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The future is unclear for the Boys & Girls Clubs of Capistrano Valley as elected officials question its stance on diversity and other issues like cost and attendance.
Newly-elected Rancho Santa Margarita Mayor Anthony Beall has publicly accused the city’s branch of the Boys & Girls Clubs of indoctrinating children with political messaging — as the council is slated to consider extending their contract later this year.
During a council meeting on Jan. 8, he claimed the organization was inappropriately advertising an online reading list promoting political, diversity-related subjects. The list — which included books like “White Fragility” and “White Rage: The Unspoken Truth of Our Racial Divide” — has since been removed.
“In my opinion, taxpayer dollars should never be spent to support political advocacy and indoctrination, especially with children,” Beall said at the meeting.
“This was a bold, expressed, written and overt effort to indoctrinate the families in Rancho Santa Margarita with this political view,” he said.
In a statement sent to Voice of OC after the meeting, Boys & Girls Clubs of Capistrano Valley (BGCCV) CEO Nicole Watson said the reading list was created to “offer adults optional resources for thoughtful reflection, understanding, and exploration of varied perspectives,” adding that it wasn’t intended for children.
“The book options were not presented as a programming directive and were never intended for Club members, nor were they presented as such,” Watson wrote. “When this list became the subject of polarizing comments within the City Council, BGCCV removed it to avoid it becoming a distraction to our core mission of serving youth.”
Beall was the only council member to comment on the reading list during the meeting on Jan. 8. The rest of the city council voiced different concerns regarding costs and attendance at the Boys & Girls Clubs branch in town.
But Beall isn’t the only elected official worried about indoctrination at the taxpayer-funded, nonprofit organization in South OC.
Aliso Viejo Councilmember Mike Munzing agreed with Beall during a Thursday phone interview, saying the list of propaganda was a clear attempt to include political messaging in a place where politics should be completely absent.
“Politics should be left out of taking care of the kids,” Munzing said. “I don’t believe in promoting anything that I believe — just help the kids with their homework and make good, upstanding, strong citizens.”
He said he’s been a big supporter of the Boys and Girls Clubs for years but first became concerned when he noticed the organization was giving out diversity, equity, inclusion and belonging awards to members at an award ceremony in January 2024.
“I want [the kids] to look at the world as a big bright opportunity — not that you’re being held down, in this case, by evil white people, or whatever they’re promoting,” he said.
Will Rancho Santa Margarita Extend its Contract with the Boys & Girls Clubs?
The Boys & Girls Clubs of Capistrano Valley has three locations: Rancho Santa Margarita, Aliso Viejo and San Juan Capistrano. They provide afterschool and summer programming and activities for local youth at a low cost. The organization’s national website also promotes inclusivity and belonging throughout its branches nationwide.
The Rancho Santa Margarita branch has been operating in the city since 2012.
On April 10, 2024, the council met to consider extending the organization’s contract, which was set to expire in July.
However, during that meeting, council members voiced concerns regarding low attendance, few transportation offerings for children, a high number of attendees from outside the city and the overall cost of the program.
In April, the council voted to extend the Boys & Girls Clubs contract by only one year — with the stipulation that the organization must return to the council within six months with a report that addressed the council’s concerns. Beall was the only dissenting vote.
During the Jan. 8 Rancho Santa Margarita City Council meeting, Watson presented the council-requested report on the branch’s programs and services.
She explained that attendance has increased by approximately 33% since April 2024 and the organization has increased van transportation to pick up from more Rancho Santa Margarita schools.
Beall questioned if the daily average number of attendees as reported by the organization is accurate.
“The club has told us in their six-month report there’s been a 33% increase in daily average attendance,” he said. “Quite frankly, we have no way of validating that. I think those numbers are somewhat suspect.”
However, the council’s biggest area of concern was differences between Rancho Santa Margarita’s branch and the other two branches in Aliso Viejo and San Juan Capistrano. Councilmembers expressed concern that their city is overpaying for services and programs that serve fewer children compared to their neighbors.
Rancho Santa Margarita pays $120,000 annually for services, according to the staff report.
San Juan Capistrano pays $103,058 annually for the Boys & Girls Clubs afterschool and summer youth services and programs, according to the most recent memorandum of understanding that was approved in 2023 for a five-year term with an optional five-year extension.
Aliso Viejo’s contract outlines a $177,500 annual amount for services for the Boys & Girls Clubs, according to the five-year agreement executed in 2022.
Although the RSM City Council requested the report include specific cost and attendance data to compare the three different Boys & Girls Clubs of Capistrano Valley locations, this information was left out.
Watson said it wouldn’t be fair to compare these three locations since each is tailored to the specific community needs — creating vast differences in how each location operates.
“Comparing programs outside of Rancho Santa Margarita is [comparing] apples and oranges,” she told council members on Jan. 8. “It’s impractical due to the distinct differences between each location and the communities in which they service which makes them unique.”
This caused concern for the council since this data was specifically requested as part of the one-year contract extension from April 2024.
“The reason I talked about comparing the locations is so we can see if what we’re paying is reasonable, because we have taxpayers and the kids to try and combine to make this all work,” Councilmember Jerry Holloway said.
“It gives us a rougher time to try and decide if there’s a way to meet somewhere to get to a ‘yes,’” he said. “It makes it a lot more difficult.”
The Boys & Girls Clubs branch is requesting a three-year contract with an optional two-year extension with the same terms as before, but a final decision hasn’t been made yet.
Instead, representatives from the city and the organization will continue discussing terms to try and find a compromise before the current contract is set to expire this July.
Watson also suggested the city could start over and put out a call for a new vendor if the council thinks that’s the best decision.
“If we’re going to go under scrutiny for reasons we don’t understand, and you don’t feel like we’re the best program, don’t hurt the kids for that reason,” Watson said.
“We would of course love serving kids in the Rancho Santa Margarita area, but if an RFP [request for proposals] is best for this community, then we suggest that that be done,” she said.
At the end of the meeting, the council directed staff to meet with representatives from the organization before the end of the month to discuss reaching a compromise. Beall was the only “no” vote.
There isn’t a confirmed date when the item will return to council, but it must be before the Boys & Girls Clubs current contract is set to expire in July 2025.
“I think we can come to an endpoint that is satisfactory,” Councilmember Brad McGirr said during the meeting. “If we can’t, we can’t. But I think as grown-ups in the room, we can certainly give it our best efforts here in the new year.”
Angelina Hicks is a Voice of OC Tracy Wood Reporting Fellow. Contact her at ahicks@voiceofoc.org or on Twitter @angelinahicks13.
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