Fewer health checks at eateries
When tattoo-parlor operators learned earlier this year
that El Paso County budget problems would mean no
more county health inspections of their businesses, they jumped at a chance to
pay their own way. Losing oversight from a government agency meant
losing customers, they feared.
Now, through higher fees, inspections of body-art
businesses continue.
The El Paso County Board of Health hailed the plan as a
creative way to cope with trying financial times.
But, because of a state law, no such option exists for
the biggest drain on El Paso County Department of Health and Environment
inspectors - restaurants and other food merchants - at a time when the need is
critical.
The reason: an unusual state law that acts as a
roadblock to raising the fees restaurants pay to be inspected.
The Health Department, which has undergone several years
of budget cuts, is performing fewer than half its state-required inspections,
even as cases of food-borne illnesses and complaints against food merchants
spike. The reason, in part, is because fees cover less than half
the costs to perform the inspections, and additional funding has run out.
For inspections of body art businesses, septic systems,
child care centers and swimming pools, local health departments are allowed by law
to control fees based on the direct costs of performing those duties.
For restaurants, however, state law spells out a specific set of fees, regardless of what a department pays to perform the
service, said Martin Thrasher, attorney for the El Paso County Health
Department. That means the health department can't touch the fee structure.
"It's very, very specific in terms of what can be
charged in what circumstance and what that fee is," interim public health
administrator Kandi Buckland said.
If a restaurant has a seating capacity from 0 to 100,
for example, state law sets the fee at $154. In El Paso County,
that covers less than half the cost of performing the inspection, Buckland
said.
Not performing inspections is not an option: It is
illegal to quit performing food-service inspections. El Paso County
is not meeting its mandate, but it has not been penalized.
Health officials have tried - and failed - to change the
law for at least two years. Unlike body art businesses, however, many Colorado restaurants
have been in no mood to raise their fees, and the Colorado Restaurant
Association has opposed attempts to change the law, Buckland and Thrasher said.
A message left for the restaurant association was not
returned.
Since 2001, county funding to the Health Department has
dropped from $5.1 million to $3.3 million - a 35 percent decrease - as county
commissioners look for ways to cut costs and pay for other priorities. That
includes $507,000 cut from the budget year.
Officials say they are hoping for a sales-tax measure on
November's ballot to relieve their money problems, but they're braced to fall
further behind if it fails.
As of Wednesday, the county's inspectors had performed
1,456 inspections in 1,051 food-related businesses, reflecting multiple visits for
some establishments when violations are found.
About 2,500 food-related businesses are required to be
to be inspected twice a year. In the same time frame, there were 114 illness
complaints related to retail food establishments. From January to August, there
were 219 complaints of possible violations in restaurants and other businesses.
Buckland worries that lax inspections will mean more
illnesses.
"My biggest fear is we're going to have a very large
foodborne illness that, A, could have been prevented or, B, been contained much
quicker than it was."
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Contact the writer: 636-0198 or
brian.newsome@gazette.com
