes?


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Carter: Do yall take minutes of those meetings? Chambers: I’d say copies of all the minutes. Dunnavant: I don’t know that we need that. Carter: No, I don’t think we need that. Stearrett: Not a Board meeting, just us meeting with a parent? Dunnavant: I don’t think we need… Bryan: Hang on to them Mary just in case. M. Stearrett: I keep everything. I have it all. Bryan: In case that person calls us, then, you know. M. Stearrett: Then you can contact me. Allen: It would be another issue. Dunnavant: We are just interested in the business you conduct using the county facility. That’s all we are interested in. M. Stearrett: I will tell you when I called a parent to inform them of a decision I think the parent received it well. I heard she was confident in the fact that we handled the situation well. We haven’t gotten anything back from that parent negative. Chambers: Someone’s got their hand up back there. Allen: Yes, maam. Venette Vaughan: I apologize for being late. I just got off from work. I have a problem with the youth league. My son has been playing since T-ball and this year they gave to him the stats on how he performed. Matthews: Tell me that again. Allen: Stats. Go ahead. Vaughan: There was no justification as why he wasn’t picked for all-stars. So I called Miss Denise Bryant and she didn’t…well she returned my call but she was supposed to be finding out some more information but to this day I never heard from here. On the same note, an individual was picked and came to practice Tuesday and was turned around Wednesday, I guess he didn’t


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perform to their ability and he was told that he was not picked. They misjudged the vote. You are dealing with a child’s feelings. A lot of these coaches’ kids don’t have to worry about that. They get to go every year. They don’t have to go through the pain on saying that he wasn’t picked. Mrs. Bryant, you’ve never had to go through that because your child went every year. It was a hurting feeling for my husband and I this year. To tell him that he was not picked. This all-star thing has been going on like this for years. First of all with this draft. They did the draft wrong. They get these coaches together and they hand pick these kids. I am tired of it. This is the last year my son is playing youth league. I want you all to know how this youth league’s been running. It’s been wrong. They don’t have to deal with that because their kids get to go every year. It is wrong. Allen: Thank you. I appreciate you bringing it up. Chambers: Whose job is it to pick all stars? Allen: Each coach picks so many off a team and then the coaches of that age group pick the group. Matthews: So typically it’s up to the coaching staff of the All-Stars. Vaughan: Another thing, I’m sorry, with Denise being the President I thought it was her right to call me back regardless of what…til this day she never called me back on the second situation that we talked about. With her being the president, you would think I would have got that call. Am I right? Chambers: Sure you are right. You should have got a courtesy call. Sure you should have. Allen: But the issue that you bring up is internal issue with the ball league. It’s really not with the Board with our rules. We don’t give them the rules of how they do it, I understand what you are saying but they should make rules saying this is how we pick our all-stars, or we use the stats to pick them. Bryant: We don’t have anything to do with that. Vaughan: When a child’s been performing to our coach’s status, I’ve got the status of how they performed, how can you tell a child that he didn’t make it? How? How? Chambers: I see what you are saying. I think she’s saying she wants it done fairly. Allen: Yes, I’m just saying… Chambers: What she’s saying, she is not the only parents out here saying that.


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Vaughan: They are just not here today. They didn’t know about it. I had people in places that called me and told me about this meeting. I want everybody in this room to know how the youth league is run. Especially baseball. It’s wrong. Chambers: It’s not being run right or we wouldn’t be here tonight. I agree with you. Dunnavant: Maam, I would encourage you to speak with some of these people down here near the front. The people on the youth league board. We can’t fix…I understand your plight and I understand your child’s hurt feelings, but we up here can’t fix that. That’s not what we are here for to talk about tonight. I encourage you to talk to with these people down here. Vaughan: I tried sir. I tried. I called her on the telephone and she won’t call me back. The others were done wrong and that is how it was with me. So how can a change come from Tuesday night to Wednesday? Dunnavant: I don’t know but they are here now and you can talk to them after our meeting is over. Vaughan: Mrs. Bryant I would like for you to respond back to me please. Dunnavant: After we do our part up here. Allen: That’s another meeting. Thank you. I appreciate it. Now you see there’s another issue that needs to be worked on. Somehow or another put it in writing how it should be done that way there is no question. That’s what we are trying to do with the rules we make up so there is no question. Everybody be treated the same all the time. If you have an issue, you can say look, this is the rules we got. This is the way we are going to do and this is the way we’ve been doing it. Don’t seem like its working right now so another issue for you to work on. Do we have anything else anybody else wants to bring up at this time? Anything else the two of you would like to say. D. Bryant: There are 11 board members is what I’d like to say. Bryan: How many of you are here? Allen: 8 D. Bryant: I’m going to finish my comment that there are 11 board members. There is no executive power. Don’t misunderstand this. We have a copy of our by-laws. We don’t go around making these decisions of this 11 member board. It works as a board. Supposed to work as a board. Chambers: When do you elect officers again? D. Bryant: November.


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Matthews: Are you still affiliated with the Dixie Youth Association? D. Bryant: Yes, sir. Matthews: Virginia or the south. So you have to adhere to their rules and regulations to some extent. D. Bryant: Yes. Matthews: Now do you have your own by-laws that you incorporate along with theirs? Is that only for baseball? D. Bryant: Yes. Matthews: For baseball and softball? D. Bryant: Yes, Dixie girl’s softball. Matthews: Dixie boy’s baseball. D. Bryant: Yes and then James River Association for football. Yes, sir. Matthews: Football. Ok. Dunnavant: I want to say we do appreciate what yall do for the kids. Bottom line. This is not a fuss at you about that aspect of it. We’ve got one lady in the audience that is not happy with yall right now. But what you do with the kids overall, we appreciate. We just need yall to take some more responsibility and see that the rules that yall need to play by to use the county facility are adhered to. Matthews: Do yall have any questions for us? That would be the next thing. I mean, is there anything that we can do? This is your time to speak. D. Bryant: The only thing I ask is that when you do receive complaints that you do contact us because we can’t deal with them unless we know about them. I don’t want to come to another meeting and we have a list of things to hash out. Matthews: You haven’t heard anything other than the things on this list? D. Bryant: We have received complaints, is what I’m saying and we’ve met with them and dealt with them. You know, and we would have done the same thing if we had received… Matthews: You might want to start documenting these things. Just to cover your own you know what in case there is a future meeting and you can address those items saying, then you have something saying we’ve talked to this person on June 10th or whatever it may be. You


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don’t’ have to go to any extent as far as what you are talking about but that person…you would want something to cover yourself. Chambers: I feel there has to be complaints out there because I heard Supervisor Bryan say that when officers were elected we’ve got the same problem all over again. Ain’t that what you said in the beginning Donnie? So evidently there must be a problem out there that needs fixing. I think yall can agree with that. D. Bryant: No one likes change because we get comfortable in what we are used to. When we started with this in January and we are in the middle of working on a new lease that turned into this permit, there’s a lot of change that’s happened and it’s been uncomfortable for people. I mean it’s…we’ve had to do and come up with and be accountable for…I’m not saying that it’s a bad thing but it’s different. It’s new. It’s change. It’s kind of one of those growing pains that Joe talked about. We all have to be accountable and answer for and play by the rules. If we want to keep playing, we’ve got to play by the rules. Chambers: There is a lot of talk out there about the president and vice-president and the way it’s being handled. I think every supervisor plus the county administrator agree. So I think it must be something going on that’s not exactly right. Now put yourself in her position, how would you feel if your child got treated like that? Always look at things like that. It’s not about winning. It’s about being fair with all the kids. Hartless: I can sympathize with that. My son didn’t make all-stars either. Just because you are on the board doesn’t mean your child makes it. Chambers: What I’m saying and I don’t want to feel like a broken record. If they were handled right, we wouldn’t be here tonight. Tonight is my birthday and I should be celebrating. I’m up here fooling with a bunch of mess. You know. Allen: Happy birthday. Chambers: It hasn’t been too happy. I can tell you that. Hartless: You feel like the problem lies within the president and vice-president solely? Chambers: I think so. Some of the things I’ve heard… Bryan: I think it’s the whole board. Chambers: The whole board needs to shape up. But yall are the leaders. See. Hartless: You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make it drink. Dunnavant: No, but you can lead by example.


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Chambers: Example. Yall are not doing that. You need to lead a good example for the kids. That’s bad. Hartless: What are some things that we can do? Chambers: This list here tonight, you need to work on this. Shape up. Bryan: Get along with each other. Chambers: Get along with each other. Bryan: That goes for everybody that passes to the 12 board members. Chambers: Yall are backstabbing one another. Hartless: People are receiving complaints about us. Bryan: I’m at the consensus right now that your board does not think that we will pull the permit. Hartless: At our meetings you come and watch, if a vote is not unanimous, it is 8 to 3. Every time. Those complaints that you get are probably coming from those other 8. I’m saying I bet a lot of times. Many people were talking at once. Matthews: You have a question Mrs. Stearrett? M. Stearrett: One of the things I wanted to say about it, yes, it is a new year and there is a lot of changes and a lot of things that we are working on. I do believe that all the board members need to be aware of everything going on. 11 board members and Donnie. We need to be aware of what is going on as well as the board needs to know what’s going on. I do feel like it’s important for us all to work together and as far as communication goes me being secretary, Denise and them will tell you I take everything and put it in a book and it’s all documented. So if there is any complaints or emails out there from the Board from say Denise, Stacy or anybody, I really need a copy of them because I like to have it all documented in one place. We are working on getting an external hard drive to actually put everything on that too so it is able to go from one person to another person. I’m secretary this year, I’m going to take everything and it’s going to go to that next person that might be secretary. So we are trying to make sure all of our documentation is correct. Bryan: You were also on the by-laws committee too, right? M. Stearrett: Yes, I was.


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Bryan: You guys worked real hard on those. You know, I don’t think people think that we won’t shut the park down. I think that’s the consensus. Talking among the Board members here, yeah. Either live by the rules or you won’t have a place to play. Chambers: Let me say this, in your by-laws you should have that a person shouldn’t serve but so many years. D. Bryant: We do have that. Chambers: Good. That gives another person the opportunity to serve. D. Bryant: We do that that. Matthews: Did you have something to say? You looked like you had a thought on your mind there? Carter: Now is the time. Hartless: Honestly, I’m just done. I’m just done. Yes sir. Chambers: I hope yall get it together. You are just done? Ok. M. Stearrett: I’d say one thing too though. One thing about the president and vice-president. I think we have to remember that a lot of times they get the complaints where by our by-laws they will go handle something and then come back to the board. I think sometimes we have to realize that you can’t necessarily wait to a monthly board meeting to ask the Board of Directors. Sometimes you have to call or email, you have to do some of those things so I think, I’m not saying the person is right or wrong, I’m just saying that we have to agree that yes, as 11 board members, we have to work together and we have to get our membership working together and I think that is something that we all have to work on. Chambers: You also have to realize that we as supervisors get complaints, we have to act too. Ok. We work for constituents also. Each supervisor wants everybody treated fairly in their district. Don’t hand pick certain people. If certain people get picked every year after every year that will make people think there is something fishy going on. If I was in charge, I’d give every child an opportunity to play. If one child play this year, I want somebody else’s child to play next year. I would be fair with the thing. What I’m hearing, not only from this lady right here, but I’ve been hearing it’s kind of shaky down there how yall operate. I just want to get it together because I’ll tell you something, it will come back again, I’m going to make the motion that all officers be eliminated and start over with a new slate. I’ve got enough support here to do it tonight. I’m not going to do it tonight, I want to see yall shape up and get it together down there. Allen: I think one of the issues that all of us have heard is the board’s been or the whole youth league has been split down the middle. Two different groups and they don’t want to work


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together and you’ve got to learn to work together. You’ve got to learn to work together. I don’t know how you are going to do it. I know you’ve got troubles other than here. You’ve got to work together. Its kids we’re looking out for. Not the grownups. Angie Edwards: If you were to release all the Board members right now, how would a new board be picked? I would suggest that there would be two people from each district. That way you would bust up the group. Allen: I made that suggestion one time. Bryan: You don’t have to have a board. Chambers: You don’t have to have a board to run it. Bryan: Ok. Yes, maam. There wouldn’t be a youth league. It would be run through the county. That’s also been discussed. A. Edwards: Right. But I mean, if you did have a board you could pick two people from each district, volunteers to do it. You would split up the group, you would have two people representing each district, not 5 or 6 people in one district. Dunnavant: Yall have that option to do it amongst yourselves. That’s the message we sent yall this evening. We don’t care how you do it, as long as you play by the rules and hopefully we don’t have to have another one of these meetings with this stuff ever, every again. Bryan: Do you have a comment? Joyce Edwards: I’m just saying you’ve got so many…you’ve got a clique here and a little clique here and they fight…I won’t say they fight but this clique is going to determine who is on that board. They are going to have their people on that board. You should see when it comes time to vote. You know how they have 48 members, everybody is calling, come vote for me. I mean for real. Personality. I’m not on the board and I’m probably except for Donnie, the oldest members and I can sit back and see what is going on. You’ve got so many here and they are going to make sure they get their people on that board for voting so they can have the say so. Matthews: How do they determine the 11directors? D. Bryant: In our organizational meeting in January, the general membership elected these 11 members for the slate of officers. Matthews: You would go by district I would think just like the Board of Supervisors. D. Bryant: No, because it’s an unlimited amount of membership.


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Carter: It’s in the by-laws. Chambers: You need to revisit your by-laws and change it to give other people a chance. Matthews: The more people you have in something like that the more problems you are going to have because if you can limit it to a certain amount of people that way you can control the number, it looks like to me. D. Bryant: Let me explain, we worked for years on these by-laws, years. That’s no exaggeration. In May there is a membership meeting. A membership drive. Then those people who are at the membership drive in May are the new BCYL membership. Then those people elect the new slate of officers in November. We didn’t have that membership drive last year so we used all that were BCYL members in the past. Bryan: How many people came to your May meeting? Stearrett: There are actually 33 people who signed up to be members. Chambers: How many people came to the meeting he said? Stearrett: To the May meeting? The membership drive or the meeting itself? Matthews: The meeting to elect the board. D. Bryant: The meeting in January when they elected. Stearrett: In January? Matthews: The May meeting. Stearrett: The May 21st meeting or…? There is 33 on there now and 3 have to get their background check. So there is 30 right now counting the board of directors. Matthews: What’s the purpose of the membership drive? If a child or parent pays their dues… D. Bryant: We don’t have dues. Matthews: They don’t have dues? Carter: They pay a fee for their child to play. Matthews: You pay the fee for that child to play in little league don’t you? D. Bryant: Registration fee. But there are no…like an organization that you pay dues.


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Matthews: What’s the purpose of the membership drive then? D. Bryant: To get new people to come into your organization. Like Mr. Chambers said. It doesn’t have to be parents, it can be aunts, uncles, just family, just people in the community that have a vested interest in our kids. You want them to be, I’ll use yourself as an example. You have some sports knowledge about sports, we would want someone like you to be part of our organization. Matthews: I would do it just to volunteer. I don’t care if I’m a member. I would do it just because I enjoy doing it. D. Bryant: But we know there has to be a group of people who know they are responsible for getting the job done. We welcome volunteers. But there has to be some kind of nucleus that…I mean, we have a tournament coming up. If we just said we are taking volunteers but no one is organizing it, we wouldn’t have anything. M. Stearrett: I would say just to let you know, we had 33 that registered to be BCYL and 24 came to the May 21st meeting. 24 out of those 33 attended the meeting. Matthews: What’s the most you’ve ever seen, Mary in your years involved? M. Stearrett: I’ve been involved with the Youth League many, many years. Matthews: I know that. That’s why I’m asking. M. Stearrett: I’ve seen it up to 48 people actually be at a meeting. That was an organizational meeting where people are voting. After that organization meeting, I’m going to be honest the numbers drop considerably. I consider 24 of the 33 after they sign up in May, I consider 24 of 33 to be good and all the one’s that weren’t there, sent word why they could not be there. Some were coaching, some were involved in an activity that they had already planned. Matthews: The biggest thing is to not lose sight that it is for the youth of the county and it’s like several of the Board members said, sportsmanship that’s what we are trying to teach the children. I’ll be the first one to tell you, I’m one of the worst losers you have ever seen in your life but I try to put that aside when it’s involving the children and whoever I’m coaching. You have to set a good example. I’m not going to lecture you anymore. I think you are doing a great job but I think you can do better, don’t get me wrong but let’s put our differences aside and try to do it for the youth of the county. That’s what it’s all about. I appreciate your time. Chambers: I just want to say shape up. Bryan: Maam, you had your hand up.


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Audience member: I just want to say, I did bring it up to make it even but I’m the only one who wanted it that way. Mr. Snoddy was very good at helping to organize those by-laws and for some reason he didn’t agree. (some of her statement was inaudible on the tape) Bryan: Doesn’t your by-laws have a clause that you have to attend the May meeting to vote in November? Audience member: That’s very confusing but yes it is. Bryan: They have to be present at the meeting. M. Stearrett: That’s at the May membership meeting. They have to come and have their background checks done. Then they are allowed to. They have to attend the monthly meetings. They can’t just sign up in May. Audience member: By the by-laws they can sign up in May and show up in November. M. Stearrett: In the by-laws it says after they sign up in May they are supposed to be actively engaged with the youth league but it’s very vague in there what constitutes actively engaged. Chambers: How many people are allowed to vote to elect officers? M. Stearrett: If those 33 stay in good standing til November, those 33 will be able to vote. Dunnavant: I guess the bottom line is if the parents got involved and became members you can widen your voting base. There you go. Keep it going. If you don’t vote or participate in government, you get the government you deserve. The government is sitting up here and the government is also sitting down there for the youth league so get out there and vote or you get what you deserve. Edwards: I think it would be more fair if you had one person or two people from each district representing that district in the youth league on the board. You know your kids in that district and you can go out and get kids. You know the parents. Dunnavant: No argument at all. Edwards: I think it would be easier to work along beside the other people from the other districts. Dunnavant: I think that’s fine but it’s not our decision up here to make that for the youth league. But if you’re a member of the youth league, rally your own support and get yourself on the board and get some other people that think like you do on that and change the by-laws. The bottom line is the meeting tonight, think of it kind of like a shot across your bow, you’ve got a little bit of stuff you need to do in several areas to comply with the permit and play by the rules that we set for you.


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J. Edwards: I was just going to say that when I first started years ago, we had some young people, some young parents, and I was real pleased with young people in this organization. They got sick of it. They said they were sick of what was going on. They think outside the box. They have different ideas and they have energy that maybe us older ones don’t have. I thought it was truly great but they just got sick and tired of it. Vaughan: But what you were talking about with voting members in, we as parents with these people in these places, we are trusting them that they are doing right by the kids. I’d say again, we are trusting that they are doing the right interest for the kids but we see, it’s not happening. Please don’t forget to have Miss Denise address me before this meeting is closed. Dunnavant: Yes, maam but sometimes you have to trust then verify. Vaughan: I’m saying as parents, as they being in places and position that they are, right? In the position that they are, we are trusting that they have the best interest of the kids. Allen: Yes, maam. Thank you. Mrs. Carter, is there anything in the by-laws that say we give you these problems and they have 14 days. Carter: The by-laws are their by-laws. Allen: Ok, so we don’t have nothing tonight. Wright: The permit. Carter: You all issued the permit. Chambers: We can revoke it at any time right? Carter: You have a copy of that permit. I gave you a copy. Allen: I was just thinking we tell them everything we’ve got and they get right back to you in 14 days. D. Bryant: It’s in section 1-F. Bryan: It’s on page 206. Under F. Allen: 206? Bryan: If the county receives a complaint about the conduct of participants or spectators or attendees, the county will refer these complaints to the contact person of the youth league. The youth league shall provide a response to the county within 14 days as to the validity of the complaint and the action taken in response to the complaint.


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Allen: So is that what we are doing tonight? Chambers: I think there should be a probationary period to give them time to get together before we pull the plug. Allen: 14 days to answer all the questions that have been brought up tonight in writing I guess it what it’s saying. Chambers: To be fair, yeah, in 14 days. They are going to have an all-star game and the concession stand should be taken care of immediately. Nobody wants to eat food out of that nasty stuff and get sick or something. Allen: Do we need a motion for that Mrs. Carter? Carter: A motion to adhere to… Chambers: It should be a time frame. Matthews: Is that the only tournament that’s being held in Buckingham this year, the June 30th? Is there another all-star tournament being held here? Audience: Majors start June 30th, minors start July 1st. D. Bryant: It’s a tournament together. It’s not two separate ones. Davis: We put them both together. Matthews: What district is that? Davis: District 4 Matthews: They are going to run both of them together. Davis: Yes, sir. Minors don’t have but 3 teams. Goochland, Amelia and Buckingham. Matthews: Thank you Mr. Davis. Allen: The way it’s written you have to June 27th to… Bryan: You received these complaints on June 13th at 4:11 p.m. so by June 27th at 4:11 p.m. D. Bryant: If we are going by the email, then why did we have this meeting? Bryan: To make sure you understand our concerns.


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Allen: Hopefully we cleared the air a whole lot. All it is now is to make it formal and put your answers in writing. J. Edwards: I love baseball. I love going to these games. It makes my summer to watch my grandchildren and other children play. I’m not trying to say anything to not have these games because I think we need it, the kids enjoy it. Grandparents, aunts, uncles, you name it come to these games and they enjoy it. We have a lot of people that come. I don’t want you to think that I’m against it by no means. I really enjoy it and I really want to see it. See a good group. Youth League. Bryan: As of right now, there is no, we are not voting to revoke the permit. So the games are going to go. Even if we did revoke it we are at the point where I’m not going to penalize the kids. Carter: The County would operate it. Edwards: Everybody enjoys it but we just need to work together. Bryan: If things don’t change, then the county is going to step in and then the county will run the tournament for the children. Hartless: Danny, I just want to address one of the issues that has probably been said about one of the meetings and my unprofessionalism which you were talking about. I would just like to explain that a complaint was filed by a parent that she had come to me and requested an emergency board meeting which that was not the case. An email was sent out stating that she had come to me asking for an emergency board meeting. I replied to my board members explaining that she had not asked me for a board meeting, she had asked me if her son could be moved to another team and I stated the policy. All this wasn’t done between her and I it was done with the baseball commissioner. I received, well replied to all but the board members were not supportive I don’t feel. Some of the emails came back well we should have been told that you were asked for this board meeting and if she asked for a board member we should have given it to her. You shouldn’t have denied it. So I had a lot of frustration going into that meeting because I didn’t have the backing of my board members after I had said she did not ask me for a meeting. So when we get in that Board meeting, the parent even says I didn’t know to ask for a meeting until this, this and this. So she did not ask me for a meeting then. She asked for the meeting we were having at the time. So I did have frustrations and I’m one of these people I can’t hide my facial expressions. What I’m thinking is written all over my face. So I had spoken to other that was concerned that I was that upset in the meeting. I did not speak ill to anyone. I just wanted to explain. Normally I’m very composed and professional but I was going into that meeting very upset because I felt like my board members should have backed me and I didn’t get that. Allen: That’s what happens when you get two groups.


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Hartless: Exactly. I just wanted to explain that. I don’t want you guys looking at me like you know, because I feel like a lot of this falls on the president and vice-president. Allen: You’ve got to answer for it even though you have to carry it back to your members. I understand. Hartless: I just wanted to answer for my unprofessionalism. Allen: Thank you. Bryan: Once again, put your differences aside. I would rather see a 10-1 instead of an 8-3 all the time. Hartless: It’s not all the time. Dunnavant: I would rather see yall keep running the program because I don’t want us to take it over. We don’t want to take it over. We don’t want to be forced to take it over but if yall fail in your endeavor the volume of kids and the volume of good that it does, the parents are going to demand that if yalls institution falls apart, that we take it over and we don’t want it. We want it to continue but we don’t want responsibility for it. Allen: Alright, as far as I’m concerned we have taken care of that issue. Mickey Lee: I just want to make one comment on the issue. I’ve been around a long time and most of yall know me. Allen: State your name sir for the minutes. I’m sorry. Lee: My name is George but most people know me as Mickey. Mickey Lee. Before I was down at the park and my daughter was down there, she went to college and I came back too. Before I left we didn’t have any issues. The main issue is communication. These people want to run it this way and these people want to run it this way. They need to come in as one. That the only way the park is going to run and run efficiently. Get back like it used to. That’s it. That’s the main thing. Communication. Without communication, yall couldn’t exist. Am I right or wrong? Allen: You are right. Davis: Thank you Mickey. Allen: Alright, is there any other board matters at this time?


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There being no further business to discuss, Vice-Chairman Allen declared the meeting adjourned. ATTEST: ________________________________ _________________________________ Rebecca S. Carter, County Administrator Danny R. Allen, Vice-Chairman

Buckingham County Board of Supervisors Joint … Minutes/2017/June 22 2017 youth... · BUCKINGHAM...

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