TUCSON — Some Tucson restaurants haven’t been inspected for more than a year because there aren't enough inspectors within the Pima County Health Department.
In January, the department filled nine vacancies but still has seven openings.
The program manager for the Pima County Consumer Health and Safety unit, Sharon Browning, says the department budgeted for 28 people in the restaurant inspection unit, which is charged with inspecting more than 10,000 licensed restaurants, bars, grocery stores, trailer parks, schools and assisted living homes.
State statutes require counties to conduct unannounced inspections of restaurants every six months. Using the 45 locally owned restaurants that are members of the Tucson Originals as a random sampling reveals that 25 of them haven’t been inspected in the past six months and 10 more have gone at least a year without an inspection.
“I don’t feel that there is any cause for public concern, but hopefully the public will understand all the things public sanitarians do and the importance of providing the proper resources,” said Ben Stepleton, program manager for Food Safety and Environmental Services for the Arizona Office of Environmental Health, which oversees county health departments.
The job of health inspector calls for working a lot of late shifts and overtime, plus the pay isn’t competitive with other counties, officials said.
“I lose them primarily because they leave for more money. That’s what they communicate to me,” Browning said.
The annual pay for sanitarians in Pima County starts at $34,475 and tops out at $50,801, more than $10,000 below the salaries in Maricopa, Pinal, Coconino and Yavapai counties.