Secret restaurant inspection

In many parts of the country, the results of restaurant inspections are posted on health department Web pages. Anyone heading out to eat can get a quick review of any violations, major or minor, and make informed dining decisions.

It's quite logical for governments to provide such a service. Taxpayers pay for inspectors to compile records, and those records concern public health. In a free society, information reinforces the public's trust and is a guarantee against corruption. Even in Denmark, inspectors now post various forms of smiley faces on restaurants. Clean ones get a big smile, the ones with a few minor violations get a smaller smile and filthy ones get a frown.

In Utah, diners have to take their chances. Government here won't smile on them at all. The inspections are public, but there are no easy ways to get the information.

Now, a state lawmaker wants to make sure Utah diners get even less. Sen. Mark B. Madsen, R-Lehi, is sponsoring SB77, which would close off all inspection records of any business "unless the finding resulted in a fine, revocation of a license, suspension of a business operation, or other sanction or disciplinary action."

In other words, only the worst violators would be on file for the public to see. Minor problems, even persistent ones, would be kept secret. Restaurants would have no incentive to compile perfect inspection records because no one would ever know of it. The best of the best would be lumped with the sloppy in a secret vault.

This is an affront to good government. It is an insult to the people of Utah. It needs to be quickly defeated.

The bill supposes that the people can't be trusted with information; that they will misconstrue a minor violation or that the media will unfairly trumpet minor violations out of context.

Indeed, the bill seems to be a reaction to a Deseret Morning News story last spring that listed both the safest and the most egregiously out-of-compliance restaurants in the Salt Lake area. That story, which required a formal request under the Government Records Access Management Act in order to obtain records, and a computer analysis to compile, was the first and only attempt in memory to give Utahns this valuable information. It was accurate and thorough, and it was fair.

For any lawmaker to say that the current restaurant inspection system in Utah is too open is ridiculous. On the contrary, in an age when Americans are increasingly eating away from home, government should be more open about this, not less.

Because of limited resources, health inspectors here barely are able to examine about 60 percent of restaurants twice a year. Why not use some of this year's budget surplus to provide them more resources to better protect the public? Why not bring Utah up to speed with many other states and provide for health departments to post records online? Why not reward the best restaurants? Why act as if this is none of the public's business?