Final Restaurant Working Group Recommendations to the Mayor — File 210264

June 7, 2020      Joseph A. Curtatone, Mayor  City of Somerville  City Hall  93 Highland Ave.  Somerville, MA 02143    RE:  RESTAURANT WORKING GROUP RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE OPENING OF  SOMERVILLE’S RESTAURANT INDUSTRY    Dear Mayor Curtatone,    Thank you for the opportunity to work with you and your staff to explore options to ensure  that the opening of Somerville’s restaurant industry can take place in a manner that keeps  workers safe and welcomes back our loyal customers so that they feel secure and  confident. As an industry that contributes substantially to Somerville’s dynamic culture, it is  critical that restaurants in Somerville lead the way in building a culture of excellence during  COVID-19, while improving our industry’s ability to bounce back and be resilient through this  crisis. We seek to continue to be partners with the City, in this constantly evolving public  health crisis, to ensure a safe and strong opening as well as creating various means of  support aimed at building the best environment for a resilient recovery of Somerville’s  dining and nightlife industry.    Over this past week, we’ve worked with your staff to review the Commonwealth’s reopening  guidance for restaurants with an eye toward adjusting and calibrating guidelines and  working to clarify others to ensure uniform compliance. We’ve brainstormed about design  solutions to enable restaurants to make better use of private and public areas with potential  to host expanded outdoor dining. We’ve collaborated on strategies to create a unified,  simplified permitting process for the reuse of outdoor spaces during the emergency. We’ve  also developed a set of recommendations that we believe can provide a foundation for  enabling the restaurant industry to continue to thrive and contribute to Somerville’s culture  beyond this crisis.    Recommendations to Enhance Safety Guidelines  After analyzing the Commonwealth’s guidelines and other industry resources, we ask you to  consider making the following recommendations part of Somerville approach to opening  restaurants:    ● Require a detailed site-specific COVID 19 Hazard & Safety Plan (HASP) and Dining  Layout Plan:​ A detailed HASP must be a central requirement for restaurants to open  again. The HASP details ​how ​the Commonwealth’s reopening guidelines for  1

restaurants will be applied. The HASP details the social distancing, hygiene, staffing  plans, operations, cleaning and disinfecting protocols restaurants will put in place to  ensure that virus spread is minimized and can be managed. The HASP must be  completed, printed out and available for inspection to workers, customers and  health inspectors while a shop is open. Restaurants must complete and print out a  layout plan, detailing all of the physical modifications outlined in the HASP.      A template has been created as a result of the working group’s effort that should  make it easy for restaurants to develop their own plan.    ● Clarify guidelines as they relate to maintaining a 6 foot distance between persons  within restaurants and require that face coverings be worn by all people over the  age of 2 years except when individuals are seated for dining services. ​The  Commonwealth’s guidelines are sound, but require clarification to ensure customer  and ​worker safety is maintained as restaurants open again. The following  clarifications seek to strengthen practices that will create a safer environment in  Somerville’s restaurants:    Commonwealth Guideline  Suggested Somerville Clarification  Restaurants may provide carry-out or  delivery service, but all safety standards  for table separation, size of party, and  hygiene must be maintained for any  indoor or outdoor table seating that is  available to carry-out patrons​.  A 6 foot distance must be maintained  from person to person with dining  customers as well as take out  customers. Face coverings are required  for all customers.  Close or reconfigure worker common  spaces and high density areas where  workers are likely to congregate (e.g.,  break rooms, eating areas) to allow 6 feet  of physical distancing; redesign work  stations to ensure physical distancing  (e.g., separate tables, stagger  workstations on either side of processing  lines so workers are not face-to-face, use  distance markers to assure spacing  including in the kitchen area).  6 foot distancing should be maintained  for all person-to-person interaction,  restaurant employees included. All  employees are required to wear face  coverings at all times. Markers and work  flow arrows are suggested to maintain  flow. Whenever possible, 6 foot  distance should be maintained.  Restaurants are interested in exploring the legal feasibility of refusing entry to  customers who refuse to wear masks and would appreciate the City’s support.    ● Require all restaurant employees participate in ServSafe COVID19 or comparable  training prior to opening: ​While the Commonwealth’s guidance requires restaurants  2

to provide safety training for workers, the Working Group recommends that  employees complete a free, online course provided by ServSafe that covers  procedures to ensure the safety of guests and staff     It is recommended that the City consider showing the video on the City of  Somerville’s local cable government channel or City YouTube channel to ensure that  the information is accessible to all and working with the industry to distribute training  materials in other languages.    ● Distribute the Massachusetts Restaurant Association Reopening Checklist to all  restaurants, once approved to reopen.​ The Working Group suggests that this  resource be shared with all Somerville restaurants as a valuable resource and can be  found at  https://files.constantcontact.com/0d5bb3c6be/5a4ef226-3a6b-4602-b7cb-3f4c5f7 b18b6.pdf    ● Require restaurants to keep a customer log for the previous four weeks of  reservations to be available for inspection at all times: ​To ensure that contract  tracing can take place in an expeditious manner, a logbook that keeps the name and  telephone number of at least one person in each party will be maintained and  available upon request by City or Commonwealth health officials.      Recommendations to Expedite Outdoor Dining Options  The City must create a flexible strategy for the reuse and permitting of private outdoor  spaces and the public realm. Recommendations include:    ● Expedite approvals for the existing Somerville outdoor dining license holders.  There are forty-one eating establishments that have already been approved by the  License Commission to host outdoor dining on public or private property. So long as  permit holders can submit a COVID 19 Safety Plan and Layout, which outlines how  they will meet all Commonwealth and local requirements, these businesses can and  should be allowed to open right away. We understand that the License Commission  will need to vote to allow us to use a new COVID 19 approved layout, but we  understand that they are ready to take that vote early this week..    ● Develop an expedited approval process for eating establishments seeking a new,  temporary outdoor dining license or expanding the footprint of an existing area​.  The Working Group recognizes that in a city as dense as Somerville, there are many  competing needs for valuable public and private spaces. These competing needs  are magnified as a result of the social distancing guidelines brought on as a response  to COVID-19. However, it is imperative that restaurants be allowed to quickly  mobilize to make use of outdoor seating locations. We ask that the City commit to  3

no more than a 24-48 hour review process for all new applications or for existing  applications that seek to expand their outdoor dining footprint. This will require, for  this calendar year only, the City Council waiving their review of outdoor seating,  which we understand the Council will take up at their meeting on Thursday, June  11th.    ● Quickly Explore non-traditional approaches to increase the amount of space  available for outdoor dining. ​ Restaurants are in desperate need to identify more  space to allow them to safely host dining customers. One important option is to  repurpose street space traditionally used for curbside parking as either circulation  space or dining space. Many cities around the world have quickly deployed cones,  movable barriers and temporary ramps to create protected dining areas in the street.  Others have used this equipment to establish safe and accessible paths of travel for  pedestrian circulation in the street, allowing additional sidewalk space to be  converted to outdoor dining space. Other solutions will require more investigation,  like closing off street segments or public parking lots for reuse for outdoor dining.  But, these ideas could potentially create needed space and help to draw customer  attention to safe, spacious outdoor dining options, and help put Somerville’s  restaurants on the map. Creating shared-use spaces will be important to provide a  lifeline for those restaurants who don’t have outdoor dining space in front of their  business. The Working Group is committed to continue to work with your team to  identify these opportunities.    ● Share sample layout drawings for outdoor dining to all Somerville restaurants.   The Working Group has helped to inform staff drawings and sketches on how to  implement the guidelines in various street and sidewalk scenarios. These sketches  can provide valuable guidance for restaurants thinking about setting up outdoor  dining for the first time. Guidance documents should be distributed widely to all  Somerville restaurants.      Recommendations to Support Restaurants   Somerville’s restaurants are in it for the long haul and would welcome the chance to work  closely with the City to ensure that the industry can adapt and succeed, now, as we work  through the emergency and throughout the recovery phase.      ● Waive all permit and license fees related to outdoor dining during COVID19.  Somerville’s restaurant industry is facing the most serious threat to its viability and  needs the City’s support now. A first and logical step would be your consideration  to waive all permit, license and parking meter rental fees related to all temporary  outdoor dining expansion during COVID19.      4

● Explore additional tax and license fee relief for restaurants to provide long-term  support for restaurants: ​ This may include waiving, delaying the collection of or  abating local property taxes, fees, including parking meter rental fees and business  parking fees. We recognize that the City is facing financial challenges due to  COVID19, but developing relief to ensure long-term strength of both the City and the  restaurant industry is mutually beneficial.      ● Support efforts to bring landlords to the table to help identify ways to sustain a  viable restaurant industry in Somerville.    ● Work with the restaurant industry to identify strategies to procure lower-cost  PPE: ​ This might lead to collaborative, group purchasing arrangements or potentially  a City-led procurement process, if feasible.    ● Support our efforts to petition the insurance industry​ to lower premiums now as a  result of COVID19 and not all the insurance industry to wait to adjust premiums until  year end audits are completed.    ● Join Somerville’s restaurants to advocate to permanently cap third party delivery  fees at 15%    ● Temporarily waive A-frame sign permitting and associated fees during COVID19    ● A commitment from the City to continue to participate with the Working  Committee to address small business/restaurant support beyond the current  crisis​. The Working Committee membership should broaden to include City staff,  the Chamber of Commerce, lenders, suppliers, liquor distributors, etc. to identify  workable strategies to ensure long-term survival.     ● Explore opportunities to increase revenue for restaurants during COVID19: ​ This  could include allowing the use of EBT cards for take-out orders (but, not for alcohol  purchases), allowing the sale of cocktails to go, and the sale of alcoholic beverages  to people on waitlist/sidewalk.    ● Support efforts to expand a “blanket” approval to expand restaurant hours of  operation during COVID19 from 9AM-2AM​. While this may require approval from  various boards and commissions, this type of flexibility will be crucial as businesses  test capacity reduction and customer patronage patterns during COVID19.    ● Support efforts to allow restaurants to expand the hours of operation for outdoor  dining and open windows.​ Currently, license holders must close outdoor dining and  windows at 10 PM. Even when restaurants are allowed to serve inside, maximizing  5

the use of outdoor spaces will provide a safer experience for customers and  workers.      ● Explore opportunities to find new ways for the City to collaborate with Somerville  restaurants and create new business: ​ This might include programs that use  restaurants to provide prepared meals to senior citizens, the local shelters, the  schools, or other human service programs.    ● Explore collaborations with large Somerville businesses to utilize local  restaurants for catering.    ● Explore the creation of uniform City signage for reopening rules. ​ This might be  similar to the signage similar to what restaurants receive with liquor licenses.      ● Encourage the collaboration between the restaurant industry, local economic  development partners and the City to develop technical assistance programs to  support the restaurant industry:​ This could include:  ○ Assistance to develop an updated, legal handbook for employees regarding  rights  ○ Establish a network of minority/women small business  ○ Seminars and technical assistance on the topics of bankruptcy, debt  restructuring, re-negotiating leases, insurance, or legal issues related to  asking customers medical questions related to COVID19, screening of  customers/employees and other labor law issues  ○ Creation of a centralized portal for all business support resources, including  information about which businesses are open/closed, the type of services  offered. This portal could be designed to allow restaurants to post and  communicate with each other.    ● During COVID 19, any use of public spaces for outdoor dining should be prioritized  for Somerville licence holders.​ These precious public assets should be used to  meet City needs or to enhance the ability of local restaurants to expand operations  during COVID-19, not out-of-town operators seeking to run beer gardens or other  concepts.    The Somerville Restaurant Pledge  Small and independent restaurants and retailers are the soul of Somerville. ​In order to  ensure a safe and successful reopening, we feel a collaborative approach and a stronger  than ever partnership are needed among all those involved from owners to employees, city  and elected officials, customers, vendors, community organizations and beyond. We will  all need to work together with you, Mayor, to ensure that the restaurants of Somerville stay  safe, vital and successful.  6

  As an industry and as individual restaurant operators, we have been committed to keeping  our customers safe throughout the current crisis. Many of us took the step to close before  the Commonwealth issued the state-wide stay at home orders. We are all committed to  safety and building the trust of our customers. We are committed to working with you to  ensure that Somerville’s restaurant industry, a long-time leader in the Greater Boston  region, can be ​the ​leader in COVID19 safety.      The Working Group believes that many Somerville’s restaurants are ​ready to open on June  8, 2020​ and others will be working to open in the coming days and weeks, and we welcome  the opportunity to discuss with you this series of collaborative recommendations at your  earliest convenience.    Yours in partnership,        Conor Brennan  PJ Ryans Irish Pub    Jess Willis  The Independent, Brass  Union, Foundry on Elm,  Saloon, The Rockwell  Theatre    Dimitra Murphy  Daddy Jones Bar  Maria Rondeau  Celeste    Peter Creyf  Mr. Crepe    Greg Coughlin  Olde Magoun’s Saloon    Co-Chairs of the Mayor’s Restaurant Working Group      7