Metro: Regulations for thee, not for me

by NW Spotlight

Government regulations are great for businesses, but apparently they’re not necessary for the government itself. After all, if you can’t trust the government – who can you trust?

Willamette Week (WW) is reporting that a norovirus outbreak at a Metro zoo restaurant in early December led WW to look into the last time the zoo restaurants were inspected. “All other restaurants and food carts must undergo inspections twice a year. But state law governing restaurant inspections doesn’t cover those run by government agencies. The loophole includes Metro, the regional government that runs the zoo and its restaurants.”

WW found that Multnomah County officials stopped inspecting Metro zoo restaurants six years ago, acting on legal advice. An environmental health supervisor for Multnomah County says “the county repeatedly offered to inspect zoo restaurants but was turned down by Metro.”

Metro’s PR person said zoo restaurant employees do daily inspections and that “there’s no evidence county inspections would have prevented the suspected norovirus outbreak.” I’m sure that would totally fly if a private restaurant gave that as an excuse…

To help Metro downplay their arrogance of power that got 135 people sick, maybe they should borrow Tri-Met’s PR person who was touting the benefits of flesh-eating bacteria on buses last year.