Lobbyist Influence Over Legislators Causes Meow Meow Foundation to Pull Bill
After more than a year of relentless efforts to deliver critical protections for millions of children who attend thousands of California camps, Meow Meow Foundation has officially withdrawn its legislation known as SB 217 (formerly SB 955), the Roxie Rules Act.
MMF Principals Doug Forbes and Elena Matyas said that camp, health and county lobbyists influenced legislators to abandon the bill and establish a valueless exploratory commission for evaluating issues that are already known.
The couple said it has no other adequate option but to draft a demand letter aimed straight at the California Department of Public Health, the government entity currently charged with camp safety enforcement. The demand letter will require CDPH to immediately engage in an active and meaningful dialog about how key components of SB 217 can be implemented in the code without affecting the current statute.
Amending this code can be a viable workaround. However, should CDPH not agree to engage in the dialog, the couple said it will work with a legal team to pursue an even more aggressive way forward.
California Assembly Chief Health Committee Consultant Rosielyn Pulmano said she opposed SB 217 because their was no way forward as the bill stood. Forbes and Matyas proposed a series of significant concessions. Pulmano denied all of them and did not recommend passage to the committee.
Instead, Forbes and Matyas said that Pulmano required that the bill morph into a Camp Safety Task Force stocked with the same gatekeepers who have failed to adequately protect millions of children for decades.
“We knew this was never going to be an easy or swift ride,” Forbes said. “But we cannot, in good conscience, allow people who are not interested in doing the work they should have been doing all along to maintain the status quo—which is to jeopardize children. In fact, such inertia has resulted in decades’ worth of lifelong and lethal harm.”
California refuses to license camps and enforce oversight. Background checks are not required. Health supervision is not required. Emergency action plans are not required. Certifications for high-risk activities are not required. Training is not required.
Year over year, health department officials, county lobbyists, the camp community and legislators influenced by these entities continue to kill bills that attempt to mandate these and other critical health and safety protections.
“Many children have been molested, abused, seriously injured and now infected by COVID-19 at camps across the country,” said Matyas. Our daughter was killed at a popular Los Angeles facility that was an American Camp Association member, which is clearly a failed oversight body. When is enough enough?”
Forbes and Matyas said they fully understand that bills rarely pass without amendments and ordinarily take a legislative cycle or two or even three before they land on the governor’s desk, if at all. While they said that amendments are absolutely fine, what was not acceptable is to have committee consultants, whose salaries are paid by citizens, demand forfeiture of what is right for what is simply convenient.
They said they cannot stand by while more years pass and kids continue to suffer unnecessarily. “California needs to be better than this—much better,” Forbes said.
Senator Anthony Portantino (CA-District 25) served as the bill’s author. An “author” is the party who ushers the bill into the legislative funnel. Forbes and Matyas actually crafted the vast majority of the proposed legislation. Portantino suggested that Forbes and Matyas strongly consider accepting the concession that Pulmano offered.
After Forbes and Matyas withdrew their own bill, they contacted Portantino to explain why support of Pulmano’s gesture was not acceptable. Portantino said to the couple, “Our only focus was to endeavor to craft a bill that furthered your vision. I am sorry I was unable to do that. Given the overriding COVID implications I thought the task force suggestion with your participation as a member had merit and was a good step forward.”
According to Pulmano’s proposal, Forbes and Matyas were not guaranteed any inclusion on the task force. The task force also did not guarantee any legislative enforcement.