American Canyon coaches and volunteers who have contact with children will have to be fingerprinted beginning Jan. 1.

The American Canyon City Council unanimously voted this week to require having volunteers fingerprinted if their organizations use city fields or facilities. The city will also require volunteers to undergo child abuse prevention training.

Parks and Recreation Director Randy Davis, who began to work on the issue about a year ago at the direction of the City Council, said child abuse training is available online through various youth organizations. One group, the 4-H Youth Development Program, offers online training that includes tips on how to recognize child abuse, how to report it and how to protect oneself from unfounded accusations of inappropriate behavior toward children.

 Before she voted for the measure, City Councilwoman Joan Bennett said she wanted to make sure that people’s civil rights were protected, though Davis stressed that the information will only be available to selected individuals. Bennett, who also expressed concerns over the child abuse training for volunteers who do not speak English, said she wants to make sure everyone is treated equally.

“Volunteers are really important people,” Bennett said.

 But City Councilman Ed West said the city needs to establish the standards but can’t get involved on how to tell organizations to implement the requirements.

“Language barriers are their challenge,” he said.

 Vice Mayor Don Callison said his online search during the meeting turned up child abuse training in languages other than English. “Language barrier won’t be an issue at all,” he said.

The city’s police department will purchase a $16,500 Live Scan machine with a federal grant to do the fingerprinting in town. The fingerprints will be sent to the state Department of Justice which will perform the screening for criminal convictions in the United States.

• Youth volunteers may pay $10 to have the fingerprints done in town, but may not be responsible for the $32 fee the state Department of Justice charges to screen each set of fingerprints if the youth organization applies for a waiver. Instead, the state agency may only charge sponsoring youth organizations $10 per volunteer.

• City officials will conduct periodic checks to make sure the volunteers have met the city requirements, Davis said.

• Some of the city’s biggest sport groups, including American Canyon Little League and American Youth Soccer Organization, already screen their coaches and other volunteers. But representatives for both groups said their organizations’ background checks do not include a fingerprinting search.

• Heather Banks, the newly-minted president of the American Canyon Little League, reiterated Little League’s support for the city, though she asked the city for guidance as the program gets implemented.

• “It’s getting harder and harder every year to get volunteers,” Banks added.

The American Canyon Parks and Recreation Commission in June voted to require background checks on volunteers who have contact with youths enrolled in organizations that use city facilities. Some of the commissioners, most of whom have been fingerprinted on multiple occasions because they volunteer for various youth organizations, expressed concerns over the time and expense involved.

According to the city, youth organizations will not be required have volunteers fingerprinted every year if they request to be notified of subsequent arrests. Under state law, youth organizations will also be able to share information with other organizations if they obtain clearance from the state Department of Justice. Authorized organizations will receive a registration number from the state Department of Justice.