It’s a Wild Ride for State’s Theme Park Safety Rules

Today’s Labor Day topic: mass leisure.

Last week, during the end of the legislative session, a couple of theme park lobbyists quietly began making the rounds at the state Capitol. You remember theme park lobbyists. They’re the folks who, for more than 30 years, insisted that California could do without pesky state inspectors running around worrying about hazards on Tilt-A-Whirls and roller coasters and so forth. “Trust us,” they murmured for decades. “Hakuna matata.” And Californians listened, until two years ago, when somebody got killed at Disneyland.

The ensuing uproar spawned a landmark theme park safety act that was supposed to be up and running by now. But continued wheedling has slowed it and last week, as state bureaucrats struggled to translate the new law into detailed regulations, the lobbyists returned to Sacramento for more maneuvering.

The issue was less important than the way it was brought up, but for the record, the theme parks said they urgently needed an answer to a “minor, technical” question about the new law: Did the public intend to cite parks for all safety infractions, or just the ones that maimed and killed people? More on this later. The interesting thing here was the timing. Though theme park safety was debated for months before the law passed, and though the law has been on the books for nearly a year, the parks waited until the busiest, most confusing day of the year in Sacramento to complain about this purported gray area.

Understand, the end of a session is filled with minor technical questions. But it is also filled with confusion because it is a time when state lawmakers traditionally rush to consider hundreds and hundreds of bills. The pandemonium is the perfect cover for slipping controversial deals under the radar, and every year, some special favor or other slides onto the governor’s desk in the final days of a session. Wilmington’s Assemblyman Dick Floyd, for instance, used the end of this session to mess with the state’s 100-year-old ban on blackjack for his good buds in the card club industry.

The theme parks maintained their search for a special bill was innocent and well-meaning; consumer advocates, however, freaked. Finally, after much phone tag and many press inquiries, legislative leaders told the lobbyists (from Universal Studios and Disney, in this case) that they’d have to get their clarification next session.

“This should be dealt with,” acknowledged Assemblyman Tom Torlakson, who co-authored the theme park safety law, “but later, in the light of day.”

*

This story--which ended before it reached headline-making proportions--can serve as a holiday reminder: In politics as in mass leisure, it ain’t over till the pig stutters, “Th-th-that’s all, folks.” Law or no law, the battle for control of California’s theme park industry hasn’t abated. All that has changed is the battleground.

Efforts to make the law more palatable to theme parks didn’t cease with its passage. Earlier this year, for example, there was an aborted effort to cut the budget of the state agency that will enforce the law, if it ever gets off the ground. The fight over which accidents should be reported to the public has raged for months among the consumer and theme park representatives who’ve acted as informal consultants during the drafting of proposed regulations. So has this matter of citations for safety problems in the absence of death or serious injury.

It’s not that the parks want to be unsafe--safety is a huge concern at large parks such as Disneyland and Knott’s Berry Farm and Universal. It’s just that they don’t want to cede control. “Don’t let state bureaucrats nickel and dime us to death,” they say. “Don’t let consumer advocates paint us as bad guys.” In other words, hakuna matata. Trust us.

Problem is, there are more than 70 fixed theme parks--large and small, profitable and less so--in California. Some spend millions on safety. Some don’t. Some worry obsessively about hazards on Tilt-A-Whirls and roller coasters and so forth. Some won’t lift a finger until their rides fall apart.

Later this month, the state will issue proposed regulations for the governance of theme parks. Information is available on the consumer Web site, www.saferparks.org, and will be on the Web site of the state’s Department of Industrial Relations, www.dir.ca.gov, under the heading “Occupational Safety and Health.” Don’t let “hakuna matata” be the California state motto. Theme park consumers beware.

*

Shawn Hubler’s column appears Mondays and Thursdays. Her e-mail address is shawn.hubler@latimes.com.