Mayor de Blasio Acknowledges City Hall Could Communicate Protocols Better to Essential Business and City Agents

By Yehudit Garmaise

  City Hall would like to hear from essential businesses that have received visits from “any inspectors who are giving judgments that appear to be contradictory to the rules,” Mayor Bill de Blasio said this morning in a press conference, although business owners and city agents alike remain in the dark as to what the current health protocols are for essential businesses.

   “[Business owners] should call 311 and let us know,” the mayor said this morning in a press conference.  “We need to know about [any summonses being given out mistakenly].”

  The city agents continue to swarm in Boro Park, buzzing in and out of essential businesses giving citations, are perhaps giving out mistaken citations or too many citations because they, like the Boro Park business owners, do not seem to know what the most current health protocols are.

    “I have never received a letter or anything at all that told me exactly what we needed to do,” said Yanky Mayer, the owner of UpSide Craft Burger, last week when he was smacked on with a fine that could be anywhere from $1,000 to $15,000 for "failing to take reasonable precautions to protect the health and safety of customers."

   Mayer, who said he had carefully put into place the safety precautions of which he was aware, such as ensuring that his kitchen staff remains masked at all time, keeping daily logs of staff’s temperatures, putting markers on the floor to indicate where people can stand to remain socially distant, and posting on a wall other health protocols, he said that not only could the inspector not verbally express what the safety violations were that warranted a citation, and that the inspector never entered the restaurant to conduct an inspection.

   Last Monday evening, Mayer said with exasperation that, as the day went on, he was visited by 10 more inspectors who kept coming to his door. In addition, Mayer pointed out that many fellow owners of Boro Park businesses near him on 13 Ave. also said that they were similarly bombarded by city agents who could not explain the reason for the court summonses, "they were giving out like parking tickets,” Mayer said.

   Although both business owners and city agents seem to be in the dark about the current essential health protocols, after the mayor was asked whether perhaps he could send out mass e-mails that clearly list the necessary health protocols, the mayor said, “I think over-communication is definitely better in a moment like this."

    Mayor de Blasio acknowledged the fact that city workers sometimes do not seem to know exactly the reasons for violations, and that he has heard the concerns that sometimes city workers are giving out summonses that contradict the red zone restrictions and orders of Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

   “We will get the NYC Department of Small Business Services (SBS) involved and our other agencies, and send out again, a list of reminders who can be open and who cannot,” the mayor said today, although business owners say that they have never received any communication about essential and required health protocols. “[We will explain] what the rules are for the businesses that are open and where they can call with their questions."

  The SBS website says that it can assist businesses in getting any help they need from the NYC Department of Consumer Affairs and the NYC Department of Health and Mental Hygiene, so perhaps the SBS can also be a good source of essential information for business owners, who can call the SBS at (718) 570-8500.

      Mayor de Blasio said that he “absolutely” wants non-essential businesses in red zones to understand exactly what health protocols they must maintain, he added, “The goal here is to make things right and safe, and that is what we will focus on.

  “We welcome those questions so we can clarify things and help people understand. If perhaps someone didn’t understand, as an essential business, the health and safety rules previously because they hadn’t had an inspection, we want to go the extra mile to inform and educate.”

   “So we will send a message out to all the businesses in the communities to let them know what those rules are.”