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CR 98-72 Health InspectionApril 30, 1998 • HEALTH INSPECTION Proposed Action Staff recommends that the Council approve the following motion: Move that the Hopkins City Council approve turning over health inspection to Hennepin County. Approval of this motion will result in Hennepin County and the Department of Agriculture permanently taking over environmental health inspections in the City of Hopkins. Overview The City of Hopkins has contracted with Mr. Manny Roesler to perform health inspection services for the City. Mr. Roesler is planning to resign May 11. The City must now determine how best to provide environmental health services to its businesses and residents. The City Council discussed this issue at the April 7 Council meeting. The Council continued this item to give staff enough time to address several issues raised by the City Council: The possibility of having a short term agreement with the County Concerns about the licensing of vendors at City festivals Concerns regarding the transition from the City to the County The cost of County licenses Primary Issues to Consider Analysis of issues Examination of the options for providing this service es A. Genellie ssistant City Manager Supporting Information City of New Hope Memo and Letter to licensees. Comments from other cities regarding Hennepin County Health Services Comparison of Hennepin County license fees and the City of Hopkins fees Council Report 98 -072 Council Report 98 -072 2 Analysis of the Issues The possibility of having a short term agreement with the County Technically, in order for Hennepin County to take over health inspections in the City of Hopkins, the City must first give back to the State of Minnesota its authority to perform these inspections. The State then delegates the program to Hennepin County. The State has a rule that once a city relinquishes its health inspection program it cannot get it back. Susan Palchick, Hennepin County Health Services, called the State of Minnesota to request a waiver from this rule. The State of Minnesota refused to grant this waiver. Hennepin County itself is unwilling to enter into a contractual relationship with the City of Hopkins. Therefore, if the City goes with Hennepin County it will not be able to get this duty back again. Concerns about the licensing of vendors at City festivals The City of Hopkins currently licenses all vendors at City festivals. The City licensed 22 vendors during the 1997 Raspberry Festival. They are required to fill out a form for the City indicating that they are licensed by either Hennepin County or the State of Minnesota and pay a fee of $25.00. If the City turned over its health inspection program to the County, some vendors would actually have less paperwork to do. Hennepin County licenses the vendors for Robbinsdale's city festivals. The city of Robbinsdale reports that they have not received any complaints. Hennepin County does not charge a fee to non - profit organizations. Concerns regarding the transition from the City to the County One of the issues that was raised was the possible transition from City inspections to County inspections. Attached are some documents from New Hope indicating how the transition was handled there. These transition issues would also exist if the City of Hopkins contracted with another city. The cost of County licenses Staff provided the City Council with a comparison between City fees and County fees. Unfortunately the County numbers that the staff provided to the Council were not accurate. A revised comparison is attached. Hopkins has three options to consider: 1. Contract with another part -time health inspector for Hopkins; 2. Enter into an arrangement with another city to have their health inspectors serve both cities; or 3. Get out of the health inspections business altogether and have Hennepin County and the Department of Agriculture perform the service for the City. Council Report 98 -072 3 Option 1 The City could contract with another individual health inspector and retain environmental health services entirely within its own jurisdiction. Both the City and Mr. Roesler have made some informal attempts to learn if there is anyone who would be interested in contracting with the City. As of this date no one has indicated any interest. The advantages of contracting with an environmental health services inspector are that the service and accountability remain at the municipal level. The disadvantages include: the possibility that it will be difficult to contract with a qualified individual; any single individual may not have the knowledge or experience to deal with all aspects of health inspections; this service will continue to incur administrative costs in processing licenses and dealing with complaints. Option 2 The second option would be to contract with another city to perform health inspections for Hopkins. In recent talks with St. Louis Park and Minnetonka, both cities have indicated an interest in contracting with the City of Hopkins. St. Louis Park has indicated that they would provide an inspector one day a week at an annual cost of approximately $15,000. Minnetonka has not provided a detailed response. The advantages with contracting with another city include: If the City of Hopkins was not satisfied with the service it could, as some future time, take back the health inspection duties; The City of Hopkins would have some influence on how the inspections were performed although the inspectors would, of course, be working for another city. The disadvantages include: The City of Hopkins would still be responsible for issuing licenses and collecting fees; Complaints regarding service would be made to the City of Hopkins but City staff would be unable to take direct action to resolve complaints since the inspectors work for another city. The City of Hopkins would have to mediate any complaints. Council Report 98 -072 4 Option 3 The final option that the City has is to relinquish control of environmental health services to Hennepin County. The County would assume all responsibilities for inspections, plan reviews, licensing, fee collection, public education, and emergency outbreak responses. The County would perform the service at no cost to the City. Recent evaluations by the State of Minnesota indicate that Hennepin County's program is consistently ranked higher than most city programs. Program Evaluations % of High Risk Food Food Facilities Lodging Service Inspected Program Edina 1994 85.29% 1989 73.25% Hennepin County 1997 84.08% 1992 83.40% 1988 79.80% Hopkins 1995 77.58% 1991 72.72% Minnetonka 1997 1994 82.48% 1989 77.09% St. Louis Park 1997 1993 80.85% State of MN Average 1995 77.70% 1994 76.60% 1992 75.20% 90.80% 70.00% 89.00% 92.18% 96.00% 91.00% 93.71% 90.20% 95.00% 91.86% MN Statute 157.20, Subd. 2a. Risk categories. (a) High -risk establishment. "High -risk establishment" means any food and beverage service establishment, hotel, motel, lodging establishment, or resort that: (1) serves potentially hazardous foods that require extensive processing on the premises, including manual handling, cooling, reheating, or holding for service; (2) prepares foods several hours or days before service; (3) serves menu items that epidemiologic experience has demonstrated to be common vehicles of food -borne illness; (4) has a public swimming pool; or (5) draws its drinking water from a surface water supply. Their interest in performing environmental health services for Hopkins is to increase the continuity of service in Hennepin County. Currently, the County performs environmental health services in 35 cities and for the Metropolitan Airport Commission. Staff has obtained reports from the cities of Maple Grove, Brooklyn Center, Robbinsdale, and Plymouth. All cities are satisfied with the level of service they receive from Hennepin County and all remarked on the cost savings. Hennepin County will accommodate requests for custom reports on a weekly, monthly, or quarterly basis, depending on each city's needs. Council Report 98 -072 5 All of the County's staff are registered sanitarians. In addition the County has ongoing education programs for owners and operators of food, beverage, lodging, and swimming pool facilities. The advantages with turning this service over to the County include: the County has the staff and expertise to best perform these inspections the County can provide training to businesses elimination of this service will free up staff time to concentrate on the core services the City must provide The disadvantages include: higher fees for some businesses once this service is turned over to the County it cannot be returned to the City of Hopkins Alternatives 1. Contract with another individual to provide health inspection services. 2. Authorize staff to enter into negotiations with another city to provide health inspection services. 3. Turn over health inspection to Hennepin County and the Minnesota Department of Agriculture. Staff recommends Alternative 3 for the following reasons: The County has the staff and expertise to best perform these inspections and thereby protect the health and safety of people who live and shop in Hopkins; and Elimination of this service will free up staff time to concentrate on the core services the City must provide. Memo To: Dan Donahue, City Manager Larry Watts, Director of Finance and Administration Jeanine Clancy, Director of Public Works Shari French, Director of Parks and Recreation Doug Smith, Director of Fire and Safety Colin Kastanos, Director of Police Valerie Leone, City Clerk Jean Coone, General Inspector Randy Kurtz, Fire Inspector Doug Sandstad, Building Official Sue Henry, Community Development Specialist Pam Sylvester, Department Secretary, Community Development Marge Runnako, Department Secretary, Fire and Safety Lorraine Kloss, Department Secretary, Finance and Administration From: Jacquie Cavanagh, Administrative Analyst Kirk McDonald, Director of Community Development Date: February 12, 1998 Re: Status of Environmental Health Inspections City of New Hope The environmental health inspections implementation is progressing on schedule. In an effort to keep everyone abreast of what's going on, I will summarize actions to date and what actions are pending full implementation. What change occurred? On January 12, 1998, the City Council elected to relinquish control over municipal environmental health inspections. What the Council actually did was give back its authority to the State of Minnesota, not Hennepin County. The City Manager subsequently sent a letter to State Department of Health (MDH) informing the Manager of Environmental Health Services of the Council's action. As a result of the Council's action, this agency is now responsible for environmental health inspections in the City of New Hope. However, MDH personnel will not be providing environmental health services for the City. Instead, they will delegate this responsibility to Hennepin County. • Page 1 How will inspection services continue? City staff met with Hennepin County on January 23 to discuss the changes that will be taking place. We discussed what services Hennepin County will provide and established a target date of March 1, 1998 as the date the County would assume environmental health inspections. In addition, we discussed staff concerns regarding County protocol, how to reach the County in the event of an emergency, licensing issues, and the monetary transfer for 1998 collected fees. There are a few areas that the County does not inspect as part of its program and these include wrapped /unwrapped vending machines, ice, food manufacturing, etc. However, the State Department of Agriculture already inspects these areas annually for the City and will continue to do so. In many cases, businesses in New Hope were paying two licensing fees (state and city) and were being inspected twice. There are two areas of inspection that neither the County nor the State provide and these are the inspection of 3.2 beer and garbage trucks. Incidentally, these are not required areas of inspection by the State. Staff, along with neighboring communities, will need to look into long term solutions for local needs. The Hennepin Recycling Group (HRG) is particularly interested in a local approach to a comprehensive garbage hauler inspection program. Staff also met with the Department of Agriculture (MDA) to team more about their inspection program and services. There is no formal agreement between the City of New Hope and MDA for inspection services, primarily because the agency has the final statutory authority to inspect all facilities in the state that fall within their jurisdiction. However, they would like to establish an agreement that outlines their services, in conjunction with those of Hennepin County. As a result, City Staff will know under which jurisdiction a particular facility falls. The meeting was productive and highly informative. When will this happen? In order for the transition to occur officially, the State will draft a letter of agreement to the City of New Hope in which it accepts responsibility for environmental health inspections in the City and delegates the responsibility to Hennepin County. The City Attorney will review the document and it will be placed on the February 23 City Council agenda, pending its arrival. The agreement between MDA and the City, however, may not be finalized by March 1, but this document is not necessary for MDA to continue their inspections. Its primary purpose is to enhance intergovernmental relations between the City and MDA. Who is affected? Community Development The Community Development Department needs to prepare documents that outline the various inspection jurisdictions along with contact names and phone numbers of all field personnel in the event of an emergency or for routine staff or resident inquiries. The Department also needs to communicate this information with all city departments so that the Police Department knows who to call in the case of public nuisance home or Public Works knows who to call in the event of water quality issues, and so forth. Finance & Administration The Finance & Administration Department needs to determine the amount of 1998 collected fees to be transferred to the County, minus any legal and administrative fees incurred in 1998. Page 2 6 March 1998 Dear Business License Owner: Sincerely, Hennepin County -L--, %j‘Xi4t'L-s Susan Palchick, Ph.D., MPH Dan Donahue Supervisor, Environmental Health City Manager Community Health Department Epidemiology and Environmental Health 1011 South First Street, Suite 215 Hopkins, MN 55343 -9413 Epidemiology (612) 930 -2729 Environmental Health (612) 930 -2770 FAX:(612) 930 -2782 An Equal Opportunity Employer Hennepin County will assume responsibility for environmental health services for food, - beverage, lodging and swimming pool facilities in New Hope beginning March 1, 1998. After the resignation of their health inspector, the City evaluated their options and decided that the County could best provide these services. Inspections, plan reviews, education, emergency outbreak response, licensing and complaint follow -up will be handled by Hennepin County Epidemiology and Environmental Health staff. The fees that you have paid to the City for 1998 will cover your 1998 Hennepin County license. Please fill out the enclosed application form and return it so we can issue you a County license. The information on the application form is necessary for our department records. Hennepin County requires each food establishment to have a certified food manager and the State requires each swimming pool to have a certified pool operator on staff. Classes for both are offered both by the County and other educational companies. The County has 6 environmental health specialists covering the 35 cities under our jurisdiction. Each inspector has an assigned area but is also available to answer questions and do plan reviews for other areas. Steve Bray will be the inspector for New Hope establishments and will be visiting you soon. You can address questions to him or any other staff at 930 -2770. We hope to make this transition as easy as possible and provide the best environmental health service to the businesses and citizens of New Hope. Recycled Paper Neighboring Communities' Opinion on Hennepin County Health Inspection Services Robbinsdale Contact: Deb Skogen, City Clerk, 537 -4534 Have been using County services for awhile (at least for the 3 years that she's been there) They have County applications at the counter for applicants, but inform that they need to send all fees and direct all inquiries to the County The County is relied upon to license all of the food vendors during city festivals The City is pleased with County services and they are very easy to work with No complaints from businesses Plymouth Contact: Joe Ryan, Building Official, 509 -5000 They have been using County services since at least 1979 for all environmental inspections They are very good to work with and provide great service and follow -up Staff refers all license inquiries directly to the County; they do not have County application forms at City Hall Does not remember any complaints that the City doesn't perform these services Not a lot of paperwork for the City Brooklyn Center Contact: Sharon Knutson, City Clerk, 569 -3300 They have been using County services since 1992 Reduced tremendous amount of licensing processing /paperwork for City Clerk/License Clerk They have never received any complaints from citizens that the City isn't performing these services They've had "really good luck with Hennepin County" Switching to the County was a tremendous cost savings, close to $100,000 for Sanitarian and 2 health inspectors Council is happy with decision Maple Grove Contact: Laura Kushner Having Hennepin County perform this service is much less expensive For their purposes the County works well HENNEPIN COUNTY CITY OF HOPKINS Food Establishment $330.00 Includes Restaurants & Grocery $115.00 to $275.00 Daycare $163.00 $0.00 Daycare Snacks $93.00 Small restaurant license $120.00 Congregate Dining /Limited Food $163.00 Small restaurant license $120.00 Catering Food Vehicle $249.00 Catering Food Vehicle $145.00 Each Additional Vehicle $75.00 $145.00 Temporary Food Stand — 1St day $32.00 Temporary Food Stand $25.00 Each Additional Day $8.00 $0 (No charge for non-profits) Swimming Pools Outdoor $249.00 Outdoor $90.00 Indoor $249.00 Indoor $135.00 Special Purpose $249.00 Special Purpose $25.00 Each Additional Pool $156.00 Fee based on above Lodging- basic fee $137.00 None Each Room or unit $2.00 Each Room $4.00 Vending Machines Does Not Do Vending Machines $15.00 Bakery Does Not Do Bakery $90.00 Several licenses are calculated both ways as follows: HENNEPIN COUNTY CITY OF HOPKINS Taits SuperValu Food Establishment - $330 $320 Gene's Midnight Market Food Establishment - $330 $205 Nelson's Meatmarket Food Establishment - $330 $250 Hopkins House Lodging, swimming pools - $864 $804