COVID compliance hotline heats up

Over 1,000 calls come in reporting business violations



The County of Ventura has opened a phone line for the public to report businesses operating outside of the county’s Stay Well at Home order. So far, residents don’t appear hesitant to “drop a dime.”

Since opening the line last week, the county has received over 1,000 calls, Resource Management Agency Director Kim Prillhart told county supervisors at their April 7 meeting.

Five staffers are working from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and weekends to cover the calls.

So far, the staff has contacted more than 100 open businesses to work with owners who are not following safety and health guidelines or whose businesses have been deemed nonessential by the public health department’s March 20 order, which has been amended once to tighten restrictions on what can and cannot be sold at big-box stores that have been allowed to remain open.

The team has also put together a FAQ page on the county’s vcemergency.com website to help educate business owners and the general public about what is allowed and what is not.

The division of environmental health is also working on sharing information. Its inspectors, who generally check in on restaurants and other businesses that sell food, have been providing informational handouts to owners.

“We are trying to empower the business operators out there right now to do the right thing,” division director Charles Genkel said. “If they are running into situations where they have a lot of people standing outside the restaurant, our inspectors are trying to reach out to them to let them know they have to take control of their business and make sure they are trying to maintain that social distancing as required.”

The inspectors’ primary concern continues to be food safety, but they are now focusing on hand washing and social distancing, Genkel said.

While the county’s efforts have been aimed at education, that will soon change.

“Last week we were educating people,” Prillhart told the supervisors. “Now we’re moving more toward the enforcement.”

While the majority of businesses are following the orders or closing shop when they learn they’re not allowed to be open, some have not. To that end, the department has had to issue two closure orders already, one to a Thousand Oaks business and another in Camarillo.

Because most of the calls the county receives are regarding restaurants located in cities (versus unincorporated county areas), the county is working with city managers, police and sheriff’s departments and city code compliance departments to deliver closure notices signed by county Public Health Officer Dr. Robert Levin, who issued the stay-home order (which is in effect through at least April 20).

Sheriff Bill Ayub told the supervisors that enforcement is “where we’re at right now” as the department is seeing what he called “craftier” businesses taking steps to skirt both the letter and spirit of the law.

For now, there are two ways the county can prosecute open nonessential businesses, should it come to that, District Attorney Gregory Totten said.

“Businesses that don’t comply give themselves a competitive advantage in the marketplace,” the D.A. said, adding that it’s the county’s responsibility to level the playing field.

The first of the D.A.’s tools is a health and safety code which mandates that people must comply with health officers’ demands or else be guilty of a misdemeanor. The penalty for violating the code is $1,000 and up to 90 days in jail, Totten said. The D.A.’s office also has a civil enforcement tool written into the order itself.

“Essentially, it addresses businesses through unfair business practice execution for not complying with the order,” Totten said.

It provides for fines up to $2,500 for each violation. It also gives the D.A. the ability to seek a temporary restraining order against the business, essentially shutting them down.

Should a business still fail to close, the D.A. has the authority to pursue a contempt action through the courts.

“We really don’t want to be prosecuting businesses for noncompliance, but it is a tool that, in the appropriate case, we would use,” Totten said.

For more information about the stay-home order as it relates to businesses, go to vcemergency.com/business/covidcompliance.