County Again Heavily Fines the Red Onion : Health codes: The restaurant chain agreed to $380,654 in new penalties for health and safety violations.

The Red Onion restaurant chain, which two years ago paid the steepest civil fines ever levied in Orange County for health and safety code violations, agreed Friday to a new record payment of $380,654 for repetition of most of the old violations at its four restaurants in the county.

The violations--at Red Onion restaurants in Santa Ana, Huntington Beach, Fullerton and Orange--included vermin infestation, poor food-storage temperatures and generally unsanitary conditions, according to an injunction filed in Superior Court by the district attorney’s office.

In a stipulated settlement with prosecutors, the restaurant chain agreed, in addition to the fine, to improve sanitary conditions at the four Orange County restaurants, hire a food and safety consultant, spend $50,000 in improving equipment, and put its management and staff through training approved by the Orange County Health Care Agency.

Dist. Atty. Michael R. Capizzi said that if the Red Onion doesn’t improve conditions this time, his office would try to close the restaurants in Orange County.

“It’s time we skinned the onion,” Capizzi said. “This is an aggravated case that was further aggravated by the 1988 violations. We think this fine should ensure protection of the public at these restaurants. But three strikes and they’re going to be out.”

The Red Onion, without an admission of wrongdoing, agreed in 1988 to pay $320,000 in fines and another $55,000 in court costs and attorney’s fees for health and safety violations, plus a violation of the state fire marshal’s code on overcrowding. It also agreed then to address each of the violations cited.

But Deputy Dist. Atty. Jan J. Nolan, head of consumer and environmental fraud, said the new violations showed that the restaurant management had made almost no progress.

“We couldn’t tell that they had done anything at all in the two years since the last injunction,” Nolan said. “The problem is basically just general filthy conditions.”

The Red Onion chain also made no admission of wrongdoing in the new injunction. In a statement, the company said its restaurants already meet high health standards.

“We settled this matter because it is more economically beneficial to the company to run restaurants than to spend time in court,” said Red Onion attorney Stephen W. Solomon. “We continue to serve the finest Mexican food in Orange County, and we maintain the strictest standards for operation and cleanliness of all facilities.”

The Carson-based restaurant chain’s statement noted that some of the violations cited were for “minor mechanical problems and other maintenance items.” It also noted that its managers are already receiving some Orange County-approved training.

But county investigators claimed, among other allegations, that employees handled food for customers while eating their own meals; that floors, walls and pipes were not kept in good repair, and that food waste was improperly handled.

“This is the first time we’ve ever had to come back a second time against a major corporation,” Nolan said. “Usually, they clean up their act after we’ve gone after them once.”

The new investigation, Nolan said, was the result of a complaint last fall by 16 office workers who had eaten at the buffet at the Red Onion in Santa Ana. They complained of illness that may have come from wrong temperatures for food in the buffet line.

“What we found was poor storage temperatures,” Nolan said. “The hot food was set too cool, and the cold food was being kept too warm.”

The new investigation was led by the environmental health division of the county’s Health Care Agency.

The only 1988 violation not repeated was the overcrowding, Nolan said.

In Friday’s stipulated agreement, the Red Onion will pay $375,000 in penalties, plus $5,654 for expenses for the county’s environmental health division.

State law allows for fines up to $6,000 for each code violation. Nolan said her staff’s paper work showed that the Red Onion violations would amount to more than $20 million if a $6,000 fine was levied on each violation.

“We obviously couldn’t do that,” Nolan said. “We didn’t want to put them out of business; we just wanted to hurt them enough so they’d do something about conditions at their restaurants.”

Nolan said Red Onion officials can be certain that county investigators will inspect the restaurants again.

The four restaurants in Orange County also include nightclubs and private banquet facilities for meetings.

The company received its first bad publicity in 1986 after numerous complaints about discrimination against blacks and some Latinos at its nightclubs, primarily the restaurant in Santa Ana.

The Red Onion, though again admitting no wrongdoing, paid nearly $400,000 in an out-of-court settlement with 16 people, then paid another $50,000 in a separate incident involving claims of discrimination by two former college football players who alleged that they were initially denied entry at the Santa Ana restaurant because they are black.

Red Onion officials denied the company had a racial discrimination policy but admitted that some individual doormen may have used poor judgment.