TAMPA, FL -- Papa Roni Restaurant on North Himes Avenue in Tampa is known for pizza, subs, and sandwiches. But with the state of Florida, it's known for owing a huge chunk of change.
The restaurant owes the state $18,320 in outstanding fines for critical, repeat violations accumulated since 2006.
"We knew what we were getting ourselves into," Brian Proscia said.
Proscia is in the process of taking over Papa Roni's and buying out the old owners. He knew the restaurant had some sanitation issues and has already been making changes.
"We're going to be doing a lot of changes with the menu- the recipes, the way the restaurant's kept because that's all I've been doing for the last week and a half has been cleaning," Procia said.
But Proscia did not know about their outstanding fines still owed to the state.
Anchor Wendy Ryan asked, "Does it surprise you that they're so far behind on fines?"
Proscia responded, "Yeah a little bit."
Ryan asked, "You didn't know?"
Proscia said, "No, not exactly."
All those fines are due to Papa Roni's history of poor inspection reports in both August 2006 and June of 2007.
During that time, the state levied more and more fines and suspended their license for 10 days.
And they're not alone.
We found dozens of restaurants written up for repeat inspection violations. Places like Mahuffer's restaurant that accumulated $8500 in outstanding fines and paid nothing.
Pita's restaurant has $3,000 in outstanding fines and has not paid a penny.
And Toby's Little Italy Pizza has $3200 in outstanding fines but hasn't paid anything.
The state fines each restaurant up to $1,000 per violation and can suspend or revoke their license if warranted. These restaurants were fined extensively and still haven't paid a penny in years.
So we went up to Tallahassee to find out exactly how well the system works.
"We've ratchet it up what we're looking for." Bill Veach said.
Veach is the Director of the Division of Hotels and Restaurants and is in charge of shutting down any Florida restaurant.
Anchor Wendy Ryan asked, "How many licenses have you revoked this year?"
Veach responded, "I don't have that number right in front of me."
Actually, our investigation found not one restaurant has had their license revoked in 2008. Veach says that's because he wants to teach restaurant owners about food safety not put them out of business.
"If we can't get the education message across, then we lose the battle," Veach said.
But we uncovered 121 bay area restaurants over the past two years that have fines past due totaling more than $145,000 and they don't seem to face any consequences when they don't pay up or clean up.
"If the message gets out that there are serious consequences for your actions, I think your compliance rate will go way up," said Representative Kevin Ambler.
Ambler, who represents District 47 which includes parts of Hillsborough County says as the state looks for new revenue sources to deal with budget cuts, the Division of Hotels and Restaurants may want to change their approach and enforce the law more stringently.
"The existing rules are there, they are adequate. It's just a matter of how they're going about enforcing them and placing an emphasis on the importance of compliance," Ambler said.
Still, Veach believes their legal process works just fine. He says the state did shut down 600-restaurants last year but those were emergency closures due often to infestations for just 24 to 48 hours.
"Our absolute goal is public safety. That's first and foremost. We're not here to put people out of business," Veach said.
