NYC mayoral candidate pushes to reduce restaurant fines

It seems fair to say that Christine C. Quinn is hoping for an “A” from the New York City restaurant industry.

On Monday, Ms. Quinn, the City Council speaker and a leading Democratic candidate for mayor, announced legislation that would tweak the letter-grade health rating system for city restaurants, a highly visible innovation of the Bloomberg administration that has received middling reviews from the hospitality industry.

Under Ms. Quinn’s plan, the bright letters would remain in restaurant windows. But owners would pay smaller fines for health and safety violations, receive a “Bill of Rights” pamphlet before any inspections, and be given the chance to undergo an ungraded “practice test,” as Ms. Quinn put it, before any violations are issued.

Hospitality groups in the city have howled over what they describe as inconsistent and confusing inspection criteria and escalating fines, which increased to a total of $52 million in fiscal year 2012 from $33 million when the grading system was introduced in 2010.

At a packed City Council hearing last year, restaurant representatives complained of capricious inspectors who approached inspections like crime raids.

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, who is not seeking re-election, has defended the system, saying that it has reduced the number of cases of salmonella and calling critics “people that complain because they don’t want to keep their restaurants clean.”

Ms. Quinn said the legislation would strike a balance between protecting the health of New Yorkers and providing financial relief to restaurants.

“We want great, thriving restaurants that are clean, safe and healthy,” Ms. Quinn said. “This reform package is going to get us there.”

The mayor’s office said it was reviewing the legislation.

The issue of the mounting fines on the city’s small businesses has come up frequently in the mayoral campaign so far, and the restaurant legislation will allow Ms. Quinn to argue that she has done something about it. In case anyone should miss that point, her office distributed, in addition to the news release about the legislation, a list: “City Council Action Supporting Small Businesses.”