By Melanie Payne, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News
Oct. 31--Sacramento County is closing restaurants until they clean up and putting pressure on repeat health code violators as officials move to strengthen the restaurant inspection program after years of chronic understaffing and lax enforcement.
County health inspectors temporarily closed two restaurants with numerous violations and forced some restaurateurs to attend meetings where they discussed how they will bring their eateries into compliance. For the first time in years, the county is also on track to inspect each restaurant at least once during a 12-month period.
Richard Sanchez, chief of the Environmental Health Division, is also floating other ideas -- many in use elsewhere, others untried -- to toughen up health and safety regulations.
Among them: posting grades on restaurant windows, compelling violators to attend classes and levying fines or other penalties.
Sanchez said he planned many of the proposed enhancements when he came to office in January. But an Aug. 10 story in The Bee drawing attention to the paucity of routine restaurant inspections 'probably sped things up,' he said.
Some restaurant industry veterans, however, expressed fears that the county's newfound zeal could burden the industry with fees and regulations that hinder business.
Although California's 70,000 eating and drinking establishments will post record revenues this year, net profits are down, said John Dunlap, president and chief executive of the California Restaurant Association.
'A lot of that has to do with actions taken by government,' Dunlap said, expressing concern that additional fee-funded programs could add more of a financial burden to the industry. In Sacramento County, the restaurant inspection program costs about $1.5 million a year and is paid for by restaurant permit fees. There are about 2,690 restaurants in Sacramento County.
Consumer activists, however, want county health officials to focus on public health, not bottom-line results at restaurants.
'The (restaurant) associations are doing a disservice to their good clients by fighting measures that will let good restaurants survive and the bad restaurants to clean up their act or get out,' said Nancy Donley, the president of Safe Tables Our Priority or STOP, a national organization of food safety proponents.
Despite industry concerns, the county appears to be putting changes on a fast track. As reported in August, it was not unusual for a restaurant to wait 30 months between inspections. The environmental health department is now on track to make its goal of inspecting every restaurant in the county at least once a year.
The department is also identifying 'high risk' establishments that warrant more than one inspection a year, tracking restaurants that are closed because of violations and suspending licenses to operate restaurants.
On Aug. 28, for example, an inspector closed the China House restaurant on Arden Way after it was cited numerous times this year for health and safety violations.
The inspector found rodent droppings in storage rooms, a refrigerator and in a bucket of rice. Chicken was defrosting in a sink, and foods were kept at 57 degrees, far above the recommended 41 degrees for cold foods and in what food safety experts call the 'danger zone' for growing bacteria.
The restaurant was allowed to reopen the next day after cleaning up and hiring a pest control service. The restaurant owner could not be reached for comment.
The department closed another restaurant, El Herradero on Fruitridge Road, two weeks later because of a roach infestation that had contaminated food and equipment.
Ana Machuca, who helps run El Herradero, said that the place was dirty and roach-infested when her mother-in-law purchased it a year ago and that they had been trying to clean it up.
After the inspector closed them down on Sept. 13, they hired a new pest control service and were allowed to reopen.
'We did what we had to do and reopened the next day,' Machuca said.
The restaurant was charged $138 for a reinspection, still had some roaches but 'looked clean,' the inspector wrote in her report.
Sanchez discussed other ways that his department can get tough with restaurateurs. In order to provide the public with greater access to the inspections, Sanchez is considering posting grades or inspection reports in restaurant windows.
He proposed a 'food school' that he likened to 'traffic school' with mandatory classes for operators or employees who earn violations.
'People are more likely to comply if they understand the logic behind a regulation,' Sanchez said. 'If people understand why they have to wash their hands after they go to the bathroom, they are more likely to do it.'
For those who can't be reasoned into compliance, the department is taking other steps, Sanchez said. 'Basically, we're looking at escalating enforcement,' Sanchez said, by leveling fines -- currently not an option -- or even referring the violators to the district attorney.
Dunlap, of the California Restaurant Association, said he does not support giving grades or posting inspection results, saying either would be 'a snapshot in time' and may not reflect the overall health and safety of a facility.
Restaurateurs could lose business from a poor grade, Dunlap said, even though it merely reflects one bad day or a number of minor problems.
But consumer activists contend that one of the best ways for a restaurant inspector to force compliance is for restaurant owners to 'feel it in the pocketbook,' said STOP's Donley.
Clean restaurants don't have to worry about paying fines or losing business with a low grade on their window placard, she said.
'We definitely support placards and a grading system,' Donley said. 'It's easy for consumers to see at a glance. And it's an incentive for restaurant owners to be on their toes.'
Donley also supports the health department's emphasis on educating operators but insisted that 'the safety training should come before you open the doors.'
Currently, California requires that one restaurant employee pass a food certification examination. But Donley advocates food handling and safety training for everyone who works in the restaurant, 'down to the busboy.'
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(c) 2002, The Sacramento Bee, Calif. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.
