PHOENIX — The Arizona Department of Health fielded more than 8,500 complaints from customers about businesses breaking the state’s emergency social distancing mandates, according to records released to 12 News.
Ultimately, 14 businesses were temporarily shut down as a result of those complaints.
4,400 businesses received complaints
The complaints involved 4,400 unique businesses in Arizona.
The top five businesses getting the most complaints were all gyms. Mountainside Fitness was at the top of the list with 292 complaints at multiple locations.
The company clashed with the governor in court during the lockdown and was eventually allowed to open but under tight restrictions.
Restaurants, bars and nightclubs were the target of more than 4,000 complaints.
Common allegations included, “no social distancing between tables”, “no one in the kitchen wearing a mask while preparing and handling food…” and “2 customers walked in with no masks… owner did not ask them to put masks on or comply…”.
High profile complaints resulted in closures
High profile restaurants Casa Amigos and Bottled Blonde along with the concert venue Pressroom were among those closed by the state. It seemed businesses most likely to be closed were featured on local TV stations because cell phone video showed blatant violations.
The 14 closures amounted to .3% of all businesses that received complaints.
“That has been one of my number one grievances about this whole response”, said Will Humble, former director of ADHS and a frequent critic of how the state handled the COVID-19 crisis.
Humble says the state should have had stronger enforcement measures in place.
“If you say that you are going to have a complaint hotline then you should be doing on-site investigations and you should have an enforcement action so that the businesses know that it’s a real expectation, that it’s not just something that’s on paper,” Humble said.
ADHS defends handling of complaints
ADHS did not respond to an interview request for this story. The agency issued a written statement describing how the state resolved complaints by communicating with businesses.
A spokesperson says the agency made more than a thousand on-site visits and “ADHS was able to resolve most other complaints by phone consultation.”
Governor Doug Ducey has lifted requirements for capacity limits and mask mandates at businesses and schools. Though many continue to enforce their own policies.
Humble favors narrower restrictions in the future
Moving forward, Humble says given what we know now about COVID-19, if a new vaccine-proof variant were to spread in the community he believes restrictions should be narrower than they were last summer.
Humble cited research in the scientific journal Nature suggesting restaurants, bars and night clubs were most likely to spread COVID-19.
“I would probably be on the side of people saying no stay-at-home order. Don’t close the schools. Just focus on bars, restaurants and night clubs,” Humble said.