An audit report released today by New York City Comptroller William C. Thompson, Jr. finds that understaffing and inadequate enforcement measures at the Department of Health (DOH) have contributed to safety and health violations by many summer day camps operating in the City. According to the report, 280 out of 727 day camps opened without a valid permit during the summer 2001 season, which is a violation of State and City regulations. Moreover, 85 percent of camps that did not address their critical violations during the summer 2000 season reopened for business in the summer of 2001.

"Allowing our City's children to attend summer day camps which do not provide a safe and healthy environment is unacceptable," said Comptroller Thompson. "These camps should be a haven for the 140,000 children who attend them each summer, many of whom have no other place to go. DOH must commit to ensuring that the permit process is enforced and that those camps with repeated violations are sanctioned or closed if necessary."

The audit reviewed the administrative and enforcement policies of the DOH Bureau of Regulatory and Environmental Health Services' Office of Field Operations and Inspections Unit (Field Operations Unit), which is responsible for approving permits and inspecting summer day camps in the City. Auditors also visited 58 randomly selected private and municipal camps to ensure the camps had valid permits and that they were in compliance with State and City regulations.

The New York State Sanitary Code and the New York City Health Code require that all summer day camps obtain a permit before opening. At present, camp operators are only required to submit their applications 30 days in advance. The Comptroller's Office found that it took DOH staff an average of 42 days to process camp permits. DOH officials also noted that the Field Operations Unit is understaffed which leads to permit processing delays and camps opening illegally.

Although the overall physical condition of most of the 58-day camps visited appeared to be satisfactory, many of the camps inspected by the Comptroller's auditors did not have a valid permit when they were visited by the auditors during the early part of the summer 2001 season. The auditors also found hazardous conditions that were related to fire safety, including obstructed or locked fire exits. The New York City Housing Authority's Butler Houses Day Camp in the Bronx and the Brownsville Parks and Recreation Summer Camp in Brooklyn were found to have the highest number of critical violations, including facility maintenance, outdoor/water activity safety and medical safety. However these conditions were corrected shortly after they were brought to DOH's attention by the Comptroller's office.

In addition, the audit finds that 184 (24 percent) of the 753 summer day camps that received operating permits in the summer of 2000 were cited by DOH for one to as many as 11 critical violations each, some of which were also public health hazards. Violations included failure to provide adequate staff-to-camper ratios, food protection, and lack of safety plans. Although DOH inspectors conducted follow-up inspections of many of the cited day camps, upon re-inspection, 46 percent still had uncorrected violations at the time of their final re-inspection. State and City regulations require that all critical violations that also are public health hazards be corrected immediately.

The audit made 13 recommendations to DOH which include:

• Reassigning staff members temporarily from other units within the agency to the Field Operations Unit to address the staff shortage and increased workload;
  
• Ensuring that day camps do not open and operate without approved permits;
  
• Proposing a change in the NYC Health code or instituting procedures to require camp operators to submit all required documentation at least 60 days prior to the camp opening; and
  
• Tracking each day camp's history of violations from year to year and place those camps with repeated violations under greater scrutiny.

DOH generally agreed with 10 of the 13 recommendations made by the Comptroller's Office, stating "we cannot disagree that some day camps operate in absence of all required documentation. We are also exploring administrative changes that would allow us to complete the permitting process on a timelier basis…We believe that our program is much more effective that your report suggests. We do, however, agree with many of your recommendations."

Download the complete audit   (Size: 3888KB)

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