Volunteers with Salinas Junior Giants take over city council meeting

The Junior Giants baseball program run by Salinas Police has always been a tool to help keep kids off the streets. But now that its executive director is leaving, parents, players and coaches are concerned about its fate. On Tuesday, they packed city hall looking for answers.

There were so many people that Police Chief Kelly McMillin took everyone outside and addressed them personally.

“I’m not going to give up on Junior Giants. Were the biggest one in the state,” McMillin said to the crowd.

Volunteer Coach Sean Henry was one of many upset after hearing Officer Angel Gonzalez, the Police Activities League Executive Director for the Junior Giants, is going to be rotating out of his position at the end of the year to go back to patrol duties. There’s no work on who’s taking over.

“People are concerned, not that is going to go away, but that it’s going to be weakened,” Henry said.

Volunteer coach Chach Flores agrees.

“My strong feelings is we need an officer,” Flores said.

But with a lack of officers on the streets, McMillin said that’s not possible right now. In fact, he said Gonzalez is the only Salinas police officer still in a special assignment since he announced a major restructuring plan in April.

Still the volunteers want a uniformed officer as their leader.

“If the kids see that police are involved, I mean, I think it’s stronger than ‘that’s just my mom, or that’s just my dad,” Flores said.

With youth gang violence a problem in the city, volunteers with the organization say having a strong police leader is a good way to keep kids out of trouble.

“Right now in our community with all the things that are going on, the negativity, having a positive influence and leader who is a police officer has executive director I think is a really important thing,” Henry said.

McMillin said officers will still be involved in Junior Giants as coaches and on the board of directors. It’s such a popular program, the San Francisco Giants are looking to build a baseball field in Salinas. The major league team is still in the process of finding the land.