Month: January 2015

Not good enough.  Those are painful words for any parent or child to hear.  In the case of my son Beckett, they are even more poignant.  That’s because they are words I’ve come accustomed to hearing him say.  You see Beckett is technically not my son.  He came to our family from a broken home on the cusp of his 5^th birthday.  He was born addicted to drugs and by all accounts had spent the vast majority of his first few years watching TV or playing video games.  I won’t go into all the details but suffice to say he was in a sorry state.  At 75 lbs he had already entered childhood obesity.  He was so large that he loudly snored at night.  He couldn’t ride a tricycle, let alone a bike.  He couldn’t even climb the steps to the slide at the park, put on his pants, or wipe his bottom.  Asking him to do slightly more complicated tasks like putting on a shirt or holding a pencil and writing something was like asking him to climb Mt. Everest.

He was neglected for most of his life and his mantra had become, “I’m not good enough.”  Each time my wife and I tried to get him to try new things he would literally cry and those were the words we would hear.  “I can’t.  I’m not good.”

I was hesitant to put him in sports at first as I was worried about putting him in that competitive environment, but we gave Taekwondo a shot.  The first few sessions he literally sat in the back and cried in my arms while his sister practiced.  I’m not good at Taekwondo he would tell me.  Once he gained the courage to try, however, he soon came to love it. After 6 months, he had lost almost 30 pounds and I put him in T-ball despite his objections.  Later, he didn’t want to play soccer, because he was no good he said – but I signed him up anyway.  We got the same story with basketball.  “I can’t, I’m no good”.

Here’s the thing with Beckett, just like Taekwondo he can do it and he ends up enjoying it and doing fine once he gains the courage to try.  He loves soccer and basketball now and in my estimation is quite good. You should see him on the field.  He’s a totally different kid than he was two years ago.  But that’s not why I keep pushing sports on him.  At 7 years old, he has already overcome a drug addiction and obesity.  That’s more than a lot of people can say in a lifetime, but that doesn’t mean he won’t have tough challenges ahead.  I want him to have something like sports as an outlet.  Something that will give him confidence, help him form friendships, and keep him active and away from the TV and video games he so craves.

That’s why I signed him up for little league this year and bought him a brand new bat and a bucket of balls to hit with for Christmas.  We had been focusing more on soccer and basketball and I was looking forward to getting him involved with Little League.

With that backdrop, we headed for TABB tryouts.  Beckett had never tried out for anything before.  He was intimidated and I could see him giving up before he even started.  The ball sailed over his head.  The grounders went right past him and he barely even swung at the few pitches thrown his way.  It didn’t help that he was also pretty sick.  He had missed school the day before with a fever and ended up not playing in a basketball game he had later that day when the fever came back that afternoon.  I wouldn’t have taken him to the tryouts at all, but TABB seemed pretty serious about not missing it.   I knew he could do better than he did as I’ve pitched to him many times, but I was proud of him for getting out there even when he wasn’t feeling good.  What’s the big deal I thought?  It’s just a try-out for 1^st grade Little League.  Who really cares how well he does?

Well it turned out to be a much bigger deal than I thought and some people did care, a lot.  I thought the try-out was just for the coaches to get a sense for his skill level so they could draft accordingly.  Little did I know they were also determining whether he was even good enough for the league.  A few days later I got a call from TABB telling me Beckett couldn’t play with the other 7 year olds and that if he was going to play TABB he had to play with 5 year-olds in the younger non-competitive league.  Astounded, I plead Beckett’s case to the league President and explained to him that a decision like this would only reinforce the idea I’ve been trying to shake in Beckett’s mind that he is no good.  It’s not so much I worry that he will think he is “no good” at baseball, I’m much more concerned about him thinking that he is “no good” as a person.  Sports were meant to help him change that viewpoint about himself, not reinforce it.  I thought for sure once I explained the situation to the TABB president that they would understand and allow Beckett to play with his friends and peers that he plays soccer and basketball with.  Unbelievably, I was wrong.

I received the final ruling from the TABB league President yesterday.  According to TABB, Beckett is not good enough to play 1st grade Little League.  He was not even given a chance to be re-evaluated.  They threw him a few grounders, tossed him a few pitches and labeled him “not good enough.”  So it goes in TABB.  I’ve been involved with youth sports nearly all my life and up until now I’ve never heard of a league doing something like that to a 1st grader.

They phrased it to me as a safety issue even though I told them I would be more than willing to have Beckett play outfield the entire season if safety was really the concern.  This decision was made despite language in the TABB Rules of Operation indicating that a parent must agree to a decision to move a player down to a lower league.

As a parent, what am I to make of this?  How do you explain to a kid like Beckett that he’s not allowed to play in the same division as his friends from school and from his soccer and basketball teams?  I am heartbroken for him.  I can only presume that TABB is more about the coaches and parents forming playoff contending teams than it is about the kids.  Even at the 1st grade level, it appears it’s more about winning than having fun and learning a sport.  If that is the case, then I find that very sad.

Beckett wasn’t born to me, but he has become my son.  He’s a great kid and my best bud.  That last thing I want for him is for someone to tell him he’s not good enough.  That said, I didn’t write this so people can feel sorry for him or us.  My hope is that if you believe what TABB did is wrong, as I do, then you will write to the TABB Board found here and tell them so.  Maybe if enough people say something, then a future kid like Beckett won’t be labeled “not good enough” by TABB before he even gets a chance.

New records released by the City Clerk’s office reveal that McCormick was non-compliant to the City’s emergency services contract in the first week of performance.  McCormick was the only evaluated bidder that committed to meeting Torrance’s requirement of an 8 minute response 92% of the time.  City staff cited that commitment by McCormick as a key differentiating factor in scoring McCormick higher than the other evaluated bidders.  If the first week of performance was any indication, however, it appears that McCormick will have a real challenge living up to this commitment.

The data provided by the City included 116 “911” emergency calls received between 03 and 07 December 2014 just after McCormick initiated performance.  Of those 116 calls, McCormick had a response time of above the 8 minute requirement on 16 of them for an on-time response rate of 86.2%.

In 14 of the calls it appears the transport was canceled after dispatch (presumably in transit).  If the call was canceled prior to arrival and before the 8 minute requirement had expired, then I counted it as on time (11 of the 14).  I counted it as late if the call was canceled after 8 minutes and McCormick still had not arrived (3 of the 14).  Even if you factored all these calls as on-time, leaving McCormick with only 13 misses, the on-time response percentage would only bump up to 88.7% – still well below the 92% requirement.

A key factor not known is whether McCormick responded to these calls Code 3 (lights and sirens) or Code 2 (no lights and sirens) as is customary in Torrance. 

The data set also includes 7 calls in which McCormick responded in 7 seconds or less (4 of these showed a response time of 0 seconds).  This is a likely due to a lag time of anywhere from 40 to 90 seconds between when the City received the emergency call and when it was formally dispatched to the ambulance provider. TFD acknowledged that when they scored Gerber (the previous transport provider), they counted from the time the City received the call. Gerber counted from the actual dispatch time resulting in Gerber scoring themselves higher than TFD did.

It appears from the data that McCormick is being scored against the more lenient dispatch time standard.  This essentially would give them an additional 40 to 90 seconds over what Gerber had.  As an indication of how significant the difference can be, McCormick might have an additional 16 late responses if they were scored against the higher standard – which would cause their on-time response percentage to plummet down to 72.4%.

As a reference point, Torrance Fire Department (TFD) claimed that Gerber ambulance was in breach of their contract for failing to meet the response time requirement.  In the notice of default letter submitted against Gerber, TFD cited Gerber’s average response time of 88.9% over nearly a two year period as cause for their default.

Given the numbers provided, it would appear McCormick is also now in default of their contract leaving the City in an awkward position.  Many councilmembers cited Gerber’s non-compliance with the contract as justification for making the award to McCormick.  What should they do now that McCormick also appears to be in breach?

When the contract was awarded to McCormick, many questioned the process and the apparent conflicts of interest that led to the decision.  McCormick’s initial performance now raises the question of whether Torrance residents should also be concerned that they are actually less safe with McCormick providing emergency transport services than they were with Gerber.

The ability of the those seeking the recently awarded emergency services contract to meet the required response time of 8 minutes 92% of the time appeared to be a key distinguishing factor in the evaluation process.  City officials claimed the previous transport provider, Gerber Ambulance, was in breach of their contract for their failure to meet the requirement.  In support of McCormick, the eventual winner of the contract, the City staff report noted that McCormick was the only bidder that agreed to meet to the requested response times. McCormick’s ability to meet that commitment, however, has since been the subject of intense debate.

Shortly after McCormick initiated performance allegations surfaced that McCormick had a response time of over 20 minutes on at least one occasion.  Such a slow response, if verified, would certainly lead one to question whether McCormick could live up to its promises.  To determine the truth of the matter, I submitted a public records request with the City on 08 December 2014. That request sought that the City provide records indicating the emergency response times for McCormick ambulance for all 911 emergency calls received between 02 December and 07 December 2014 in which transport was provided through their company.

The California Public Records Act requires that municipalities respond to requests for public records within 10 days. The Act does allow for an extension of up to 14 days in “unusual circumstances” defined as follows:

(1) The need to collect the requested records from field facilities that are separate from the office processing the request.

(2) The need to search for, collect, and appropriately examine voluminous amount of separate and distinct records that are demanded in a single request.

(3) The need for consultation, which shall be conducted with all practicable speed, with another agency having substantial interest in the determination of the request or among two or more components of the agency having substantial subject matter interest therein.

(4) The need to compile data, to write programming language or a computer program, or to construct a computer report to extract data.

Ten days after submitting my request, I received a message from City employee Joe Huld notifying me that they would need additional time to respond and that they would do so on or before 01/01/15 (the 14 additional days afforded by the Act). When pressed for what the “unusual circumstance” was that caused the delay, Mr. Huld stated in an e-mail that they needed “additional time to assure that we have collected all the responsive documents and that they are all public record.”

As of the moment of this writing, I have not heard anything further from the City and it is my understanding they are now in violation of the California Public Records Act for failing to adhere to my request.  I find the City’s lack of transparency on this issue very unnerving.  I believe this is an important public safety matter and the lack of response as well as the cryptic justification for the delay only serve to increase suspicions with regard to this issue.

In contrast, the City of Rancho Palos Verdes (who also happens to utilize McCormick) publicizes the response times on their website.  Rancho Palos Verdes holds McCormick to a 8 minute and 59 second response time versus the 8 minute Torrance requirement.  Yet, even with this more lenient requirement, records reflect that McCormick was only able to comply 85.4%, 87.2%, and 84.9% of the time in three recent months.  This performance is well below the 92% of the time required by Torrance and also well below the percentages that Gerber was able to meet in Torrance.

The City was more than happy to make Gerber’s response times available at the City Clerk’s office for anyone to inspect.  With that in mind, they should follow Rancho Palos Verdes lead and do the same with McCormick’s response times.  I believe that is the only way to live up to the increased transparency so many of the candidates promised in the recent election.