Nearly 200 retailers fined over weekend
COVID-19 mandate enforcement penalties called excessive by some business owners
Santa Clara County slapped fines on 181 retailers over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend for failing to properly notice social distancing requirements, worsening the pain for many shop owners already struggling after months of coronavirus restrictions.
The inspections came as a surprise to many of the 427 stores that county inspectors visited over the weekend, with offenders ranging from giant warehouse retailers like Costco to tiny boutiques like Pinkberry yogurt shop at Stanford Shopping Center.
“They just showed up randomly and gave us a citation,” said Ricky Singh, manager of the Stanford Pinkberry, lamenting a $500 fine. The violation? His yogurt shop didn’t have an updated version of the COVID-19 safety protocol posted. He called the fine “unnecessary” and plans to appeal.
“It’s excessive in today’s time, especially we’re already very slow,” Singh said.
County officials said they netted more than $115,000 in fines, ranging from $250 to as much as $3,750 each, during their “enhanced Black Friday COVID-19 Business Compliance effort” that concluded Sunday. Fines may continue to accrue daily until businesses correct the violations and submit a compliance statement.
“Business compliance with the mandatory directives in the health officer’s risk reduction order is a critical element of our COVID-19 response,” said Michael Balliet, director of the county’s business compliance and enforcement unit.
The top three violations were failure to submit a social distancing protocol, failure to properly post the required social distancing protocol signage and failure to post the required capacity signage, county officials said. Those documents, officials said, help the public and employees understand what the business must do to comply with the mandatory directives and keep their workers and customers safe.
The inspections were done by the county’s business compliance
“As cases and hospitalizations continue to rise to new record levels, we need everyone in the community to do their part to protect the health of the community.”
— Michael Balliet, director of Santa Clara County’s business compliance and enforcement unit
unit, and many of the inspectors are from the environmental health team that routinely visits restaurants and are familiar with inspecting and working with businesses.
The inspectors visited what they knew to be traditional high-traffic areas for this time of year, and also checked for citizen complaints sent through a county website, scccovidconcerns.com. Balliet had said in a statement on Black Friday that inspectors “noted few large crowds thus far,” but nonetheless had already issued a total of 76 violation notices to retailers at the time.
County of ficials last week had announced the crackdown before the holiday began, stressing that they would issue fines on the spot rather than their usual approach of working with businesses to correct violations.
In neighbor ing San Mateo County, spokeswoman Michelle Durand said they are also enforcing health orders at businesses, but “still using an education and warning first approach.” She said that inspectors “will not hesitate to enforce” health orders when businesses are found repeatedly violating them, but did not have figures Tuesday on how many businesses have been visited and if any received citations.
The stepped-up enforcement spanning what has traditionally been one of the biggest and most crowded shopping weekends of the year heading into the Christmas holiday comes as the county, like much of the region, state and country, battles a ferocious surge in new coronavirus infections.
Santa Clara County recorded 747 new cases on Saturday, its highest daily total since the start of the pandemic early this year.
“As cases and hospitalizations continue to rise to new record levels,” Balliet said, “we need everyone in the community to do their part to protect the health of the community.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom signaled this week that he soon may issue a stricter stayat-home order. And in the midst of their local enforcement effort, Santa Clara County officials over the weekend announced new restrictions that went into effect Monday, including a ban on contact sports and a mandatory two-week quarantine for travelers coming into the county from more than 150 miles away.
Those new Santa Clara County restrictions further curtail indoor retail occupancy to 10% of indoor capacity, less than the 25% of capacity the state requires in purple-tier counties. Grocery stores, drug stores and pharmacies may operate at 25% of capacity under the new county order.
T he worsening outbreaks, tighter restrictions, crackdown on businesses and the prospect that new shutdowns might be mandated has left even shop owners who weren’t fined feeling besieged heading into the height of Christmas shopping season.
Jay Lord, owner of Athletic Treads shoe store in San Jose, said he understands the dangers of the pandemic and wants to keep his customers and employees safe — his shop already offers curbside pickup, home deliveries and virtual fittings. But to limit the store’s capacity down to one or two customers, or shut them down altogether?
“How are we supposed to survive?” Lord asked.
Several businesses along the retail strip in San Jose’s Willow Glen have already shut down. Julie McCabe, a clerk at the Willow Glen Collective, an antique shop, called the latest round of rules “a little extreme.”
“Business-wise, it’s killing us,” McCabe said.
But co-worker Carole Adams believes people in general have become too lazy about mask-wearing and social distancing.
“People have gotten lax,” Adams said, “and I appreciate anything they do to get us back and safe.”