Pasadena OK's Day Camps Despite Inadequate Health Guidance

The Pasadena Public Health Department has issued a document titled Public Health Reopening Protocol for Day Camps which fails to require camp closures if COVID-19 cases arise.

The 9-page guidance document requires camps to complete a checklist and educate staff. But nowhere does it mention how the city will enforce or oversee such measures.

Day camps are dense and proximate business models where children are highly accustomed to socially and physically engaging one another at all times. It remains to be seen how such a business model can be transformed into one in which children as young as three remain socially distanced and constantly subject to hygiene measures.

“This is recipe for disaster,” said Meow Meow Foundation President Doug Forbes. Forbes and his wife Elena Matyas launched the foundation—focused on water safety and camp safety—after the preventable drowning death of their 6-year-old daughter Roxie at Summerkids in Altadena last June.

“Our mission is not anti-camp, but it is pro-kid. Guidance documents from the city and from Los Angeles County and the the California Department of Public Health are feeble attempts at holistic health measures.”

Forbes said he understands the plight of parents and guardians who need to return to their own routines. But since he and his wife discovered that California day camps are not licensed, not regulated and not inspected, traditional child care facilities—which are regulated and licensed by the state—seem to be safer alternatives. For older children, he admits that parents and guardians need to get creative.

“In February, one month before COVID-19 all but closed down California, we met with health department director Dr. Ying Goh and two senior officials,” said Matyas. “They told us they unilaterally decided not to inspect or oversee day camps five years ago. We told them that was a very dangerous decision. Look where we are only months later. The virus is still choking this county, yet camps are ready to embrace thousands of kids.”

Forbes and Matyas spoke with Pasadena City Manager Steve Mermell who recommended that the foundation submit its own recommendations. Mermell said that he and Goh will review those recommendations—available here—as they continue to fine tune their requirements.

In addition to imploring the city to close any camp with a COVID-19 outbreak, the foundation’s document requests that the city intermittently inspects camps to ensure that proper health and safety procedures are, in fact, being followed. However, the city’s Environmental Health Division Manager Rachel Janbek admitted to Forbes and Matyas that she has not had day camps inspected in more than five years.

Approximately two dozen camps operate in Pasadena, including eight run by the city’s own parks and facilities department. This number excludes camps operated by private and religious institutions including Sequoyah Summerhouse, Chandler Summer, PolySummer, et al.

According to a recently released document, Pasadena’s parks and facilities department has dramatically reduced attendance for city-operated camps. Expected revenues will decline from $200,000 during the previous year to an anticipated $18,000 this year.

Summer camps are hardly inexpensive child care propositions. Tom Sawyer Camps operates on city-owned property. According to a city parks official, the camp pays $30,000 to lease the Hahamongna Watershed park each summer. However, it charges as much as $5,350 per child. The camp has accommodated well over 1,000 campers per season. Camp Kids Klub charges as much as $4,950 for one of its summer camp programs.

By contrast, the city charges anywhere from $125-$800 for its own camp programming.