Swerdling Moves Quickly to Fight Plan to Charge for Field Use

Mel Swerdling may have been out of town last week, but he wasn’t asleep at the switch.

Swerdling, the longtime American Legion District 20 commissioner, was at a state Legion convention in Fresno last week when he learned of a proposal to charge teams for using playing fields at Los Angeles Unified School District campuses.

Swerdling jumped on the phone and called a handful of school board members to voice his opposition to the plan. If the proposal passes, it could create an immediate financial hardship for Legion teams as well as innumerable youth leagues in several sports throughout the San Fernando Valley and Los Angeles Basin, critics say.

The L.A. school board is scheduled to vote Thursday on the user-fee proposal. Under the plan, fees would be charged for the use of school gymnasiums, baseball and football fields and other athletic facilities. An hourly rate, as well as per-game charges, are under consideration.

Thirteen of the 30 teams in District 20 use LAUSD fields as their home site. The district previously ordered the Youth Services Division--which issues permits and regulates the use of athletic facilities--to pare $1.3 million from its budget. The user-fee plan was one recommendation to generate funding.

State Legion baseball representatives are worried that the idea could pick up momentum if it passes in Los Angeles.

“They feel it could be proposed up and down the state,” Swerdling said. “It’ll be a disaster for Legion ball if it does.”

Tuesday, Swerdling fired off a letter to board members Julie Korenstein and Roberta Weintraub that outlined his objections.

Wrote Swerdling: “The American Legion baseball program is designed to promote fair play, good sportsmanship and to give youths of our community an outlet that does not include the use of drugs and other detrimental activities. . . . Our program has flourished for 60 years and is the last ‘All-American’ institution to exist in today’s wayward society.”

The District 20 playoffs have long been held at Birmingham High, an LAUSD school. If the proposal passes, another site likely will be sought. Lou Ramirez, the athletic director at Birmingham, is a member of the Van Nuys Legion post.

“But there’s nothing he can do about (the fee structure),” Swerdling said. “It’s out of his hands.”