Unmasked: Are Henrico businesses following state COVID-19 safety guidelines?

Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam earlier this year issued several executive orders requiring businesses to take steps to protect their employees and customers from COVID-19, but in Henrico, citizen input suggests that hundreds may not be following those orders diligently.

The Henrico Health Department had received nearly 1,800 complaints as of late last week about businesses and organizations in the county allegedly disobeying Northam’s COVID-19 orders – and earlier this month, it shut down two Henrico restaurants after concluding that they posed imminent threats to public health, according to data examined by the Henrico Citizen.

The restaurants – Another Round Bar and Grill at 7515 Brook Road in Lakeside and The Beach House Bar and Grill at 4040 Cox Road in Innsbrook – were the first two Henrico businesses whose operating permits the health department has stripped for failure to follow COVID regulations. Both restaurants reopened last week after demonstrating how they would address the violations noted by health department inspectors.

The department also has sent notice-of-violation letters to four other businesses in the county – the Home Depot at 6501 West Broad Street (Aug. 25); the Lowe’s stores at 4401 Pouncey Tract Road (Aug. 25) and 9490 West Broad Street (Aug. 31); and the Cabela’s at 5000 Cabela Drive (Oct. 6) – notifying each that a failure to correct their violations could result in enforcement, including Class 1 criminal misdemeanor and civil injunctive relief.

VDH does not have direct oversight authority over those businesses – though it does with restaurants – but was tasked by Northam with enforcing his executive orders related to the pandemic.

Northam’s Executive Order No. 63, which took effect May 29, requires that (with certain exceptions) everyone 10 and older wear face masks when in certain establishments, including restaurants. Executive Order 67, which took effect July 1, requires that:
• all parties in dining establishments be separated by at least six feet;
• all employees working in customer-facing areas wear face masks over their noses and mouths at all times;
• bar seats and congregating areas be closed except for foot traffic.

In Oct. 9 letters to The Beach House Bar and Another Round Bar, Henrico Health Director Danny Avula cited recent inspections (shown in other documentation as having occurred Oct. 2) that found some employees and customers not wearing masks or observing required social-distancing rules.

Avula cited “substantial and imminent threats to public health and the environment” as grounds for suspending their operating permits. Another Round reopened Oct. 13 and The Beach House Oct. 14, according to the health department, after presenting action plans and modifications that will allow them to comply with Northam’s orders, Henrico Environmental Health Manager Cindy McKelvy told the Citizen.

The health department had received six separate complaints from the public about Another Round since Phase 3 began – two in July, one in August, two in September and one Oct. 10. Each alleged that some people in the restaurant either were not wearing masks or not social distancing. Some claimed the restaurant had too many people inside (though it is permitted 125, according to the formula outlined by the governor’s orders, if they remain properly distanced).

The most recent complainant wrote that the restaurant was “[t]he only place trying to hold concerts and not following social distancing or mask requirements. They have concerts lined up with 100s interested, even 40 or 50 clumped up and not following Phase 3 guidelines concerns me. It just seems unsafe to be having concerts like everything is normal. Not sanitizing stage equipment between sets either.”

Earlier complaints alleged that seating at the bar was not spaced; employees were not wearing masked and told patrons that the owner hadn’t required them to do so; and that people singing karaoke were not masked and no sanitizer was used between songs.

The six complaints submitted since July about The Beach House, at 4040 Cox Road, were similar in nature.

Wrote one complainant: “Customers are not required to wear masks inside, It started off okay but after about 11 p.m., the number of people doubled, and there is no way that they could socially distant themselves.”

Wrote another: “No one in the building was wearing a facemask. I felt uncomfortable and unsafe, so I left without purchasing a drink. Most patrons were drinking at the bar and not ordering food.”

Complaints focus on lack of masks
All 1,780 complaints made as of last week about Henrico businesses and organizations have come through the online portal established by the Virginia Department of Health this summer to receive such input statewide.

The complaints span a range of specific accusations but demonstrate several general, recurring trends. Many described scenarios in which a number of customers were mask-less and/or too close together inside a business, but employees did nothing. Others described employees or managers allegedly telling the complainants that they didn’t need to wear masks themselves or require customers to do so. A number described improper or ineffective mask-wearing. Some alleged that businesses were actively covering up COVID cases or allowing employees who tested positive to continue working.

Collectively, they paint a picture of businesses and organizations that either are unwilling or unable to enforce Northam’s orders – some evidently unaware of those orders, others apparently misinterpreting them and others perhaps fearful of alienating customers by strictly – or even loosely, at times – enforcing them.

Nearly 500 of the complaints in Henrico have been about restaurants, wineries or breweries, while just about the same number were made about grocery or convenience stores, and almost 400 were related to brick and mortar retail stores.

The Cabela’s location in Short Pump has been the focus of 24 complaints – most claiming that at least half of all customers and employees were not wearing masks.

“I was in this store for ten minutes and finished [my] shopping as quickly as possible,” one complainant wrote. “More than half of the customers weren't wearing masks and they weren't maintaining distances. Complete disregard for the rules. Terrifying.”

Another complainant wrote that after asking the manager why people weren’t being required to wear masks, he said ‘We will not enforce it until it's a government mandate. . . we are a private business.’”

About the Lowe’s on West Broad, one complainant wrote: “Customers, employees EVERY AISLE, no masks. You would [have] thought the sign outside said, ‘Please, remove your mask upon entering.’ It was bizarre.”

Several complaints wrote of the Pouncey Tract location that employees there told them they weren’t required to wear masks in the store.

A number of complaints about the Home Depot alleged that many customers weren’t wearing face masks and employees did nothing to intervene.

In total, 12 public complaints against the Home Depot prompted a phone call from the health department Aug. 6 and a site visit Aug. 13 to evaluate the situation, according to department records. Since the Aug. 25 letter, only one complaint has been made against the store.

Fifteen complaints against the Lowe’s on Pouncey Tract Road and 14 against the location on West Broad Street prompted similar phone calls and site visits from the health department in July and August; since then, five more complaints have been made against the former and four against the latter.

Restaurant owner frustrated with process
Another Round co-owner Bob Iannacone confirmed to the Citizen some of the complaints and findings of inspectors who visited his restaurant but challenged others. But he said that he was most frustrated with the way health department and Virginia ABC officials had conducted their two inspections – and with the timing of his permit revocation.

“When they show up, they’ll show up at 10, 11 o’clock at night, on a night you’re generally busy – which I get it, they want to check you out,” he said. “But the way they come in. . . is basically like Nazi Germany. They’ve got two health officials and four ABC officers, with their bulletproof vests on, their guns.”

In a letter to the health department, Iannacone said he felt the officials were there to intimidate, scare and confuse his customers.

During their first inspection of Another Round Sept. 11, he said, the officials cited the restaurant for, among other issues, not having a sign on the front door advising patrons that they would need to wear a mask and maintain proper distance. He maintains that he did have a sign – not on the front door, but just inside it so that it wouldn’t be damaged by the weather.

During their Oct. 2 visit, the officials said the sign was insufficient because it didn’t indicate that anyone exposed or potentially exposed to COVID-19 should quarantine for 14 days.

Complaints lodged against the restaurant claimed the karaoke microphones weren’t sanitized between singers, but Iannacone said that wasn’t the case – and that in fact, he and his staff set up eight separate microphones and cleaned one with Clorox wipes and sanitizer immediately after one singer, while the next singer used a different microphone.

Iannacone said he finds irony in the fact that Northam and other state officials give press conferences using the same microphone without any sanitizing in between.

He was particularly bothered, he said, by the way his restaurant was shut down. He said he heard nothing from the health department after the Oct. 2 visit until an official delivered the permit-suspension notice on the afternoon of Oct. 9, a Friday.

“They just came back seven days later to say ‘you’re closed,’” he said. The department doesn’t conduct inspections on the weekends and wasn’t able to send an inspector back until early last week to check on, and approve, Iannacone’s adjustments.

“I lost five days of business,” he said, adding that he had made all the required changes – among them, ordering masks to hand out to customers, roping off the bar area, and fixing the sign – within three hours of the Oct. 9 notice of suspension. “I’ve lost so much money. Five days of business – there’s my rent.”

Iannacone doesn’t believe the responsibility to enforce mask-wearing and distancing among his customers should fall upon him.

“They’re making me kick my customers out of the building cause they don’t want to wear masks. How is that beneficial to my business later on down the road when a customer’s mad because I made him leave because he didn’t have one? It’s not just today that they’re hurting me, it’s hurting further down the road.

“Everybody’s just trying, day to day, trying to make it. When is it going to end? The world can’t stay like this.”

How the health department has responded
The VDH online portal has been active for about four months, meaning that in Henrico, a typical month has produced about 445 complaints or alleged violations – roughly about 20 each weekday.

McKelvy, Henrico’s environmental health manager, receives and reviews each one herself, then assigns it to an environmental health specialist if warranted. All complaints that are made against businesses over which VDH has direct authority (such as restaurants, hotels, swimming pools and other foodservice establishments) receive some type of follow-up, she told the Citizen. (All of the state’s local health districts are extensions of the VDH.)

The agency first attempts to educate the operators of those businesses about the state regulations, typically through phone calls, McKelvy said. But if three or more complaints about the same location are made, the department will visit the site and conduct an inspection, she said.

If during those inspections, officials observe two or more egregious violations, they’ll consider taking enforcement action (typically suspending a permit, as was the case with the two Henrico restaurants).

“Our primary goal is to provide education to facilities and to help them comply with the Executive Orders,” McKelvy said.

For any facilities that don’t fall directly under the VDH’s direct authority (such as retail stores), McKelvy will assign follow-up action (typically education by phone) after three or more complaints have been made – unless the complaints involve egregious violations, in which case follow-up occurs regardless of how many complaints exist.

Once she’s received 10 or more complaints about a single location, her team will conduct a site inspection. If subsequent complaints occur, the office sends a notice of violation (as it has done with the two Lowe’s, Home Depot and Cabela’s locations).

The next step for those businesses, if more complaints are made, would be another inspection and then possible Class 1 misdemeanor charges and/or an injunction, McKelvy said.

Some complaints are referred to the agency that regulates the business (such a grocery stores, which are referred to the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services).

Data related to about 560 of the 1,780 complaints received by the Henrico Health Department does not include information about what type of follow-up, if any, the department made, because the state’s system didn’t record that information initially, McKelvy said.

But of the 1,222 complaints for which that information is available, department officials:
• referred the complaints in 388 cases to the state agency with direct oversight of the involved business (in almost all cases, the Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services);
• provided education about the state requirements to 359 businesses and organizations;
• determined that in 314 cases, there was no basis for any action;
• determined that no further action was required in 62 cases, typically after having spoken with a company or organization representative;
• in 95 cases either notified (or another state agency notified) businesses or organizations of violations or conducted inspections of them.

Complaints vary in nature
One complainant wrote that a construction contractor didn’t enforce mask-wearing on a Henrico site and 30 employees subsequently tested positive for COVID – but even afterwards, the company still didn’t enforce the requirement, the complainant wrote.

An employee of another company submitted a complaint about its management team.

“Management has demanded that my coworkers and I remove our masks while working,” one wrote of his or her company. “Management has neglected to provide PPE and disinfecting materials since May 2020.”

Both of those complaints were referred to the Department of Labor and Industry.

in another instance, an employee of a retail store wrote that the chain’s corporate management had actively forbidden staffers from following the state regulations.

“We do have the signs posted on the doors about facial coverings and social distancing,” he wrote, “however, as of 6/28/20 we are not allowed to enforce the facial coverings requirement. Corporate sent the following communication: ‘If a customer or customers are not following the requirement, please do not approach them or stop them from shopping in the store.’”

Wrote another complainant of a different store: “The employee that rang up my purchase not only took her mask off while I was standing at the register but started eating while I was standing there waiting for my card payment to process.”

A handful of the “complaints” were directed at the VDH reporting system itself.

“Get a life!” read one. “Does the VDH think they are everyone's ‘daddy’ trying to get citizens to ‘tattle tale’ like little kids?? PLEASE!!! Who do you people think you are! This is asinine!!!”

In several cases, customers complained about being refused service at stores because they suffered from medical conditions and weren’t wearing masks. But that’s not a violation, since stores can refuse service as they see fit.

In 573 instances, complainants opted to provide their e-mail address. Of those who did, 67 have submitted at least two complaints through the system, for a total of 185 complaints. The most submitted by one person who provided an email address was 11.