Date: Wed, 04 May 2005
From: Richard Chen <richard.chen@jpl.nasa.gov>
To: suzanne.bradfield@jpl.nasa.gov, scott.morgan@jpl.nasa.gov
CC: toby.solorzano@jpl.nasa.gov, david.morreale@jpl.nasa.gov,
 	richard.j.stiebel@jpl.nasa.gov, ebonfiglio@jpl.nasa.gov,
 	david.tseng@jpl.nasa.gov, frediuaumps@yahoo.com,
 	richard.c.benesh@jpl.nasa.gov, sam.dolinar@jpl.nasa.gov,
 	kelly.l.perry@jpl.nasa.gov, charles.kaczinski@jpl.nasa.gov
Subject: JPL Softball Dispute over Loma Alta Park

Scott, you may get a phone call from Employee Relations / HR about a
field problem yesterday, May 3.  Here's my recollection:

I got a call around 5:15 yesterday from Gene Bonfiglio, manager of the
Marinators, who had a 5:30 and 6:50 doubleheader yesterday at Loma Alta.
Gene told me that Little League was at the field and expected to play.
I told him that the field was ours because we reserved it, paid for it,
and had a permit for it.  I called Penny Daniels, the worker in charge of
Loma Alta, and told her that the field was ours and that we expected to
play.  She concurred.

I took a copy of our permit to Loma Alta, arriving around 5:40.  Unable to
find Penny, I walked to the parents of the Little Leaguers and told them
that I was sorry, but we had a permit for the field and were not giving it
up in any way unless they also had a permit.  Their spokesperson Ryan said
he had one.  I said, "Let's see it." He said, "Don't call me a liar."
"Let's just see the permit."  "It's at home."  We argued some more to no
avail (Them: "County must have double booked." Me: "That's possible, but 
I doubt it."), though Ryan did interject, "You must be a homosexual."  I
then became pretty certain that this was the same person who had phoned
Kelly Perry two years ago and called her a "f*cking b*tch" when he wanted
us to move from Loma Alta on a half-day's notice.  We did not accommodate
that time, but Kelly did accommodate last year on a week's notice, which
I would not have done, especially given his history.

I found Penny, who told me that she had just talked to the County Parks
office, who made the reservation.  They confirmed the field was ours.
She also said that she had told Ryan more than once in the days before
that JPL Softball had the field reserved on May 3 and that he should show
her the permit, but he did not do that, nor did he contact Kelly or me.
She then sent her worker Kenny down to tell Ryan and the parents that the
field was ours, but 5 minutes later, they still were not leaving.  I had
to go over and tell them again that the field was ours, again taking a
lot of verbal abuse from Ryan and about half the parents, to which I
responded calmly, in my opinion.

One more complication was that before I arrived, Gene had agreed to end
his first game early and give up the field for his second game.  I didn't
learn this until after I'd talked to Ryan et al the first time.  However,
I disregarded the compromise because Gene made it based on Ryan's word
that he had a permit, which I was not going to believe until I saw it.

Long story short: we had a permit and produced it.  They didn't.  The
workers at the park and at the central County Parks office said the park
was ours.  I refused to compromise because they gave us no notice,
carried no documentation, and tried to intimidate us both last night
and in previous seasons.

Richard Chen