Restaurants to review health rules

Sept. 21--CHARLESTON, W.Va.-- A string of critical citations issued to Charleston restaurants has prompted city leaders to organize a sit-down discussion between health department officials and eatery owners.

Mayor Danny Jones believes health department sanitarians have not been consistent in how they cite violations of the health code. He believes the inconsistency is causing a hardship for restaurant owners.

"We want the health department to hold a workshop so they can tell the restaurant owners what the new rules are and what to expect," he said. "We need a resolution to this."

Health Department Director of Environmental Services Anita Ray liked the idea of an informational workshop. Ray oversees restaurant inspections for the department.

"We're in full support of that and we're glad they want to do it," Ray said.

"We're trying to address any inconsistencies and reduce interpreter variability," Gupta said.

But Gupta stands behind the sanitarian that issued many of the recent critical citations. He said he would challenge any questions about the validity of her findings.

Alicia Page started working for the Health Department last January, Ray said. Since then she has issued numerous critical citations to restaurants like Outback Steakhouse, Vandalia Grill, Blossom Deli, Tidewater Grill, Sam's Uptown Cafe, Rio Grande, Chili's, Sitar of India and Chick-fil-A.

In each case, Page tried to work with the restaurants, Ray said. In some cases, Page returned to the restaurants multiple times to see if the violations had been corrected.

Jones was skeptical, saying that many of the restaurants did not have problems with citations before Page came on board. However, Gupta claimed the restaurants had previous problems with health code violations.

"Contrary to the word out there, these restaurants have not had a clean slate," he said.

Councilman Bobby Reishman is one of the city's appointees to the health board. Reishman said he was unsure if health department sanitarians have been consistent.

"But I think we all need to get together and talk so everyone is on the same page," Reishman said.

The city will pay $1,000 for the workshop, Jones said. That money will help cover the costs of printed materials and lunch.

"It'll just cover the cost of putting this workshop on," Ray said.

The date and time for the workshop will be set at a later date, Jones said.

Ray said the workshops could be helpful in educating restaurant owners about what constitutes a critical violation. But she said practices employed by inspectors haven't changed.

Sanitarians use the Food and Drug Administration U.S. Public Health Service Food Code, Ray said.

Health Department Director Dr. Rahul Gupta said sanitarians try to stay consistent and treat everyone fairly.

But sanitarians are only human, he said, and each inspector sees situations differently.

He compared a sanitarian inspecting a restaurant to doctors making a diagnosis. He said that two different doctors might manage a health issue two different ways.

Gupta said that all restaurants are held to the same standards, but that those standards are subject to a sanitarian's "interpretations."