City issues $30K in COVID-19 fines
One Milwaukee nightclub has netted more than a third of the fines with $11,000
The City of Milwaukee has issued nearly $30,000 in citations to businesses since July for violations of the mask ordinance and other Health Department orders meant to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
One nightclub accounts for more than one-third of that sum.
“If it’s one actor that’s a third of the fines, that says to me that the majority of people are complying and we’ve just got to keep pushing forward,” said Ald. Marina Dimitrijevic, who chairs the Common Council’s Public Safety and Health Committee and was the lead sponsor of the city’s mask ordinance.
The city has issued 38 citations for violations of capacity limits, social distancing requirements and mask violations, which together amounted to $28,000, according to data released by the Health Department in response to a request from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
An additional 11 citations were pending as of Thursday.
Although no one wants to see a company fined, overcoming the pandemic so businesses can return to their normal operations is a larger concern, said Tim Sheehy, president of the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.
“The most important thing for these businesses is to get to a point where they can open and operate in a business environment that they’re used to, and the biggest roadblock to that is the spread of COVID,” Sheehy said. “I don’t think we’re happy about any business getting fined, but that’s a small part of trying to get these businesses up and operating in a normal environment.”
One nightclub, VIP at 828 S. 1st St., has received $11,000 in citations for violations on three different dates.
The two latest citations at the club — each for $5,000 — were for violations of capacity limits on New Year’s Eve and a week later on Jan. 8, according to city data.
“This establishment has made choices not to comply (and) therefore has been issued citations,” Claire Evers, the city’s deputy commissioner of environmental health, told the Journal Sentinel in an email.
The club’s license has been referred to the council’s Licenses Committee, and its COVID-19 safety plan has been revoked, she said.
The city’s COVID-19 safety plans allow for more establishment-specific rules than provided in the city’s overarching health orders.
A text message to the number listed in city records as belonging to Miguel A. Martinez, the agent for the business, did not immediately receive a response Friday.
The voicemail box was full.
VIP was the only business so far to receive the $5,000 fine. It has received four total citations for COVID-related violations, two of which were for $500.
The 26 other businesses received $500 citations, though seven that received more than one citation were ordered to pay totals of $1,000 or $1,500.
Fines increased late last year
Late last year city officials raised the fine for businesses that violate the Health Department’s COVID-19 orders from $500 to between $500 and $5,000, with a maximum accumulated fine of $20,000 in any one action.
Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett’s office said in a statement that the city started by educating businesses and issuing warnings in its effort to seek com
pliance with the health orders.
“The public health orders are focused on stopping the spread of COVID-19,” the statement said. “It’s not about generating money from fines. In order to get compliance, every business needs to know we’re serious and fines are one of the only ways we can effectively send that message.”
City officials cited concerns that some businesses considered the $500 fine just another cost of operating and not an incentive to comply with the city’s COVID-19 safety orders.
Those concerns were shared by businesses that were following the orders, said Steve Baas, senior vice president for governmental affairs at the Metropolitan Milwaukee Association of Commerce.
“It was actually the operators themselves that were urging the department to pursue that higher fine and change the ordinance so that, again, persistent bad actors could have a more severe sanction and hopefully get in line,” Baas said.
A super-spreader event or an establishment operating in an unsafe way, he said, can unfairly taint the public perception of how an entire industry is operating. The vast majority of business owners are taking “extreme measures” to operate safely, he said.
That only two of the $5,000 fines have been issued shows the vast majority of businesses are operating safely and working with the Health Department to ensure that their operations don’t trigger a fine, he said.
He also praised the Health Department, saying the department has worked with businesses to be proactive.
In July, the city instituted a mask ordinance that required anyone who is at least 3 years old to have a face covering when they leave home. It requires that a mask be worn in buildings open to the public or outside in a public space within 6 feet of non-household members.
The ordinance puts the responsibility on owners and operators of buildings open to the public to ensure compliance on the premises. It carries a fine of between $50 and $500 for mask violations and allows the city to pursue license revocation.
Evers said there has been “majority compliance” among businesses.
The Health Department’s enforcement has also been stymied after inspectors were pushed and harassed at a rally outside Serb Hall in mid-November and the department later received a death threat.
The incident was a “tipping point” that for a time led the department to halt evening and weekend inspections for business violations of COVID-19 orders, Interim Health Commissioner Marlaina Jackson told the Journal Sentinel in December.
Last week, Evers said there have been “limited inspections” on weekends in coordination with the Milwaukee Police Department, and a contract with a company to perform weekend and evening inspections is close to being finalized. That will result in between 30 and 60 inspections each week, she said.
Serb Hall was issued a $500 citation for violating capacity limits at the rally in support of former President Donald Trump.
About 500 Trump supporters were present, surpassing the 100-person maximum allowed under the city’s health order, and they were not wearing masks, social distancing or staying in their seats, the city has said.