S.D. Police Take Aim at Fund-Raising Rivals : Charity: Department claims state police group is collecting funds for youth athletics that won’t help children in county.

The San Diego Police Department and County Probation Department are warning county residents of an organization soliciting funds for youth programs throughout the state, calling its efforts a “scam.”

The organization, the California Police Activities League, has been telemarketing in San Diego County for almost a month, competing for money with the San Diego Police Athletic League, an organization that offers sports programs to more than 6,000 San Diego city and county youngsters in an effort to keep them off the streets.

Police Chief Bob Burgreen, who asked PAL to get out of San Diego County, warns that, although the statewide organization is doing nothing illegal, “none of the funds donated to CAL-PAL will be used to provide youth programming in San Diego County.”

Burgreen said most of the money goes to administrative expenses and salaries.

“When the terms of the contract have been satisfied and CAL-PAL has used its share (50% of the net) to meet salaries and office expenses, only a very small percentage of the hundreds of thousands of dollars collected will be available for youth programming,” Burgreen said in an advisory about the organization.

The California Police Activities League, which has been in existence since 1971, recently contracted with TEL-COM, a telephone marketing company based in Florida and Texas.

The San Diego Police Department is opposed to the group’s telephone soliciting measures because it is an expensive way to raise money.

“We do a lot of fund raising in San Diego,” said Mark Brunker of the County Probation Department and founder of the San Diego Police Athletic League. “For every dollar the donor gives, it reaches the San Diego PAL, but with CAL-PAL only about 2 or 3 cents ends up going to programming.

“Telemarketing gets an incredible percentage of the initial donation, and that’s what we’re opposed to. This telemarketing is absurd, and we know better, and that’s what they don’t like, because we know it’s a scam,” Brunker said.

Sam Holtan, executive director of the Oakland-based California Police Activities League, said telemarketing is the only way the group can successfully raise money on a state level. “It takes money to make money,” he said.

The organization began its fund-raising efforts five months ago and is working to get athletic leagues formed at police departments throughout California.

The California Police Activities League, which recently opened an office in El Cajon, is simply trying to help kids, Holtan said. Holtan disputed Brunker’s comments that the money raised will not directly help youngsters in San Diego.

“That’s not right,” he said. “If San Diego enters a team in a tournament, we’d pick up the costs. (The San Diego Police Department)

is trying to make it financially unfeasible for us to work in San Diego County. But we will continue in San Diego. . . . We’re not trying to hurt San Diego PAL.”

As to the allegation that 2 to 3 cents on the dollar would actually go into youth programs, Holtan said, “He (Brunker) doesn’t know what he’s talking about. That is absolutely untrue.”

Holtan said about 25% of the money raised per dollar goes toward establishing athletic programs throughout the state.

Holtan said the group will concentrate on establishing athletic leagues in individual departments throughout San Diego County, and will not focus on the San Diego Police Department because it already has its own athletic league.

Furthermore, Holtan said, the California Police Activities League assisted the San Diego Police Athletic League to get started in 1988. But Brunker said the statewide organization did nothing of the sort.

Sgt. Larry Wilkins, executive director of the San Diego Police Athletic League, said CAL-PAL did invite two San Diego youngsters to participate in a basketball tournament in Oakland, but did not specify whether it would pay expenses.

Wilkins said selecting two youngsters for a basketball tournament seemed insignificant contrasted with the large basketball tournaments the San Diego Police Department holds for hundreds of San Diego youngsters.

The San Diego Police Athletic League is a partnership between the San Diego Police Department and County Probation Department.