Nassau pitches park fee hikes to shut out ball leagues

A plan to shift Nassau's adult softball and baseball leagues from private to county control - by nearly tripling ballfield fees for the for-profit operators - will go to the County Legislature for approval, administration officials said Monday, after two lawmakers and a parks advocate made a public issue of the unannounced changes.

Since at least June, county lawmakers had been getting letters and e-mails from league operators and players complaining about delays in reserving fields and dramatic increases in permit fees. Even though the legislature must approve all park fees, the higher rates appeared on Nassau's website, with most of the money designated to go to a private nonprofit group called Friends of Nassau Recreation.

So Monday morning, Legis. David Denenberg (D-Merrick) and Wayne Wink (D-Roslyn) along with Bruce Piel, chairman of PARCnassau, a parks advocacy group, stood in front of an Eisenhower Park softball field to denounce the unauthorized fee hikes and the undisclosed reorganization of the leagues.

Even if the concept of county-run leagues has merit, they said, the changes need a public hearing and legislative approval. "For the life of me," said Wink, "I can't understand, if this is a decent program, why doesn't it come before the legislature?"

The three also questioned the propriety of having leagues write separate checks to the Friends, headquartered in Eisenhower Park.

Although the legislature has a 2007 agreement with the Friends to assist the county parks department, the group "is supposed to obtain private funds to help the county, not use taxpayer facilities to enrich the Friends," Denenberg complained.

By Monday afternoon, a spokesman for County Executive Edward Mangano said the fee increases and Friends involvement would go to the legislature. The new fees already listed on Nassau's website were "an administrative error," he said.

In a statement, Mangano said: "The former Democratic majority and prior administration allowed for-profit leagues to overtake our parks while eliminating county-run programs. The abuse of our fields was so prominent that one private company had every single field on Sundays from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m."

Mangano said he would forward a plan to the legislature to "take back" the fields. "Under this program, the county will receive more revenue than last year while running its own league with lower costs for players." He added that he will ask approval to raise for-profits' fees "to more accurately cover the costs of operations."

Presiding Officer Peter Schmitt (R-Massapequa) said he thought it "a good idea" to remove the middleman from the ball programs.

"As for the fee structure and the rest of it, we'll look at it," he said.