HUTTO – Mayor Mike Snyder led a round of pointed questions regarding the renewal of a facility use agreement between the city and the Hutto Youth Baseball and Softball Association for the 2023 softball season. The contract was discussed during the Dec. 15 city council meeting and covers fees, field usage, concession sales and general rules and regulations.
“There’s a lot of different regulations they’re having to do that’s above and beyond even what our ordinances would have them do and it pertains to almost everything they’re doing there,” Snyder said. “It feels like we are all in their business, even how much money they’re raising and earning, and we don’t do that with other non-profits.”
The contract includes requirements such as HYBSA using a checking account and keeping all canceled checks and submitting a copy of the concession menu to the City prior to the first game. Snyder questioned why the group would be required to keep canceled checks, since most are digital now. He also disagreed with the need to know whether the concession was “selling fun dips or ring pops”.
“The way it’s set up we have the city so involved in what they do when his people cough, they literally come back and report to the city,” the mayor said.
“It’s just not what I see other non-profits do.”
City Manager James Earp agreed that the contract needed simplification.
“I can’t think of many valuable reasons for this level of reporting,” Earp said. “Certainly, we need to have a way to audit the number of participants
because a lot of the things we are charging is based off of what they are telling us they are doing. We just need to have some type of way to be able to review their records, if we were concerned that they were under-reporting, for example. But other than that, I can’t imagine why we really need all of these other items.”
Jeff White, Director of Parks and Recreation, said that the new contract was not substantially different from the original agreement made in 2019.
Answering the mayor’s question about whether the burdensome requirements were due to a lack of trust, White assured that was not the case.
“Part of our agreement requires they provide financials to us,” White said.
“That covers the city in case there is any discrepancy in the funding. They are a very trustworthy organization.
They’ve always paid, we’ve never had any issues with them. But that is in there to protect the city from any potential liability issues.”
While the mayor would have preferred to “completely scrap” the agreement and write a new one more in line with what the soccer program, YMCA and other non-profits operate under, council member Dan Thornton explained that the contract needed to be in place quickly otherwise the association could not start taking registrations for the spring season.
Council voted to go forward with the contract and directed staff to present an amended version in the near future.
The revised contract is scheduled to be presented to city council on June 15.
