Enforcement committee advances proposed overhaul of administrative-fines schedule, directs staff to draft rulemaking

At a virtual Enforcement Inspections Committee meeting (board name not specified in the transcript), committee members reviewed proposed changes to the board's schedule of administrative fines and voted to direct staff to prepare rulemaking language to present to the full board.

Deputy Executive Officer Carrie Harris framed the discussion by citing SB 803: "SB 803, updated 07/2004 to read that the board shall establish, by regulation, a schedule of administrative fines for violations of this chapter that directly impact consumer safety." The committee spent the session working through proposed dollar amounts for a large group of sanitation and safety violations and took a formal vote to ask staff to draft a rulemaking package.

The review covered dozens of discrete violations, with the committee generally accepting staff's proposed increases for higher-risk items and debating adjustments for lower-risk items. Key decisions and proposals captured in the session include: Carrie Harris said the board's starting point comes from SB 803 and the committee's earlier drafting work. The staff-proposed schedule raised many fines from current levels (for example, the proposed schedule for incorrect disinfection of electrical tools moved from the current $50/$100/$150 to $100/$200/$300). The committee retained the staff proposal for whirlpool foot…