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HomeMy WebLinkAboutMinutes Food Service Advisory Committee - 11/04/2003 Minutes FOOD SERVICE ADVISORY COMMITTEE November 4,2003 Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District Administration Conference Room Members Present: John Denson, Gabriel Hernandez, William Schroeder, Suzanne Gilliam,D. W. Haven, and Robert Ard Members Absent: James D. Robbins Staff Present: Larry Jones,Annette Rodriguez, and Dr. Michael Silvers Guest Present: - Pat O'Boyle,Representative of Jason's Deli Meeting was called to order at 2:00 p.m. Mr. Schroeder welcomed all members and guest,Pat O'Boyle with Jason's Deli. Minutes of the September 2°d meeting were approved as written. Board Business Item B,Board Business, of the agenda was temporarily reassigned. Mr. Jones then presented the manager's report.. . Manager's Report Mr. Jones informed the committee that the division had seen a$9000 increase from last year in program income as a result of the re-inspections. It was also noted that the food service complaints were down thus far. Board Business Discussion on Ordinance 19-55: Extension of Food Manager Permit Term Mr. Jones informed the committee that the current term for manager permits was three years. The Health and Safety Code,however,utilized a five year manager permit term. Mr. Jones would like the current system to coincide and comply with that of TDH. Mr. Haven made a motion to approve the change to comply with TDH. A second to the motion was made. A vote was taken; all were in favor;motion carried: Verbiage clarification of the motion made by Mr. Haven: Motion is to change the expiration date of a manager permit to five years to coordinate with the State. SCANNED 1 - � • Ms. Gilliam inquired as to when the motion would become effective and how the change would be communicated to the community. Mr. Jones clarified that it would not go into.effect until the motion was.presented before City Council and the legal department. In response to Ms. Gilliam's second question,Mr. Jones commented that the change would be communicated through flyers,the division's call in line, and by informing local instructors of the change. Presentation of New Technology for the Environmental Health Division The goal of the new technology is to eliminate paper and become more efficient. The electronic method of record keeping will be captured digitally enabling the user to generate reports and statistics instantaneously: All systems would be connected to the health network database and to the web server to add and update records. The field agents would be equipped with a laptop, cell phone, and a portable printer in order to utilize the new technology. They would be able to enter their field inspection through a web page using the above mentioned equipment. The inspections would be conducted primarily using the new method;however,the paper method would be used as backup. Dr. Silvers clarified that the field inspector would have access to a portable printer in order to provide the restaurant a printed copy of its score as well as update the database. Mr. Schroeder asked how long the information took to be inputted into the database currently. The information was inputted manually. The scores would be available on the internet as a read only file. This new method will free up some of the,inspector's time as well track their progress. It will also enable the inspectors to track recurrent history issues within a particular restaurant. The committee was informed that the department was prepared for a live demo within two weeks;however,the technology would not be utilized before the next six months. Dr. Silvers noted that the system would have time and date functions that the inspectors would not be aware of to serve as quality control monitoring. Mr. Schroeder inquired what would signify that the restaurant signed and acknowledged the review. The response was by utilizing one of the following methods:pin#, electronic signature, or voice acceptance. 2 ABC Rating System Mr. Jones educated the committee on the.ABC Rating System currently being utilized in Louisville,KY. The City of Plano, TX also uses a similar rating system. The rating system is designed to recognize those restaurants doing exceptionally well. • A placard acknowledges a food facility has met the minimum requirements without critical violations. • B placard acknowledges a food facility has met the minimum requirement; however,the facility may have a critical violation that is corrected during the inspection. • C placard indicates that a food service facility has failed to meet minimum requirements and will include a score with any critical violation that is not immediately correctable. The C placard is placed for a minimum of seven days. A follow-up inspection will be conductedwithin ten days and the applicable placard posted. The goal of this rating system is to get all restaurants to strive for the A placard. Placards would be placed on the window to notify the public of the facility's score. If a complaint was reported, an investigation would be conducted. If the findings of the investigation were a critical violation; the placard would then be changed. Ms. Gilliam noted that the demo placards did not have a date. She inquired.as to how the inspectors would know that the placards were not being duplicated or replaced with a previous better scoring placard. Mr. Jones replied that the existing placard was removed and replaced with the new score by the inspector. Dr. Silvers commented that a fine would be applied if the rating was not posted or altered. He also noted that the rating system would be'focused on food handling and food safety. Robert Ard arrived at 2:35pm. ' Mr. Ard demonstrated opposition with the ABC rating system, stating it would be a snapshot of a restaurant. 0 Mr. Haven added that it would be an adversarial relationship with the restaurants. He ' also felt the placard system would keep business away,possibly destroy a business due to a lack of public confidence. Dr. Silvers noted that his experience with public response to the system was overwhelmingly positive. He further added that the city,county, and restaurant owners worked together to create a feasible ABC Rating System in Louisville,KY. • 3 Ms. Gilliam asked if this rating system wouldapply for all food establishmentsor was it only pertaining to restaurants. The rating system wouldapply to all food service establishments. Mr. Schroeder asked Mr. Jones for a rough estimate of what the outcome would be if this rating system would be effective immediately. Mr. Jones replied, about 72%would be A's, 15%B's, 10% C's,the remaining balance would fail. Mr. Denson voiced his concern with the 90 day time frame between inspections. Ms. Gilliam noted that the ABC rating system being discussed was an example for the City of Corpus Christi to utilize; this specific system was not necessarily what would be implemented. The rating system is subject to change as agreed by the city, county, and restaurant owners. Mr.Ard suggested recognizing the top ten percent of restaurants with an A rather than publicizing the negative. Perhaps the recognition would provide an incentive to those facilities that would normally score a B. Mr. Haven commented that the Restaurant Association and restaurant owners should have input on this issue. He felt they would favor a more positive approach. Dr. Silvers agreed. It was clarified that the mission of the committee was a cooperative effort of food safety, sanitation, and the protection of restaurants. Suzanne Gilliam left at 3:20pm. It was determined that Larry Jones and Dr. Silvers would be invited to the next Restaurant Association meeting to present and discuss the possible proposition. Robert Ard and John Denson left at 3:24pm. The discussion was tabled. Old Business: None New Business: None Next Meeting: The next meeting will be held on January 6,2003 at 2:00 p.m. in the Administration Conference Room at the Corpus Christi-Nueces County Public Health District, 1702 Horne Road. 4 Adjournment: The meeting adjourned at 3:25 p.m. 5