Several longtime surf and volleyball camp operators expressed fear for their livelihood after the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors voted Tuesday to adopt a revised permitting policy which opens coveted beach use to a bidding process. Some not-for-profit camp operators will also be assessed new fees under the policy.
The Department of Beaches and Harbors, who recommended the revision to the board, said it hopes to address what department officials and camp owners have both agreed is a lack of oversight of beach camp operations.
“There’s been a seniority system in place that the department’s been operating under that really isn’t very equitable, and we’re very uncomfortable with,” said Chief Deputy Director Kerry Silverstrom.
She cited a waiting list of operators who, she said, have waited for years due to this seniority system.
But existing camp operators have argued that the seniority system isn’t the problem.
“Everyone learns in kindergarten that we get in line,” said Chris Brown, adding that the seniority system has been in place since the first camps started operating. Brown runs Camp Surf and is on the board of directors to the Jimmy Miller Foundation.
He said the real concern is the presently-unpermitted “fly-by-night” operators who under the new policy will be granted official use, pushing the seasoned and trained operators out.
Four board members voted in favor of adoption, with Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas absent from the meeting*. This marks the first revision to the policy since 1984, and the first time the county has provided designations concerning the operation of camps on county beaches.
The changes to the permit policy go into effect this fall for the selection of next summer’s camp operators. The new policy will not affect off-season camps.
Professional volleyball stars Sinjin Smith and Randy Soklos, who run Beach Volleyball Camps, echoed Brown’s concern.
“Their enforcement of all the camps that are not permitted [is] non-existent,” said Soklos. “You probably have an equal amount of camps that are down at the beach that have no permit [as those that do]”.
Smith highlighted the ease with which applicants can “fudge” their credibility as an operator.
“It’s the goodwill, it’s the relationships you establish, it’s everything you do over the years – because we’ve all done this for many years – and that can be taken away by someone that says they have a good track record,” he said.
According to the department’s proposal letter to the board, Beaches and Harbors collected $121,400 in revenue from permitting fees in 2010.
In the same letter, director Santos Kreimann stated his hope that the new policy would yield double that figure for the next fiscal year, through both the permitting of presently-unpermitted camps and the assessment of fees for non-profit camps which charge registration fees to attendees, camps which until Tuesday’s vote were exempt, outside of a one time “administrative fee”.
Not-for-profit camps that do not charge registration are considered community service organizations and remain exempt.
The Department of Beaches and Harbors submitted its final revision to the board in May after having taken input from operators and the County Beach Commission over a several-month process.
Correction 08/29/11
The board vote was three in favor with two absences: Mark Ridley-Thomas and Gloria Molina. ER
