Beach camps threatened by new bidding process
Many longstanding local beach camps believe a policy passed by the LA County Board of Supervisors threaten their existence. Easy Reader file photo
When Jack Tingley founded Beach Sports sixteen years ago, he was traversing new sands. Alongside fellow lifeguards Kip Jerger and Bruce Kocsis, Tingley created a platform for teaching surf and volleyball instruction at a scale that was non-existent on county beaches.
“It wasn’t a big business thing at the time,” recalled Tingley. “[Instructors] would go out with 10-12 kids a couple weeks a summer, but that was it. Myself, Kip and Bruce, all within a year or so of each other, started camps with kids coming down on an organized weekly basis. We took business principles to the beach.”
In addition to surf and volleyball instruction, Tingley founded a junior lifeguard program for kids he saw struggling to make it into the county program. Many of these kids have since gone on to be Los Angeles County lifeguards.
Sixteen years later, Tingley has seen 22,000 kids pass through his camps.
A revised beach use policy adopted by Los Angeles County’s Board of Supervisors last month could threaten Beach Sports, as well as many other established surf and volleyball camps.
Regulatory changes slated to go into effect by the end of the year will open the permitting of summer recreational camps to a bid process, as well as assess fees to non-profit, pay-to-attend camps such as Tingley’s, which have traditionally been exempt. Free camps will remain exempt from having to pay fees.
Kerry Silverstrom, chief deputy director of beaches and harbors, said the new procedures are intended to bring management of the beaches in line with other areas of county governance, as well as put an end to a longstanding practice that has kept summer permit applicants on a long waiting list.
“There’s been a seniority system in place that the department’s been operating under that really isn’t very equitable. It’s not a typical way of giving people access to county property or contracts,” she said.
The county typically selects its concessionaires and contractors through a competitive process, Silverstrom said.
Officials have said that an abundance of summer beach camps – many un-permitted – are taxing the current system. At the meeting of the County Board of Supervisors last month, Director of Beaches and Harbors Santos Kreimann cited safety as another concern.
“Right now, the current policy does not require any operating standards from the operator. They have no minimum safety requirements,” he said.
But threatened camp owners say the department’s primary motivation is to squeeze revenue from the beaches.
“This is a revenue-generating policy that they’re using public safety to justify, they’re using fairness to justify, they’re using whatever weapons they have in their arsenal to justify,” said one camp owner who refused to be identified for fear of retribution from the department.
The director has said he hopes the new regulations will at least double the $121,400 in fees collected in 2010.
Last month’s approval by the County Board of Supervisors grants the department use of the additional revenue to extend bathroom hours, which had been curtailed as a result of budget cuts.
“It’s disappointing when you spend 15 years doing something and then they change their mind,” said Tingley.
If it ain’t broke…
Beach camp operators meeting in El Segundo in June to discuss how to respond to changes in camp permitting procedures were (left to right) Kanoa Aquatic’s Kip Jerger, Camp Surf’s Chris Brown, Beach Volleyball Camps’ Sinjin Smith, Learn to Surf LA’s Patrick Murphy and Beach Volleyball’s Dennis Marlow. Photo
The Department of Beaches and Harbors first drafted a policy for the commercial use of county beaches in 1982.
The regulations were last revised in 1984, to include non profits, such as the March of Dimes, community service organizations such as the Boy Scouts, and events jointly organized by the county and private individuals, such as the International Surf Festival.
No guidelines were established for recreational, for-profit beach camps because none existed.
“There weren’t any camps for the first 11 years (of the policy),” recalled Tingley.
Regulation of recreational camps since 1984 has been left largely to the discretion of Los Angeles County Lifeguard captains, while the department has offered renewal of operators’ permits annually in exchange for a percentage of their gross earnings.
“Through doing that all these years the places that have permits make sense,” said Chris Brown, Executive Director of Camp Surf, which meets in Manhattan Beach at 45th Street. “The places that aren’t appropriate for surf camps or day camps, don’t have surf camps or day camps because [the lifeguard captains] wouldn’t permit them there,” he said. Camp Surf has held permits with the county since 1997.
Tingley, a lifeguard for 15 years before he retired, agreed.
“That’s as it was at that time and as it should be, because they (the lifeguards) are the one’s responsible for the public in that situation. They’re the bare feet on the ground,” he said.
The August revisions to the policy establish a yet-to-be-named review panel, which will advise the director in the divvying of summer permits. The panel will be composed of lifeguards and city officials from counties outside Los Angeles for impartiality, Silverstrom said.
“We’re recognizing that we had a waiting list for a number of years of operators who want to operate on our beaches, and so we have taken the time now to be able to put into place this selection process,” she said.
A review of the department’s current wait list showed 35 surf and beach volleyball camps. But at least four of these camps were listed in error, interviews with operators and department officials revealed.
Lifeguards will play a reduced role in the selection of camps under the new system in order to avoid a conflict of interest, Chief Lifeguard Garth Canning said at the March meeting of the Beach Commission. Many recurrent (part time) Los Angeles County lifeguards run beach camps, he said. But he added that the service will remain “very involved” in the design and implementation of the new program.
Established camp owners question the need to revise the current policy.
“You create policies to address problems. If there’s not a problem, then what is the policy for?” asked Patrick Murphy, who runs Learns To Surf LA, which has held permits with the county for seven years.
The change follows recent departures by senior staff from the department’s permitting and beach marketing offices, which Beach Commissioner Don Rohrer, a retired lifeguard, said have contributed to these camp-owners’s resistance.
“They’re justifiably concerned,” he said. “The department has two new people – two key people who haven’t been there through this process. So I think there’s a little apprehension on the part of commission and the applicants.”
The review panel
The new review panel will base its recommendations on criteria culled from the past five months of input from operators, the department, the lifeguard service and the Beach Commission.
Selected operators will be issued permits for a three-year term, with an optional two-year extension.
A camp’s bid, estimated gross earnings and “financial responsibility” will make up 15 percent of the weighted selection system.
The new policy sets the minimum bid for each location at $100, but the total remuneration including the gross earnings fee can be as high as $15,000 per month of a camp’s duration.
Summer camps typically operate from June to September. A single permit could therefore yield $45,000 a year, although it is unlikely that fees would reach this high.
The candidate’s experience will comprise a quarter of the consideration. Safety training, such as Red Cross certification, and their emergency response plan will carry another third.
The remaining third will be pieced from the candidate’s community service, operating plan and written proposal.
According to Tingley, the new process takes permit selection out of the hands of experts and puts it “in the hands of people who are reading a piece of paper.”
“If you haven’t been standing in the sand for the last 20 years talking to these people (the operators), it’s hard to know (their credentials),” he said.
Learn to Surf LA’s Murphy agreed.
“You can lift an emergency response plan from any number of sources on the internet,” he said.
He said the operation plan, written proposal and financial capability portions are equally hollow and increase the likelihood that a candidates’ financials will be the decisive criterion.
“That’s 60 percent that doesn’t necessarily reflect an applicant’s qualifications and places more weight on the financial bid,” he said.
Director Kreimann testified to the board last month that in the event of a tie he would select the candidate with the highest financial contribution to the county.
Former beach volleyball Olympian Sinjin Smith, who with partner and fellow Olympian Randy Stoklos has run Beach Volleyball Camps for 11 years, echoed Murphy’s concerns.
“It just doesn’t seem fair that somebody could come in and potentially copy what we did and then increase the bid amount,” he said.
Big bad business
In March of 1995, when Los Angeles County was negotiating with the state over the title transfer of eight state beaches (including Malibu, Manhattan and Redondo), Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky questioned the deal out of concern for the coast’s integrity.
“I have a big concern that in order to make it economically favorable to operate and maintain these beaches, we would have to generate revenue – and the only way to do that is to exploit the beaches,” he told the Los Angeles Times.
Some summer beach camps fear that the addition of a bidding element to the policy will encourage large companies to move beyond their present sponsorship role to found camps of their own.
“To make it a bid system means that Billabong or Quiksilver could come and outbid me in a heartbeat, and I’ve been there for 15 years. Where’s the fairness in that?” said Kip Jerger, who runs the surf camp Kanoa Aquatics. His camp is sponsored by Body Glove through contributions of apparel, though not money.
This concern was raised last month by County Mayor Michael Antonovich.
“What keeps the large organizations from monopolizing these permits?” he asked.
In response, Director Kreimann said that the new guidelines make permits non-transferable and that if a camp is sold its permit is revoked. The director also noted that operators will be limited to three locations. Large companies are therefore restricted from buying up beach space.
The new permit application released early this month allows operators to bid on additional permits if sites are vacant following the initial selection process.
The application also states that if a location becomes vacant because a camp fails to perform – or is sold – it will be reopened to bidding.
According to the beaches and harbors list of 2010 camps, only two camp owners held more than three permits last year, out of 30 surf and volleyball camp operators.
Robbie Yrigoyen, who co-founded Perfect Day Surf Camp with CEO of Quiksilver Bob McKnight, does not share Jerger’s fear. Yrigoyen operates in Redondo Beach under a contract with the city.
Being associated with Quiksilver strengthens her camp’s image and helps cover costs, she said. But Yrigoven doesn’t see the company footing much of the bill if she begins operating under her own permit.
“The surf companies do see a value in the beach camps, but it’s not really where the money is going,” she said.
A community concern
Camp owners and parents of camp-goers have emphasized concern for how the new policy will impact the community.
“We just [want] to make sure as a group that we all [have] the same interests in mind, of taking care of the kids and promoting our various ventures and serving the community. That all the good will we put in can’t be taken away with a monetary bid,” said Sinjin Smith.
Sofia Ames, whose child attends Malibu Maco’s surf camp in Zuma, criticized the financial bid process at last month’s board meeting, saying it would create a void in affordability for many families and serve to further reduce county youth programs teaching water safety and ocean knowledge.
The county’s Water Awareness, Training, Education and Recreation (W.A.T.E.R.) Program, administered by the beaches and harbors department, was cancelled in 2011 due to budget constraints.
Established camp owners see these institutions threatened not just by the new bid system but by what they say is an expansion in competition.
“They’re making an even thinner profit margin (for existing camps) by adding camps to every tower. Not only are they going to dilute everything we’ve worked so hard for, but it’s going to force us out of business,” said Jerger, a 38-year recurrent lifeguard.
Jerger and Brown have expressed concern about a backlash from the beach communities if their beaches become overcrowded with camps.
“I grew up here. I do not want to see the beaches overrun with camps,” said Brown.
To the contrary, county officials have said the new guidelines will address the crowd concern. While 12 new locations have been added to the list of camp sites, 10 of last year’s locations have been removed.
The department has also placed limits on the number of camp-goers allowed at a site.
Surf camps will be capped at 50 participants per permit, while volleyball camps and day camps – a designation for camps which operate one day a week – will be capped at 100.
“There was really no maximum number of participants last year. Limits were based on what the lifeguards could handle, although they did try to stay somewhat true to the 50/100 limit that we have now,” said Penelope Rodriguez, who heads the department’s recreation section.
The department’s data for 2010 shows that a quarter of day and volleyball camp permits had between 75 and 125 participants last year, while over 50 percent had fewer than 50.
For surf camps and surf lessons, 50 percent of the permits issued last year had between 25 and 75 participants, and 38 percent had fewer than 25.
If an operator does not meet their location’s occupancy limit, the department may place additional camps there to operate concurrently, Rodriguez said.
There were approximately 13,000 surf and volleyball camp-goers across 11 beaches in 2010.
Exempt no more
Danny Beck of Kanoa Aquatics and Tiffany Zhao catch a wave. Kanoa, a non-profit, has been working with the Los Angeles Braille Institute for over 10 years. Photo by James Whitely
Also at issue is a new provision revoking the fee exemption traditionally enjoyed by non-profit camps that charge participants. Free camps will remain exempt.
Director Kreimann has said the department falsely predicated regulation of these camps on a 1995 state law which in fact never went into effect.
An amendment to the 1995 California bill would have prohibited the county from charging non-profit youth camps. The original bill was designed to prevent discrimination against the Boy Scouts of America for its stance on homosexuality.
But Governor Pete Wilson vetoed the legislation because he saw the amendment as overly broad.
Non-profits that charge fees will now pay the department the same amount as for-profit camps. Camps that provide scholarships for at-risk youth and low-income families will pay a reduced fee, the director said at last month’s meeting.
Tingley’s Beach Sports will be one of the programs affected by this change. The organization has been exempt from department fees during its 16 years of operation.
His camps offer subsidized tuition to families who make under $34,000 a year, and give away 23 scholarships a year for week-long instruction.
Tingley said he considers his business a youth organization in line with the Boy Scouts or the county Junior Lifeguards program, and feels he should be treated the same.
“I don’t mind paying, I just want everybody to have same rule,” he said.
The county Junior Lifeguards program will be exempt from the bid process and will pay a gross revenues fee that is 5 percent less than private operators, department official Rodriguez said.
Brothers Charlie and Danny Beck of Kanoa Aquatics with Alejandra Miranda, Tiffany Zhao Eva Arellano and counselor Jessica Gonzalez from the Los Angeles Braille Institute. Photo by James Whitely
Jerger’s Kanoa surf camp will also be affected by the new changes to non-profit exemption. Like Tingley, his camp has been exempt until now.
He warned at the April commission meeting that the new costs will jeopardize his charitable programs.
Regular participants at his camp pay $350 a week, but Jerger offers free or discounted camp enrollment to families making under $30,000 a year and to charitable organizations, including the P.S. I Love You Foundation, and the L.A. Braille Institute.
Kanoa, which operates in three locations, had 305 paying campers attend the week-long camp this year, as well as 325 inner city youth brought in free of charge for day sessions, Jerger said.
The Beach Commission
The revised policy came before the county board after months of discussion between the county, the 16-member advisory Beach Commission and the public.
Three commission meetings were held in addition to a public workshop.
“We’ve never had public input to the degree we’ve had with the beach permit,” said Manhattan Beach resident Charles Milam, who has been on the commission for over 17 years.
While all involved agree that significant progress was made through the discussions (the initial proposal weighted a camp’s bid and estimated earnings at 40 percent), some commissioners believe the issue was brought before the board prematurely.
“I think from the commission standpoint, we would have liked to have [had] another workshop. A little more time would have smoothed out the road,” said Commissioner Rohrer.
However, he added, “the department came a long way from their initial offering to these folks.”
Commissioner Milam said he does not support the revisions.
“We are an advisory commission, I understand that. But if you really [took] a straw poll, the policy would not have been approved,” he said.
Manhattan Beach Councilman Wayne Powell, who also serves on the commission, felt the new guidelines had been given more than adequate vetting and attention.
“It incentivizes everything that you would want a good beach camp to be doing,” he said.
The 15th round
Outside the Kenneth Hahn Hall of Administration in Los Angeles last month, camp owners who had come to testify before the Board of Supervisors huddled in discussion afterward. The board had just passed the new policy with three votes in favor and two absences.
“We’re kind of resigned to our fate, and we’re just going to follow the process and do what we can and hope that everything works out,” Brown said. “But I think it’s really unfortunate for everyone involved, not just the stakeholders but the community.”
Tom Corliss of Malibu Mako’s likened his situation to being at the end of the 15th round of a boxing match.
“You never want to leave it to the judges,” he said. “That’s how we’re hitting here with the bid. You go in with a bid, who knows how it’s going to come out? I don’t know how they’re going to judge it all,” he said.
Jerger said he’ll continue preparing for next summer, in the hope that his Kanoa tent at 45th Street in Manhattan Beach is still standing when his kids return.
“Right now none of us knows if we have a camp next summer or not,” he said. “None of us knows whether what we are able to bid is enough [or] who is bidding against us for spots we have held for the length of our careers, nor if we have any prayer of keeping those spots. Typically, when the summer ends, I begin planning my next summer. Right now I am racing to save my business, and I won’t know until January if I have one.” ER