Schulman asks whether photo/video evidence would lengthen inspections and which violations benefit
Schiff says inspectors already record detailed observations, such as counting mouse droppings, and questions whether photographs are needed for every violation. She says the bill's documentation requirement applies once an inspection reaches 14 or more points, but the score is unknown until the end, so the impact could be complex.
Does DOHMH anticipate that taking photographs or video of cited violations would lengthen, you said that in your testimony,
are there particular categories of violations for which photographs or video would be especially useful in demonstrating a public health risk?
As I said, we do train the inspectors to make very detailed recordings of their observations.
To give you an example, pest condition could be a common finding in a restaurant, especially one that's not getting an A grade.
So there will be a summons.
And the inspectors are literally trained.
To count mouse droppings that they observe and to record the numbers of mouse droppings that they have seen.
Do we also need a photograph of that?
I don't think so.
The purpose of our documenting is to let the restaurant owner and Oath know about that observation.
Do you know what percentage of FSE inspections annually would be affected by this bill's documentation requirements?
So it would be any of the restaurant inspections where there isn't an A at the time of inspection, and so there is a summons.
Which would be like 10%.
It would be, you know what, we'll have to, there's some complexity to your question, but also.
We don't know until the end of the inspection what the score is going to be.
So I don't know at the beginning, right?
The bill applies to an inspection with 14 or more points.
That's because that's the cutoff for an A grade.
A is under 14.
We don't know at the start.
We only know at the finish.
I may be subject to documentation requirements for having taken that.
Those photographs or videos anyway, so probably 100%, but we would have to do a little more thinking about that.