Permit problems red-tagging restaurants

ALBUQUERQUE (KRQE) - They sit in restaurant windows across Albuquerque.

Green stickers that show that the food coming out of the kitchen is safe to eat.

Dennis Serafin, owner of Serafin's Chile Hut on Central Avenue in Nob Hill, says that while customers may not notice green tags, a red one sticks out like a sore thumb.

"The red tag to the public really is talking about a dirty restaurant, dirty facilities," Serafin said.

It turns out that's not the only thing it can mean though.

Online: Environmental Health Department recent restaurant inspections

When the city found restaurant owners were more than $100,000 behind on restaurant permit fees, either through non-renewal or never having gotten one in the first place, it turned to a collection agency to help bring up the payment rate.

When that wasn't effective, Joe Anguiano, a supervisor with Albuquerque's Environmental Health Department, says Albuquerque tried a new strategy.

Under a city law already on the books, if a restaurant's permit is out of date when the restaurant is inspected, it technically fails that inspection.

So Anguiano says inspectors started issuing those red stickers to restaurants whose kitchens are clean, but whose owners haven't paid the city what they owe on their permit.

"If somebody comes knocking on your door and puts a red sticker on your door that can affect your business," Anguiano said. "We've found that the amount of compliance, the amount of people coming into financial compliance with their permits, has improved substantially."

As a result of that change in enforcement and more health inspectors on the job, the number of red stickers issued by Albuquerque has gone up too. In fiscal years 2009 thru 2011, on average 0.6 percent of businesses failed food permit inspections. In fiscal year 2012, that number went up to 1.4 percent.

According to data from the city website, 36 businesses failed a food permit inspection in the last three months alone.

If a business doesn't correct whatever caused the red sticker within five days, the city can shut them down.