Youth Basketball registration begins in Kenner today (Thursday, 11/1) but, this year will be different than other years.
For the first time ever, Kenner families will be charged a $10 "Participation Fee" for the privilege of having their child play Kenner Recreation Basketball.
Mayor Zahn and some members of the City Council point to a 2015 Ordinance titled "Kenner's Recreation Master Plan" authored by then-Kenner City Councilman Dominick Impastato as the rationale for the "Participation Fee".
While primarily dealing with the creation of "Sports Academies" The Ordinance includes a provision to charge non-residents a "Participation Fee":
"The Parks and Recreation Department will assess a participation fee for non-city residents."
The Ordinance DOES NOT provide for a "Participation Fee" for City Residents.
In fact, the Ordinance states:
"That the City of Kenner will continue to maintain and promote the Playgrounds and the sports and programs at those Playgrounds. That will include, but not be limited to, tackle and touch football, volleyball, basketball, track and field, soccer, baseball, softball and cheerleading. The funds for these progams will come from money budgeted to the Parks and Recreation account. Every effort will be made to keep all programs low-cost."
The Ordinance passed 6-1 with only Kenner District 1 Councilman Gregory Carroll opposing it.
Yes, other municipalities and parishes charge various fees for Recreation Department participation, and Kenner has charged fees for several Recreation programs that primarily involved a compensated teacher and/or materials for things like Painting or Ceramics.
But, since coaches at Kenner's playgrounds are uncompensated volunteers and Kenner owns the playgrounds, gyms and ball fields that are home to organized sports in Kenner (and paid for with our tax dollars already), charging a "Participation Fee" for organized sports makes zero sense.
Assuming Kenner fields 4 teams of 10 players per gym, that amounts to about 360 Kenner youths playing basketball. At $10 per player, that equals a whopping $3,600 in revenue that the City will generate from the "Participation Fee" for youth basketball.
$3,600 is even less than the $4,000 annually the City gives each playground booster club and when judged against a $66 Million annual City budget isn't even a rounding error.
Since the amount of revenue generated is so tiny, why charge the fee at all?
Certainly, the City of Kenner doesn't need $3,600 to help pay the gym light bills.
And, this fee will be per child per sport - not per family. So, if a family with 4 children participates in 3 organized sports (baseball, basketball, football), it will cost that family $120 per year just in "Participation Fees".
$120 may not seem like a lot of money to you, but it means a lot to many in Kenner.
Per the 2010 Census, the per capita income for the City of Kenner is $19,615 or about $6,000 less per capita than Jefferson Parish. That $19,615 figure is pre-tax total income. Yes, there are some pockets of wealth in Kenner but, on average, Kenner is a low income community. Any additional taxes and fees assessed to citizens will adversely impact the finances of a majority of Kenner residents.
Besides, Mayor Zahn doesn't need a vote of the people to approve a new fee and he is well aware that a new property tax, even for Recreation, would fail miserably.
But, why was this "Participation Fee" dropped in the laps of Kenner residents without any notice and without the approval of the Kenner City Council?
According to the Kenner City Charter, "Imposing any license, requiring any permit, establishing any charge for services rendered, or increasing the rate of any license, permit or service charge" must go before the Kenner City Council in the form of an ordinance and "shall not be adopted until at least 28 days after being introduced, nor until the proposed ordinance shall have been published by caption in the Official Journal".
Neither of these things happened.
When asked if this "Participation Fee" didn't equate to a "charge", Kenner Mayor Ben Zahn simply replied, "No."
Well, if it looks like a Duck, and it walks like a Duck, and it Quacks like a Duck, I guess in Kenner it's really a Turkey.
Many in Kenner are already questioning if this is a punitive move by the Mayor to push back at critics in the Kenner Black Community who pushed back over Zahn's aborted Nike ban.
Whether that is the case or not, like the Nike ban, the optics of this don't look good for Kenner and monetarily, this "Participation Fee" for city revenue is meaningless.
So, the question remains - if this fee won't do anything materially positive for the City of Kenenr or Kenner Recreation and will only take money from people who predominantly don't have excess cash to begin with and create more negative optics and bad feelings in Kenner - why even impose this fee?
Ponder that question while you plan your Holiday menus.
And remember, Turkeys are bigger than Ducks.
