Restaurateur finally given order to cease, desist

Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham had the image of a tough-as-nails executive whose staff respected the chain of command.

If Lujan Grisham gave an order, her subordinates jumped to follow it.

No longer is that true. The governor’s own state police department revealed her as a toothless tiger with its sluggish or nonexistent enforcement in Santa Fe of her latest public health order.

In an attempt to lessen the spread of COVID-19, Lujan Grisham for a second time has prohibited restaurants from offering dine-in service. Her latest order took effect Monday.

But the Weck’s restaurants in Santa Fe and Farmington defied her order Monday and most of Tuesday.

The owner, Michael Dennis, finally received a cease-and-desist order Tuesday afternoon for his Santa Fe

restaurant. This occurred after a state inspector from the Environment Department threatened to pull the restaurant’s food service permit if it didn’t comply with the governor’s mandate, according to a spokeswoman for Dennis.

State police officers in Santa Fe knew all about the Weck’s staff flouting the law on Monday. They received a complaint, and officers had inspected the Weck’s at 2000 Cerrillos Road by midmorning.

Using their superior investigative skills, meaning their eyeballs, the officers watched Weck’s employees serving customers inside the restaurant.

In response, state police did nothing. “No enforcement action was taken,” said Officer Dusty Francisco, a spokesman for the department.

Why not? Is what the investigating officers witnessed a violation of the public health order?

“Yes, it is,” Francisco said Tuesday afternoon.

And?

“It’s still being investigated.” What’s left to investigate? The officers saw the Weck’s staff providing dine-in service, a violation of the governor’s order. Why didn’t the officers enforce it?

“We needed to contact the owner,” Francisco said.

I wanted to ask “why” once more. If state police officers saw a rental car speeding the wrong way on Interstate 25, would they have to check with Hertz before pulling over the driver?

Francisco couldn’t say why police let Dennis flout the law.

As for Dennis, he wasn’t in hiding. He told his employees to defy Lujan Grisham’s order, then he issued public statements about his rebellion.

“While we deeply respect the Governor’s concern for public safety and aren’t trying to be difficult we are now fighting for our survival,” Dennis said.

Francisco asked me to write him an email regarding the lack of any police enforcement at the Weck’s in Santa Fe. Then, he said, he would send my questions along to the district police commander. The commander’s office, like the governor’s, is in Santa Fe, a short car ride from Weck’s.

I sent Francisco some questions, a repetition of our phone interview. At 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, he rang me again. He said inspectors from the state Department of Health had arrived at the Weck’s in Santa Fe. The restaurant, which serves breakfast and lunch, was about to close for the day.

As it turned out, Francisco said, state police had referred the sco±aw restaurateur to other inspectors.

When did this happen?

Just now, Francisco said. Then he backtracked, saying he wasn’t sure when police notified the Department of Health.

This revealed how bureaucratic enforcement can be.

“Food safety enforcement in restaurants is handled in New Mexico primarily by the Environment Department, not the Department of Health,” said David Morgan, a spokesman for the Department of Health. “In the case of the pandemic and standing public health orders, our agency has the means of issuing Notices of Contemplated Action should a restaurant or any business continue to defy public health orders, despite all warnings, and fine the business.”

A key question still had not been answered. Why didn’t police shut down in-store sales at Weck’s on Monday instead of allowing the restaurant to continue violating the health order for almost two days?

“That’s a good question,” Francisco said. “No cease-and-desist order was issued.”

Got it. State police sat on their hands while a restaurant owner did as he pleased in the midst of the novel coronavirus pandemic.

While Dennis violated the public health order, he said he protected everyone in his restaurants.

“We made a well-thought-out decision for the sake of our employees’ financial welfare,” he said.

Dining rooms at his two restaurants remained open, Dennis said, but safety measures were in place. These included lowering seating capacity to 25 percent, disinfecting the stores and kitchens, and screening employees and guests.

“There are temperature checks on all customers and employees before they enter the store. In reality, we are doing more to secure the safety of our customers and employees than any of the big-box stores that are allowed to remain open,” Dennis said.

Every restaurateur offers this same assurance. The safety of employees and customers is always paramount.

A national manager of Applebee’s restaurants said the same after four employees at its Santa Fe location were diagnosed with COVID-19. Two were cooks, a married couple.

Another employee of Applebee’s, Kari Ortega, told me Tuesday the outbreak of COVID-19 cases at the restaurant has escalated.

Ortega, who worked as an Applebee’s server and bartender, is among those with the disease. Some of her symptoms are mild, but she said she has lost her senses of taste and smell.

Previously, one of the cooks at Applebee’s said she felt sick and had COVID-19 symptoms. Her husband, also a cook, said Applebee’s supervisors pressured him to report for work, even though he had symptoms of the disease and his wife’s test results were not in yet.

He later tested positive for COVID-19, and so did the cooks’ 15-year-old son.

Ortega said Applebee’s claims of vigilance in looking out for employees were exaggerated. She said her temperature was taken only occasionally, as an afterthought.

Like almost everyone in the workaday world, Dennis and those running the Applebee’s chain are under financial strain. But unlike most business owners, Dennis decided to violate the governor’s public health order.

Dennis tested the limits of the law before buckling.

“We will be complying with the state public health order beginning tomorrow at both restaurants,” he said Tuesday afternoon. “We pray that God’s blessing and peace would be upon those who will be laid off with our company and across New Mexico.”

He didn’t mention those who are infected with COVID-19, some of them suffering in hospitals. If they’re not in a coma, they’re frantic about how they will pay their medical bills.

What’s clear after two strange days is Lujan Grisham’s orders aren’t any stronger than her subordinates.

She can lay down the law in hopes of blunting the rise in infections. But her authority is only as good as her police force.

At Weck’s, the officers were so casual they might as well have sat down for their morning break of coffee and doughnuts.