Weston Ranch Little League players got a lesson in local government on July 14, touring Stockton City Hall and participating in a mock city council meeting before their league received a $5,000 grant to help keep youth baseball affordable.
The visit was part of an ongoing effort by City Clerk Katherine Roland and Vice Mayor Jason Lee to introduce young people to local government through hands-on civic education. They said the program is intended to encourage youth and their families to become more involved in their community while highlighting city services and recreation programs available to residents.
During opening remarks, Lee said the visit was intended to build on his previous meeting with the league and introduce players and their families to the city’s new council chamber.
“As part of my follow-up from the last time I saw you, I thought about two things,” Lee told players and their families. “One, how do we bring the group back together and stay engaged? Also, how do we welcome kids, their families, coaches and others into the new city council chamber?”
Lee said the idea grew out of the city’s free city hall tour program, which Roland leads. Roland said the group was the first to tour the new council chambers since employees moved into the new complex at 501 W. Weber Ave. and 509 W. Weber Ave.
Roland guided the group through the new council chambers and explained Stockton’s history, the role of the city clerk’s office and how city government has evolved.
She showed participants historic city records dating to the 1850s, explaining that council proceedings were once handwritten in bound record books before modern technology allowed meetings to be recorded on video.
“Historically, if they made a mistake writing down what everybody said, they ripped the page out, started fresh,” Roland said. “They didn’t cross out. There was no white-out. There was no taping over. They just started the minutes fresh.”
She also discussed Stockton’s history, including its role during the Gold Rush and World War II, before inviting several children to participate in a mock city council meeting.
During the exercise, the children acted as mayor and councilmembers and heard a mock staff presentation from Interim Deputy City Manager Audree V. Jones-Taylor, who oversees the community services department.
Lee said he invited Jones-Taylor to participate in the initiative to highlight city programs available to youth, parents and seniors through the community services department, including recreation programs, parks and swimming pools.
“The reason why I wanted to elevate this is because on social media, we hear a lot of things that may not be positive,” Lee said. “But one of the things that is positive is that every single day when you get up, you have the ability to make change and get active in our city.”
The children also voted to approve a fictional $5,000 grant for Weston Ranch Little League as part of the mock city council meeting.
Roland used the exercise to demonstrate how motions, seconding motions and council votes work during official meetings.
Afterward, Lee presented Weston Ranch Little League with an actual $5,000 grant from the District 6 discretionary fund. He said the money would help offset registration costs for families participating in the league.
Little League says grant will support families
Weston Ranch Little League President Mark Spaulding said the visit gave players an opportunity to see government in action, noting most of the league’s young players had never been to city hall “in any fun way,” aside from a few who had been in and out once or twice.
“It lets them see, ‘Hey, there are other things I can do,'” he said. “Being able to come down here and interact with people makes them feel a bit more happy with city government and gives them a knowledge that maybe they want to run it into another program that they’re doing somewhere else.”
Spaulding, who has volunteered with Weston Ranch Little League for more than 20 years, said the league serves about 193 children this season, offering coed baseball for ages 4 to 16 and a growing girls softball program.
He said the $5,000 grant from the city will have a significant impact on the league’s finances as operating expenses continue to rise.
“It’ll be huge,” Spaulding said. “As everything over the last couple years, fees and costs have gone up. We’re very lucky in Weston Ranch. We have some fields at August Knodt Elementary School with Manteca Unified School District that are very low cost. We also use two fields at Paul Weston Park. They’re not expensive compared to other cities, but for a small community like Weston Ranch, every dollar counts.”
He also said the grant will allow the league to avoid increasing registration fees while making improvements to its fields.
“We’ll be able to probably, I’m not going to say 100%, but it’s very likely we won’t have to raise any fees going into next season,” Spaulding said. “We’ll be able to just keep it like it was. We should be able to add some improvements to the fields and some wood that just needs to be replaced with backstops and stuff.”
He said keeping participation affordable is one of the league’s priorities.
“Little League is just such a great program that you just want to stay in it,” Spaulding said. “It’s one of the few things out there where they try to keep the costs low and are more worried about having fun than winning games. They try to make sure all the kids are involved. We have our All-Star tournament season, which is about winning, but during the regular season, you just want all the kids to be able to come out and play baseball.”
He said fundraising can be especially challenging because Weston Ranch has relatively few locally-owned businesses able to sponsor youth sports, making grants like the city’s contribution especially valuable.
“In Weston Ranch, unfortunately, there’s not a lot of businesses. The couple of businesses we have, they’re great, but they’re corporate, so all their fundraisers and grants go out of their corporate offices, and it’s just a nightmare trying to deal with them,” Spaulding said. “For now, grants like this are just huge for maintaining costs.”
Officials encourage civic participation
At the end of their visit, Roland encouraged the children to remain involved in civic life and help shape their community.
“We want them to know that they have a voice,” she said. “They have a voice now. They already have opinions about whether or not they want a basketball court or a pickleball court, and we want to hear them. They need to know that they can participate and be a part of that process.”
Lee echoed those sentiments, encouraging young people to share their ideas directly with elected officials.
“It’s not just going to Little League or to the park or going to school,” he said. “It’s coming down here to tell policymakers like me what you want to see in your city, what you want to get from your government, because it’s only going to work if you participate.”
The city clerk’s office offers free city hall tours by appointment for schools, youth organizations, sports teams, nonprofit groups and other organizations. Standard tours last about 40 minutes and include a review of historical artifacts displayed in the city hall lobby, a visit to the council chamber, Stockton history and civic education tailored to the audience.
Each tour is customized based on grade level, curriculum and organizational interests. Optional experiences include “Historic City Hall Architecture (Then and Now),” “What It’s Like to Be a Councilmember,” “Careers in City Government,” “Your Voice Is Our Future,” “Mock City Council Meetings” and “Building Civic Pride.” Organizations are encouraged to share their educational goals with the city clerk’s office so tours can be adapted to meet the needs of their students or participants.
Those interested in scheduling a city hall tour can call the city clerk’s office at (209) 937-8458 or email city.clerk@stocktonca.gov.
Record reporter Hannah Workman covers news in Stockton and San Joaquin County. She can be reached at hworkman@recordnet.com or on Twitter @byhannahworkman. Support local news, subscribe to The Stockton Record at https://www.recordnet.com/subscribenow.
This article originally appeared on The Record: Stockton City Hall visit gives Weston Ranch ballplayers a civics lesson
Reporting by Hannah Workman, The Stockton Record / The Record
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By Hannah Workman, The Stockton Record | USA TODAY Network
