Posted: October 20th, 2010 - 8:17am by Doug Powell

Mission Local reports members of the San Francisco Health Commission unanimously approved a resolution yesterday to hire more health inspectors and make the health inspection process itself less mysterious.

Notably absent from the resolution was a recommendation that president James Illig proposed an hour before to the Community and Public Health Committee: to require food establishments to “post the most current inspection scorecard in a window or other locations visible to the public.”

Instead, the resolution included a request for bi-annual reports outlining the progress of the city’s goal to routinely inspect restaurants twice per year, another request for more comprehensive cost reports (there’s some uncertainty as to whether the fees gathered by health inspections cover the cost of running the department), an urging to fill health inspector positions that have been vacant for months and an overhaul of the Department of Public Health’s web site to allow the public easy access to current and past restaurant inspection reports.

Restaurants are already required to post their health inspection reports, said Richard Lee, the Department of Public Health’s Director of Environmental Health and Regulatory Programs. But the report is often posted in hard to find places, if at all. And there is no requirement that they post the green card accompanying the report that shows the restaurant’s most recent inspection score.