Boys’ Club in San Ysidro Becomes Focus of Dispute

The San Ysidro Boys’ Club, rescued from devastation last October by an unusual $100,000 city expenditure and the labor of hundreds of volunteers, has become the center of a political tussle that is opening old wounds about San Ysidro’s stepchild status in the eyes of the San Diego City Council.

The conflict revolves around an attempt by Casa Familiar, the well-known San Ysidro social service agency, to take over operation of the renovated recreation center and expand activities there to include social services, counseling and educational programs along with recreation programs.

“We could be a hub of the community, a community activity center, not just a recreation center,” said Andrea Skorepa, executive director of Casa Familiar and a longtime San Ysidro activist. “It’s a little different concept than the city is used to.”

With that idea in mind, Casa Familiar last October answered a city request for proposals from agencies interested in running the 14,000-square-foot building on Diza Road, which has been operated by the city’s Park and Recreation Department since the city purchased it from the Boys’ Club last fall.

But when Casa Familiar was the only agency to apply, the city manager’s office recommended in February that the council reject its application and allow the Park and Recreation Department to operate the facility permanently. Deputy City Manager Jack McGrory, in a report to the council’s Public Facilities and Recreation Committee, said that Casa Familiar lacked “a specific funding source to operate the facility” and “experience in providing community recreation programs.”

The committee agreed, voting 3-0 on Feb. 10 to leave the facility in the hands of the Park and Recreation Department. One of the three votes was cast by Councilman Bob Filner, who represents San Ysidro.

The rejection has angered Casa Familiar supporters and the organization’s leaders, who have collected 2,000 signatures on a petition urging the full council to put the center in their hands, Skorepa said. Skorepa has also enlisted the aid of Mayor Maureen O’Connor, who believes San Ysidro community groups deserve a chance to prove themselves, a spokesman said.

Skorepa accused the Park and Recreation department of “empire building” and said she believes the rejection is another in a series of examples of city misunderstanding of the needs of San Ysidro.

Many Problems

Predominantly poor and Latino, San Ysidro lies along the Mexican border and is physically separated from the rest of the city by the South Bay cities of National City and Chula Vista. The region’s leaders have long complained, for example, of inadequate transportation, few jobs and the disproportionately large percentage of public housing situated in their neighborhoods.

“Historically, San Ysidro has had to fight for everything we’ve gotten,” Skorepa said. “And if we fail to fight something, we get things we don’t want and need. There is a lack of information and understanding at the city manager level and, to a large degree, at the city council level, as to what the needs of this area are.”

Allen Jones, Filner’s top aide, responded that Filner appreciates Casa Familiar’s work but cannot support putting the club in the hands of an agency whose financial situation is frequently precarious. Jones noted that Casa Familiar has needed two emergency allocations of council funding to keep it from closing its doors in the past two years, the most recent a $45,000 donation approved March 22 to keep the agency open through June. Filner lobbied other council members to secure the funding, he said.

“Their funding has never been solidified,” Jones said. “From year to year, there’s always a danger that their funding won’t be there.”

Skorepa says that the agency is applying for a $277,000 grant from the United Way of San Diego County to run the recreation facility and that Casa Familiar’s corporate parent, Trabajadores de la Raza, is on sound financial footing.

‘Better Qualified’

Mary Ann Eberle, deputy director of the Park and Recreation Department’s Eastern Division, which includes San Ysidro, said that the issue simply boils down to her agency’s expertise in running recreation facilities.

“Our business is running recreation programs and Casa Familiar’s business is running social service programs, and that’s why we’re better qualified,” Eberle said.

But Skorepa has won the support of Mayor Maureen O’Connor, who last September convinced the council to make an emergency purchase of the abandoned club for $100,000 after she led television cameras through the building, which had been devastated by vandals. The city and hundreds of volunteers supervised by the Old Mission Beach Athletic Club subsequently repaired the damage.

While O’Connor has not promised to vote for Casa Familiar, the agency “fits what the mayor is looking for in terms of a San Ysidro group to run that facility,” said O’Connor’s spokesman, Paul Downey.

With the council expected to take up the matter Monday a compromise may be possible. Skorepa said Casa Familiar would be willing to leave the Boys’ Club in city hands if it could take over a smaller, older city recreation center on Park Avenue. A City Hall source who asked not to be identified said that there is more support on the council for that move than for giving the Boys’ Club to Casa Familiar.