TAMPA, FL -- Karen Orazi, her son Daniel, and friend Debbie Coca dined at a local restaurant a few months back. But the experience did not sit well with them.
Karen said, "When I had gotten home several hours after the meal, I had gotten sick Saturday and Sunday evening." And Debbie wonders if the sinking economy is even affecting the safety and cleanliness of our restaurants.
"You go out for a nice evening, you spend money in tough times and it was very disappointing to me," Debbie said.
Bill Veach is the Director of the Division of Hotels and Restaurants. The department is in charge of all inspectors. Veach admits he's been short staffed for the last couple of years. "If you don't have people, you're not going to get all the inspections done," Veach admitted.
And the struggling economy has made it even worse.
"Two years in a row, the revenues available to state legislatures declined. That never happened before," Veach said.
Veach asked the legislature for 39 more inspectors last year and only got three.
And even though the state is required by law to complete two to three inspections per year, our investigation found many restaurants only got one inspection.
Veach said, "The main reason is absolutely staffing. We have 80,000 accounts in food and lodging and we have 186 inspectors. Staffing is our issue."
"If the division cannot get the funds it needs, then it better start thinking of a better way to do its job," said Roy Costa, a former inspector.
Costa says the way the department conducts inspections is a waste of time.
"The problem is we need to put the ownership for food safety where it belongs and that's on the industry. They need to have food safety programs in place in every one of these restaurants," Costa said.
And Costa says policing each restaurant isn't good enough.
Costa said, "The inspector should not be a policeman. The inspector has to be a policeman because the operators don't follow the law. If the operators had a systematic approach of following the law, then the inspector can be there in their rightly position of being an educator."
Other economic impacts effecting inspectors? The high fuel prices of 2008. That alone cost the department an extra quarter million dollars more than they expected.
And in August, Tropical Storm Fay caused 1500 inspections to be canceled, leaving the department even further behind.
Still Veach says his inspectors are focused on getting restaurants to follow the rules.
"Our absolute goal is public safety. That's first and foremost," Veach said.
