"Fine" dining outrage

Restaurants are under siege for violations that aren’t even food-related, new data from the Health Department show.

Most fines issued over the past two fiscal years — 65.7 percent so far this year and 66.7 percent last year — are for breaches unrelated to food quality, according to stats obtained by The Post.

For instance, 11.5 percent of the 273,999 fines issued in fiscal year 2012 and 12.1 percent of the 198,779 given out so far this fiscal year were written for walls, ceilings and equipment being poorly maintained.

Another 11.5 percent so far this year and 11.2 percent last year were issued to restaurants being inadequately vermin-proof.

Fines for sanitary conditions, which include mice sightings and dirty and greasy food-contact surfaces, totaled about 14 percent both this year and last year.

The largest number of fines — 29.8 percent of this year’s total and 31.9 percent last year — are categorized as “all others,” which two leading restaurant advocates say are almost entirely unrelated to food.

“Many of them are non-food related — dimly lit light bulbs, not having the proper documentation to show that a product has no trans fats in it,” said Andrew Rigie, executive director of the New York City Hospitality Alliance, which represents nearly 1,000 restaurants and bars. “I don’t think many people would consider that directly related to food.”

Other common fines unrelated to food quality include bathrooms running out of paper products, cracked tiles, dirty aprons — even scratched cutting boards, Rigie said.

“You’ll see a violation because a cutting board has a few scratches in it versus a deep gouge where bacteria would grow. If you use a cutting board, it’s going to get scratches in it!”

Robert Bookman, lawyer for the alliance, contends the Health Department issues these summonses to generate money for the city’s coffers. The amounts of fines vary widely.

“It’s just revenue generation. There aren’t enough serious violations,” Bookman said.

He and Rigie are pushing the City Council to pass legislation addressing restaurant fines. In addition, city agencies, including Health, are currently studying which violations could be downgraded to verbal warnings.

“Not all fines are created equal. We’d like to see fines reduced on small-business owners for non-imminent health violations,” Rigie said. “The culture of fining small businesses needs to change. The focus should be on food safety and education versus a punitive basis.”

Some food violations include mice in the food area, which constituted 7.2 percent of fines this year and 6.9 percent last year, as well as food contact surface areas being dirty or greasy – 6.6 percent of all summonses this year and 5.9 percent last year, according to the data.

The Health Department insists that every type of violation issued to eateries is meant to protect restaurant customers. An official said its grading program has led to cleaner kitchens - with more than 80% now earning A grades, restaurant closures down 12% from last year and fines down 20% - as well as a drop in salmonella rates.