Title
Lacrosse - Non-Resident Fees
History
On September 2, 2008, the Recreation Advisory Board met with all the associations and stakeholders who use our facilities indoor and outdoor to discuss field usage fees and gym rental fees. The Girls Eagles Lacrosse team was represented at this meeting; however the Boys Chiefs Lacrosse did not send a representative. Schedules, fees and field conditions were all discussed at this meeting. Each organization had the opportunity to give their thoughts on the issues and ask questions to staff members that were present. Shortly following the Recreation Advisory meeting, there was a request from the Girls Eagles organization for a follow-up meeting with their organization and the Chiefs organization to discuss the upcoming changes to fees.
On 9/15/08, the Village staff met with Tom Paulius (Girls Eagles Lacrosse) and Tom Haggerty (Boys Chiefs Lacrosse). At that meeting, Tom Paulius provided an in-depth background on the state of the sport and discussed the future of lacrosse in the District 230 schools. Tom Paulius’ girl’s lacrosse eagle’s team paid $750.00 for the non-resident players during the ‘08 season. Tom Haggerty, representing boys lacrosse, briefly discussed some of the challenges he is having with vandalism and maintenance of the fields. Both organizations were concerned about the non-residents paying a higher rate in 2009, but seemed to understand that the intent was to shift more of the overall field maintenance costs to non-residents rather than burdening Orland Park residents with additional costs. The subject of the 2008 billing for Boys Chiefs Lacrosse was not discussed at this meeting.
Following the Board meeting of October 6, 2008, Village staff contacted Mr. Haggerty to discuss the unpaid non-resident fees of Chiefs Lacrosse. Mr. Haggerty indicated that the prior arrangement from the Village was that the high school team was not charged for non-residents because they are required by District 230 to take any 230 student for the team. This requirement to accept non-residents was not made of the juniors team, so they have paid their non-resident fees in the past.
During our meeting with Tom Haggerty, he stated that the Lacrosse Chiefs should be considered as two separate entities; Juniors (youth) and Seniors (high school) and asked if the Village could bill them as such. Village staff requested that Mr. Haggerty submit his 2008 season rosters. We have received only a partial list and have resubmitted our request to Mr. Haggerty. We are seeking this information to better determine what fees were in fact owed by the organization before making a recommendation to the Village Board.
On November 10, 2008, Village staff met with Dr. George Miller, the founder of the Boys Chiefs Lacrosse organization and Head Coach Joe Kedziora. Dr. Miller indicated that in prior years rosters were not required from the senior (high school) boys lacrosse team because the sport of Lacrosse was at its infancy and the demand for fields were not nearly as great as they are today. They described their challenges as District 230 recognizes Lacrosse as an “up and coming sport”, thus requiring participation open to anyone residing in District 230 boundaries. Incidentally, the boy’s team’s situation mirrors that of the girls’ Eagles Lacrosse team who complied with the requirement to pay fees for non-residents. Joe Kedziora indicated that he was not aware that his team was to pay non-resident fees to the Village of Orland Park in 2008 as they had not been required to in the past. He was, however, notified of the requirement in March 2008 before the season started both by letter and e-mail. He requested a possible reduction of those fees for the high school team given the fact that the team had not budgeted for this and he could not go back and charge team members at this point.
In the 2007 season, the boys Chiefs Lacrosse paid $550.00 in non-resident fees to the Village of Orland Park. In the 2008 season, the boys Chiefs Lacrosse were billed on 5/5/08 for $1,350.00 for non-resident fees associated with the team roster submitted by Coach Joe Kedioza. The Village staff assumed this was all of the Chiefs participants, but since have found that it was only the high school roster. No payment was made to the Village on behalf of the Chiefs to date.
Both Dr. Miller and Mr. Kedziora indicated that the Lacrosse Chiefs are one organization with both youth and high school programs. They stated that Tom Haggerty assists in coaching the senior boys while also coaching the youth lacrosse team.
Dr. Miller and Mr. Kedziora indicated that following our meeting, they would be meeting with their board to discuss these matters. They asked that we give them some time to consider the issues and they would be in touch with Village staff as soon as possible. The Chiefs High School Seniors organization has not gotten back in touch with feedback from their board.
Staff provided recommendations to the Recreation Committee at the January 26, 2009 meeting on how to handle this situation and requested direction from the Village Board.
The recommendations were reviewed and approved by the Recreation Committee and referred to the Village Board for approval.
Recommended Action/Motion
I move to approve waiving the 2008 season fees for all lacrosse organizations, and allow the Eagles Girls High School fees paid in 2008 to be applied to the 2009 season fees; and
Approve waiving non-resident fees for both high school lacrosse teams (Girls Eagles and Boys Chiefs) be waived for the future 2009 season due to the relationship with School District 230 and to support this up-and-coming sport at the high school level; and
Approve all appropriate field usage fees to be paid by the Chiefs and Eagles lacrosse organizations per the approved athletic field usage agreement for the 2009 season, including all appropriate non-resident fees to be applied to the junior youth lacrosse team.