Parents, coaches raise ethics concerns about merger of O’Fallon, Belleville soccer clubs

Coaches and parents of youth soccer players are seeking answers to questions about a city orchestrated merger of two clubs into one called Metro Alliance.

Eight of them brought their concerns to the O’Fallon City Council meeting Monday, May 17.

Metro Alliance is a new soccer organization that combined O’Fallon’s KiXX United Soccer Club, which is through the city’s Parks and Recreation Department, and the Metro East Legacy, which is run by the Belle-Clair Soccer Club in Belleville.

The city announced the merger April 6. Tryouts already are taking place.

Since then, potential legal action came to light and concerns surfaced about other soccer clubs not having fair access to the fields for practice at the Family Sports Park soccer complex, a higher fee and conflicts of interest in the Parks and Recreation Department.

Mary Jeanne Hutchison, director of parks and recreation, reportedly is no longer working for the city. Hutchison was on the board of the new soccer powerhouse, Metro Alliance, and signed the merger contract. She and Andrew Dallner, superintendent of recreation for O’Fallon, scheduled the fields for games, practices and tournaments.

When asked last week about the rumors of Hutchison’s removal, Mayor Herb Roach declined to comment. Hutchison did not respond to a message left on her cell phone.

City Administrator Walter Denton said, “I cannot comment on personnel issues. We are working with the Metro Alliance Board of Directors on details on the merger and field leases.”

After seven coaches and parents spoke during public comments Monday, the mayor said: “A lot of things are being reviewed and looked into.”

Last week, Roach had promised an internal investigation into the complaints and charges of inequities.

Joe Reiniger, executive director of Gateway Rush, one of the soccer clubs that uses the Family Sports Park for practices and games, said his club included participation by parents, coaches and players from O’Fallon. He spoke Monday during the public comments portion of the council meeting.

Gateway Rush was not getting access to the fields like it should as a paying customer, he said. He detailed examples of how their club brought money into the city.

Reiniger also spoke of pressure applied to parents about belonging to a city club instead of the private clubs. He said his parents were being told to join the new club if they wanted more access.

Reiniger noted he learned in documents released through the Freedom of Information Act the concession stand revenue at one of their tournaments earned the most for the Department of Parks and Recreation that year.

He cited they brought in 675 “heads in beds” — families staying at local hotels — because of tournaments they booked in October 2019 and March 2020.

“Parents should be able to choose a soccer club on merits, not with a team’s relationship with a public park,” he said.

Nicholas Walker, a KiXX and Belle-Clair soccer coach, asked why was a city asset given to a Belleville organization?

“How much are we on the hook for and how much are we paying for a third-party club?” he asked.

Carlos Vasquez said kids should be able to play in their parks fields, no matter what club they play for.

“This is kids’ soccer,” he said.

Another parent, Preston Paine, said it was “not fair” how the other clubs were being treated and that whoever rents a field first should have priority.

“I hope this gets resolved in a timely manner,” he said.

Daniel Nelson, a coach with Gateway Rush, said he looked forward to the increased competition from a new club, but also questioned fair and equitable access to the fields.

The city has not responded officially to the rising number of questions concerning the merger contract and other issues raised. Reportedly, Metro Alliance was being charged less to rent the fields.

KiXX began as a soccer club with the city in 2005. The Family Sports Park soccer complex fields were installed in 2017 as part of an economic incentive — Destination: O’Fallon — which raised the hotel/motel tax to pay for the improvements.

EMS Week

The mayor honored the O’Fallon-Shiloh Emergency Medical Services personnel as part of EMS Week, which was established in 1974 by President Gerald Ford to acknowledge the important role EMS staff plays in America.

“But I doubt that President Ford would have been able to guess the importance of a role that EMS personnel would play in the historic COVID-19 pandemic,” Roach said.

Roach said during 2020, the local EMS staff responded to over 4,374 calls, and expressed gratitude for their professionalism.

“With over 3,000 cases of COVID reported in our area, these men and women knew during the past year that every time they went on a call, they could be faced with dealing with a COVID-related case and that exposure could not only impact them, but it could impact their families as well. This did not stop them from providing the first-class emergency medical services that our citizens needed,” he said.

Police Chief Eric Van Hook said EMS personnel should be lauded for their skills and services, but also spoke of how much they give back to the community, and suggested people see the EMT involvement on the EMS Facebook page.

This week, the O’Fallon-Shiloh EMS is holding a Virtual Open House. From May 17 to 21, they will post videos at 5 p.m. on their Facebook page.

Waste Management Donation

Waste Management donated $10,000 to the O’Fallon CityFest, which will be held this August after skipping last year.

Roach said WM had sponsored the parade the first three years of the festival.

Baseball Field Lighting

The council approved paying Millennia Professional Services for the Family Sports Park baseball fields 9 and 10 electrical and professional engineering services, along with subcontractor Horner & Shifrin. The work includes the lighting design, plan administration, bidding documentation and construction coordination, at a cost not to exceed $29,800.

Ziggi’s Coffee

In other action, the council advanced plans for Lot 6 at Four Points Center, which will first have a coffee shop, for final approval June 1.

Dean Oelze of S.I. Strategy in Nashville, Illinois, asked for a planned use zoning amendment to construct a 7,695 square foot retail building with five tenant spaces on the 1.14 acres at 207 Scott-Troy Road, which is south of the signalized intersection at Recplex Drive and Scott-Troy Road.

Ziggi’s Coffee, a national chain that started in Colorado in 2004, will be near the McKendree RecPlex, and will have a drive-thru, a separate walk-up order window and a small patio area for outdoor seating that will be in the front.

Chalk It Up Event

Cory Hallerbach, on behalf of the Downtown District, received approval for a special event permit for an outdoor art festival called Chalk It Up from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday, June 26. There will be food and live music.

The location is the parking lot on the corner of East State and North Vine streets, a portion of North Vine Street to the west of the parking lot, and a portion of South Vine Street, south of East State Street to O’Fallon Station.

Portions of North and South Vine will be closed to facilitate pedestrian traffic between the event and Vine Street Market. State Street will not be closed for this event.

Event coordinators are allowed to use the American Legion parking lot for additional public parking throughout the event.

There will be one to three food trucks located within the South Vine Street closure.

Event organizers agreed to provide volunteers to assist with the crossing of State Street and will coordinate with Public Safety to receive vests and stop signs. Businessman Jon Greenstreet told the council Monday they had 12 volunteers available.

Snow Cone Stand

The council approved Bryan Shanks’ application for a special event permit to do business as Sugar Spice Everything Ice snow cone stand at 5620 Old Collinsville Road from now through October. Hours will be from 2-9 p.m. Monday- Friday and from noon to 9 p.m. Saturday-Sunday.

The new business is a portable building with no customers inside and six parking spaces are dedicated for customers. A sign for the building was requested.

Roadblock Permissions

Three charities were approved for roadblocks at the intersection of State and Lincoln:

• Marine Corp League #74 from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturday, June 12.
• O’Fallon Kiwanis Club (State and Smiley) from 4-6 p.m. Friday, Sept. 17, and from 8 a.m. to noon Saturday, Sept. 18.
• O’Fallon Underwater Search and Recovery Team from 8 a.m. to noon. Friday, Nov. 26, and Saturday, Nov. 27.

Town Hall

A quarterly Town Hall meeting will take place at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday, May 19, at City Hall and Zoom. The topics will include the Public Works projects scheduled for this year and the impact of the state legislation on police reform.

This story was originally published May 19, 2021 at 10:34 AM.