Texas Summer Camps in Limbo Due to Camp Mystic Failures

By Benjamin Wermund, Staff Writer, Houston Chronicle

  Hundreds of Texas summer camps are facing the same uncertainty. The state was still weighing licenses for 245 camps — roughly 75% of those that have applied — as of Friday, according to the latest available data from the Department of State Health Services, which oversees camp licensing. 

  The situation has left state leaders scrambling to ensure the new camp safety laws passed swiftly last summer do not inadvertently shutter hundreds of camps. 

  The agency last week essentially waived a requirement written into the laws that camps install fiber-optic cables, like the ones Camp Cullen did, to ensure internet access in emergencies, saying it would not deny licenses to camps that have another form of backup internet. That came after Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick and House Speaker Dustin Burrows issued a statement saying other means of ensuring backup internet “would satisfy the purpose and spirit of the law.”

  And now the health agency has started telling camps with pending licenses that they can operate as long as they applied before their current license expired. Even those that have their licenses denied or suspended by the state can stay open if they appeal the decision under a lengthy appeals process.  

  “While that is going on, the camp can continue to operate under the license that they had when they submitted their renewal application,” said Lara Anton, a spokeswoman for the state health agency. “The hearings process will likely take several months to complete.”

  The rocky rollout of the new safety requirements underscores what critics say are clear flaws in the new laws. And the authors of the laws have indicated the Legislature will need to act to fix them when lawmakers return to Austin next year.

  The lengthy appeals process would appear to allow virtually any camp to operate this summer, even if they do not meet the new rules, which were designed to prevent another crisis like Camp Mystic, where camp operators and staff have acknowledged they missed official flood warnings, lacked a detailed evacuation plan and waited too long to try to get the children out. Camp Mystic initially applied for a new license to reopen this summer but withdrew its application last month.

  State Rep. Drew Darby, a San Angelo Republican who authored one of the laws, told health agency officials last month that he disagreed with their interpretation of his bill. He said the law directs the agency to revoke licenses in specific cases, such as if a camp does not have an evacuation plan. Those camps should not be able to draw out a decision with an appeal, he said.

  “The legislature acted with specific intent to establish non-negotiable safety standards, eliminate agency discretion and ensure no procedural mechanism could be used to keep a dangerous camp operating,” Darby said during a hearing. “These bills exist because children died.”

  State Rep. Wes Virdell, a Republican whose district includes Kerrville and many of the camps ravaged by last year’s floods, said in an interview that state leaders and the health agency appear to be “trying to find ways to circumvent the law to fix the mistakes that the Legislature made.”

  Virdell opposed the laws, which he said were well-intentioned but would create major operational and financial hurdles for camps. Virdell said he has heard from many of them that are in the same situation now as Camp Cullen. He has called for Gov. Greg Abbott to bring lawmakers back for a special session this year but acknowledged that is unlikely to happen. 

  “I’m frustrated that we could have fixed it before,” he said. “I think the people of Texas deserve better than what we gave them.”