Quick Implementation of Girls’ Sports Plan Pushed

Los Angeles Councilman Mike Feuer forwarded a plan to boost girls’ participation in city sports programs to the full council Wednesday, saying that further wrangling over the details would keep girls waiting too long.

The draft plan by the Department of Recreation and Parks proposes many changes such as recruiting mothers to serve as coaches, providing sports clinics for girls and asking female athletes to volunteer as mentors. It also includes evaluating the success of recreation officials in implementing the program, known as the “Raise the Bar” initiative.

“The distance the department has traveled in the last few months is extraordinary,” Feuer said at a meeting of the council’s Arts, Health and Humanities Committee, which he chairs.

Last month, the City Council adopted new measures pushed by Feuer’s committee to bolster female participation in sports programs. The action came amid an ongoing federal lawsuit against the city by the West Valley Girls Softball League--later expanded to include all girls citywide--that alleges inequality between sports programs for boys and girls.

On Wednesday, one of several attorneys representing the girls urged the committee to adopt six revisions to the department’s proposed program, including establishing a permitting process for city-owned playing fields that would ensure gender equity.

Jeffrey Gordon, an attorney with Kaye, Scholer, Fierman, Hays & Handler, said his goal was “to make sure there’s actually teeth in the program.”

Lawyers for the girls have suggested that an appropriate city program could resolve the citywide claims of the lawsuit.

Feuer said he would ask the full council to adopt the plan as is, adding that it could be fine-tuned later.

“If we wait for a document that has universal consensus around it, the girls will be waiting too long,” he said.