Allegheny County Council rejects restaurant grades
Councilwoman Sue Means spoke at length criticizing the resturaunt grade bill before voting no for a 12-1 rejection of the proposal.
Councilman John Palmiere, the lone vote in favor of the resturaunt grades proposal, said he’d champion a similar bill in the future, but noted it was crucial for education “to get out on social media so there’s not misinformation that this was about taking peoples’ jobs.”
Allegheny County Council voted 12-1 to reject the county executive’s controversial proposal to post letter grades outside of restaurants.
The May 5 decision drew applause from the audience, many of whom were restaurant industry professionals who have testified for months against the proposal to post A-B-C letter grades instead of pass or fail information from health inspectors.
Critics said the system could arbitrarily issue a B or C grade due to non-health related issues, leading to lost business from consumers perceiving the restaurants to be substandard or unhealthy by comparison to those with posted A grades.
“Not one person from the public sought to testify in favor of this,” said Jeff Coen of the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association, “because for the past six years the Post-Gazette has been pushing this without any expertise on this.”
Others from Primanti Brothers’ and Pamela’s Diner restaurants testified against the bill before councilwoman Heather Heidelbaugh (R-Mt. Lebanon) said she changed her mind on previously supporting the grading system after hearing from local restaurants.
“I watch court filings, and I haven’t been seeing any suits against restaurants for food poisoning,” she said.
One councilman who has dealt with food poisoning is Jim Ellenbogen (D-Dormont), who voted no after explaining he and his family were gravely sickened by restaurant food a few years ago.
“I’ve tried to take my emotions out of this … and yet the health department hasn’t proven to me that (this system) would be objective, treating all restaurants fairly.”
Sue Means (R-Bethel Park) said the current system is working.
“The public is not demanding any changes. The proposed system would burden the county with more expenses and red tape.”