Bill Text: NY A03052 | 2019-2020 | General Assembly | Introduced

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Bill Title: Relates to directing cities with a population of one million or more which employ health inspectors to oversee compliance of restaurants and food establishments; enacts the "Restaurant Owner Whistleblower Protection Act".

Spectrum: Moderate Partisan Bill (Democrat 9-1)

Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2020-01-08 - referred to health [A03052 Detail]

Download: New_York-2019-A03052-Introduced.html

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                STATE OF NEW YORK
        ________________________________________________________________________
                                          3052
                               2019-2020 Regular Sessions
                   IN ASSEMBLY
                                    January 28, 2019
                                       ___________
        Introduced  by  M. of A. KIM, VANEL, PHEFFER AMATO, NIOU, ORTIZ, ABBATE,
          McDONOUGH, JONES, COLTON, D'URSO -- read  once  and  referred  to  the
          Committee on Health
        AN  ACT  to direct cities with a population of one million or more which
          employ health inspectors to oversee the compliance of restaurants  and
          food establishments
          The  People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-
        bly, do enact as follows:
     1    Section 1. Short title. This act shall be known as and may be cited as
     2  the "restaurant owner whistleblower protection act".
     3    § 2. a. All cities with a population of  one  million  or  more  which
     4  employ  health  inspectors  to oversee the compliance of restaurants and
     5  food establishments with local health  regulations  shall  establish  an
     6  independent  oversight body to receive anonymous complaints about health
     7  inspectors from restaurant owners or employees.
     8    b. Such independent oversight body shall  investigate  any  consistent
     9  reporting  about  health  inspectors from restaurant owners or employees
    10  and shall refer such cases to the city's investigative agency.
    11    c. Such independent oversight body shall provide:
    12    i. a hotline number and website to intake complaints provided  in  the
    13  following  languages:  Arabic; Bengali; Chinese; French; Haitian-Creole;
    14  Korean; Russian; Spanish and Urdu; and
    15    ii. an annual summary report to the restaurant  associations  and  the
    16  public  of complaints by restaurant owners, that includes how many total
    17  complaints, top type of complaints, and investigative findings.
    18    § 3. All cities with a population of one million or more which  employ
    19  health  inspectors  to  oversee  the  compliance of restaurants and food
    20  establishments with local health regulations shall establish  a  process
    21  by  which  restaurants and food establishments can refuse to participate
    22  in an inspection by paying a fee to reschedule the inspection visit,  up
    23  to three times. The fees to be imposed shall be:
         EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
                              [ ] is old law to be omitted.
                                                                   LBD03814-01-9
        A. 3052                             2
     1    a.  seventy-five  dollars paid by the restaurant or food establishment
     2  to the agency employing the health inspector for the first time resched-
     3  uling;
     4    b. one hundred fifty dollars paid by the restaurant or food establish-
     5  ment  to the agency employing the health inspector for a second resched-
     6  uling; and
     7    c. two hundred fifty dollars paid by the restaurant or food establish-
     8  ment to the agency employing the health inspector for a third reschedul-
     9  ing.
    10    § 4. This act shall take effect immediately.