It’s a fine mess.
The city continues to blitz merchants with ridiculous fines — raking in cash for scuffed cutting boards, too-short napkins and failure to recognize the medicinal properties of ChapStick.
“It’s not about protecting the consumer or the food. This is a money racket for the city,” said Declan Morrison, owner of Blackwater Inn in Forest Hills, Queens.
A Health Department inspector recently spent several hours looking for ticket-worthy violations, before spotting five thermometers in the pub’s refrigerator.
“The inspector said, ‘This is way too many thermometers,’ and docked me points,” said Morrison, who also owns the nearby Tap House.
But on paper, the offense read, “Accurate thermometer not provided,” a fine of $300. The charge was later dropped, but Morrison said he has forked over about $20,000 in fines in the past year.
Fines against small businesses are skyrocketing. The cash-strapped city sucked in $820 million last year — compared to $741 million in 2007 and $485 million a decade ago.
Andy Koutsoudakis, owner of the Gee Whiz Diner in TriBeCa, says he was hit with a $300 fine because his napkins were shorter than the knives on top of them.
“Supposedly the knife is touching the table,” he said.“Is this a surgery room?”
Koutsoudakis said merchants feel “terrorized.”
“We’re afraid to even speak. When they come in, it’s like drug raids,” he said.
Leslie Barnes, owner of London Lennie’s in Queens, said he was fined $300 for having too many marks on his cutting boards. Now he spends $2,000 on backup boards each year.
Consumer Affairs Department inspectors charged a Ditmas Park barber $650 this year for using an antique register that didn’t print receipts and for posting different prices for men’s and women’s haircuts.
“The city treats small-business owners like their own ATM,” said Leon Kogut of Leon’s Fantasy Cuts. “You can always find something to fine.”
Kings Court Drugs of Ditmas Park got a $250 fine for charging a 14-cent tax on medicated lip balm. City officials say ChapStick with SPF is supposed to be exempt.
Betty Cooney, executive director of the Graham Avenue BID in Williamsburg, said one African immigrant abandoned his small junk shop this summer after city fines became too much.
The last straw was a $100 ticket from the Sanitation Department — for throwing a piece of paper into a city trash can on the corner after a passerby dropped it in front of his door. The inspector accused him of using the receptacle for commercial use.
“It was just wrong. If he left it on the sidewalk, they would have ticketed him too,” Cooney said. “They would have ticketed him no matter what he’d done.”
In July, Public Advocate Bill de Blasio sued the city to obtain data on fine revenues across all city agencies.
He said he will release his findings within the next month and reveal which neighborhoods are being crushed the most and for what frivolous violations.
“Very minor technicalities suddenly became cash cows,” de Blasio told The Post, adding that the fine frenzy seems to be an outer-borough phenomenon.
No receipts from antique register
Leon’s Fantasy Cuts, Brooklyn
Fine: $650
“My cash register doesn’t hurt anybody. Nobody asks for receipts in barber shops — nobody!” said Leon Kogut.
Too many thermometers
Blackwater Inn, Queens
Fine: $300
“Every time they come it’s something stupid. Howcan too many thermometers hurt people?” said Declan Morrison.
Cut marks on cutting boards
London Lennie’s, Queens
Fine: $300
“There’s nothing cheap coming from the Health Department today,” said Leslie Barnes. “Nowwe change the boards frequently, even if they’re hardly marked.”