Regulators overseeing Vermont’s food and lodging establishments didn’t always investigate complaints in a timely manner and sometimes failed to determine whether violations were corrected, according to a new report from the state auditor’s office.
The Vermont Department of Health’s Food and Lodging Program received more than 1,000 complaints between 2022 and 2024. Those complaints included allegations of bed bugs, contaminated food equipment and a deli selling expired food, the report said.
The auditor’s office randomly selected 45 complaints from that time period and found that about a third of the time, inspectors didn’t follow up on the complaints in the time frame required under the department’s policies. And among the most critical of those allegations, seven out of the 10 weren’t investigated within the required two-day time period.
Inspectors also closed complaints without confirming that corrective actions were taken, the auditor’s report said. In one case, an inspector saw bed bugs during an inspection but closed out the complaint without getting documentation that the establishment brought in a pest control service.
“You know, you're inclined to say, ‘Well, they promised to do it’ — well, promising is nice, but you have to verify and validate these things,” State Auditor Doug Hoffer said in an interview.
The auditor’s office made several recommendations, including that the health department develop processes to make sure complaints are responded to in a timely manner and to track corrective actions.
“These are good people, they're working hard,” Hoffer said. “But that doesn't mean we couldn't make improvements.”
The Food and Lodging Program licenses and oversees just over 5,200 facilities in the state. The program has 11 full-time public health inspectors, and one part-time inspector. National standards recommend 16-18 inspectors for a state the size of Vermont, the health department said in its response to the auditor’s report.
Elisabeth Wirsing, program manager for the Food and Lodging Program, said she appreciated having an “outside perspective” on their work. The department is already working to implement the auditor’s recommendations, Wirsing said.
“There's a lot of work that happens during complaint investigations out in the field with businesses, and a lot of things are corrected right away,” Wirsing said. “But making sure that we capture all that documentation that supports those activities that are happening is just a continuous improvement area that we can implement quickly.”
The auditor’s office will review the program again next year to see what progress has been made.
