L.A. County Exempted From Theme Park Checks

In a surprise move, a state Senate committee Wednesday exempted Los Angeles County amusement parks from state inspections of their rides, a key provision in a bill that would for the first time regulate the industry.

Acting at the request of Universal Studios, the Senate Industrial Relations Committee decided that the county should be exempted because it has a local inspection program--the only one in the state.

The county inspects Universal Studios semiannually and Magic Mountain quarterly. Universal Vice President J. David Thomas told the committee the local program “is more rigorous than an annual inspection in [the] bill.”

Other counties also could be exempt under the amendment if they initiate their own inspection programs.

The move came as a surprise to the bill’s author, Assemblyman Tom Torlakson (D-Antioch), and other supporters.

“It was an absolute sandbag drubbing by the [theme park] industry, aided by the committee,” said consumer lobbyist Kathy Dresslar.

The Torlakson bill sets safety standards and requires parks to inspect themselves and report serious accidents to the state. The bill has been in an almost constant state of flux as Torlakson continues to work with the theme park industry, which objects to parts of the bill.

The committee’s action is the first of several tests to come in the Senate after the Assembly approved the measure.

Neither Torlakson nor other supporters of his bill had seen the amendment before Sen. Ray Haynes (R-Riverside) offered it Wednesday. The committee approved the amendment without discussion.

“Hopefully, this will expedite this process here and remove opposition,” committee Chairwoman Sen. Hilda Solis (D-La Puente) said after the vote.

The four committee members who voted for the amendment are from Los Angeles County. Although he brought up the amendment, Haynes did not vote on it or the bill, which he opposes.

“It would be a waste of either state or county time to have two inspections,” Sen. Richard Alarcon (D-Sylmar) said in an interview. “It serves no useful purpose.”

The committee vote on the amendment was taken so quickly, members said afterward, that they didn’t realize they had exempted Los Angeles County from all of the bill’s provisions, not just the state inspections.

After objections from Torlakson and Dresslar, the committee agreed to yet another amendment to make Los Angeles County comply with the rest of the bill. Moreover, the committee decided that county inspectors must meet or exceed the standards outlined in the measure.

After the hearing, Torlakson told reporters he knew Universal Studios wanted the change, but he did not expect an amendment to be offered Wednesday, much less approved, without his being consulted.

“If he didn’t expect it, he was intentionally being blind,” Haynes said. “The only reason he got that jammed down his throat is because he didn’t sit down and negotiate with [Universal].”

Haynes said Universal approached him Tuesday and asked that he offer the amendment. Other members of the committee also were lobbied.

“Apparently, [Universal] worked the amendment good enough that everyone on the committee was willing to go along with it,” Haynes said.

The effort to bring state regulation to theme parks was prompted by an accident in December at Disneyland that killed a tourist and seriously injured his wife and a park worker.

The amusement park industry in California has for 25 years rebuffed legislative efforts to impose state regulation.