GALT, CA (MPG) - Galt City Council left fees for city sports programs unchanged at its Aug. 20 regular meeting, citing concerns about affordability.

City staff presented about the municipal sports programs’ fees. In June, staff had proposed increasing fees for some sports but City Council chose to keep them unchanged until it could get more information.

Under the staff proposal, the registration for T-ball would rise from $75 to $100. Youth basketball registration would increase from a range of $75 to $103 up to $100 to $130.

Recreation supervisor Monica Lopez said the fees account for factors such as personnel costs, equipment costs, registration fees and central services. The fees intentionally do not recover all costs.

Parks and Recreation Director Armando Solis said that if the increases are not implemented, the city will forgo about $11,700 in revenue. Making the T-ball program free would cost more than $20,000.

During public comment, Galt residents Tim Reed and Chris Brossman asked not to raise the fees in order to assist low-income families.

“Some of the kids that I coached in basketball, they love basketball; they strive to be an NBA basketball player. But if we up these fees to the point that their parents can’t afford to have them in these programs, we are doing them a disservice,” Reed said.

Councilmember Shawn Farmer supported freezing the fees, agreeing on the benefits for low-income residents.

Councilmember Kevin Papineau said the sports programs should have a participation cost to reflect their value.

“On the other hand, I don’t want to ask for any more money right because … we’re on the heels of Measure Q and we’ve got something to prove, that we’re going to do what we promised with that. It has not been done yet,” Papineau said.

With the support of Mayor Paul Sandhu, City Council formed a consensus to keep the fees unchanged.

City Council unanimously voted to accept a $65,000 grant from the state Office of Traffic Safety meant to bolster Galt Police Department’s traffic enforcement efforts.

Police Chief Brian Kalinowski said the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program grant would allow the department to perform two formal DUI checkpoints in the city and eight saturation patrols, as well as other enforcement and public outreach activities.

Farmer commended the department’s “phenomenal work” enforcing laws against drunken driving.

“We’ll never know how many lives the officers have really saved,” Farmer said.

In other business, Councilmember Rich Lozano allocated $1,000 in discretionary funds to the city’s Parks and Recreation Scholarship Program. A recently reinstituted policy gives each councilmember $1,000 that can be donated to a community cause. Lozano opposed restoring the discretionary funds on budgetary concerns.

“I did vote against it but it’s there and I think that the money should go back into the General Fund,” Lozano said. The scholarship program is an appropriate beneficiary because it supports local children who can’t afford to participate in city sports, according to Lozano.