Loophole Hampers Restaurant Crackdown

Los Angeles County officials said Tuesday that their unprecedented crackdown on restaurants violating the health code has produced dramatic results, but could do more if it were not for a legal loophole that allows establishments to refuse to post their inspection “grade.”

The grading system is a cornerstone of the Health Services Department’s new get-tough policy on the county’s 20,000 restaurants and 10,000 markets and grocery stores.

Until several months ago, many of them had gone more than a year without being inspected, while others were allowed to stay open despite repeated citations.

For the first time, the health department has begun issuing letter grades that its officials say the restaurants must post in their front windows. Under the system, A is the best and C is the worst mark for cleanliness and food safety.

But, health officials conceded Tuesday, some of those restaurants not given good grades simply are refusing to post their scores, and the county appears to be powerless to do anything about it.

“Basically, they’re telling us to go stuff it,” Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said at the Board of Supervisors weekly meeting. “Odds are [they’re] ashamed of what they’d be putting up there.”

Yaroslavsky cited a report by the health department, which concluded that the county cannot force restaurants located in the 88 independent cities--including Los Angeles--to post the grades unless those cities also pass an ordinance making the county’s inspection reports binding.

County Counsel De Witt W. Clinton agreed, telling the board that because the independent cities essentially contract out their health inspections to the county, it can cite restaurants and even close them. But, he said, “we don’t have the power” to force them to post the grades.

“So, we’re emasculated,” Supervisor Mike Antonovich said.

In response, the supervisors voted unanimously to direct county lawyers, health officials and others to redouble their efforts to prompt the cities to pass such ordinances.

Health Director Mark Finucane said he already has assigned a staff person to spend all his time nudging the cities into doing so.

On Tuesday, Los Angeles City Councilman Hal Bernson introduced a motion urging the City Council to adopt such an ordinance as quickly as possible, and to work closely with the county’s lawyers to make sure it is compatible with the inspection results. “This is a worthy program,” Bernson said, “and [it] deserves our immediate attention.”

Meanwhile, Finucane said that 20 more food safety inspectors have been trained and put in the field as of this week, and that he will seek approval to hire 44 more with money he has found within his own budget.

Those inspectors, who may also be getting hand-held computers to reduce time spent on paperwork, would allow the department to inspect all restaurants as often as three times a year, Finucane said.

A new consumer hotline is bringing in hundreds of complaints, and the department closed 326 restaurants for violations between Nov. 16 and Dec. 31--more than six times the number of establishments it shuttered in the same time period the year before, health officials said Tuesday.

And inspectors are spending more time on each visit, and are finding more violations--6.1 per initial inspection compared with four in 1996.

The department also is making an effort to better inform the community of restaurant grades and closures, and is posting them on the Internet at www.dhs.co.la.ca.us.

The list is updated monthly.