#Health Department probes Chainsmokers as SLA violations increase state-wide

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Andrew Taggart and Alex Pall of The Chainsmokers perform during the “Safe & Sound” Drive-In Concert.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for Safe & Sound

ALBANY —  The Health Department is beefing up its probe into a rowdy Chainsmokers concert in the Hamptons last weekend, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo also announced increased social distancing violations on bars and restaurants.

“We’re looking at issues on Long Island and concerning the concert that happened there. The so-called Chainsmokers concert,” the Democratic governor told reporters during a phone briefing Wednesday.

“Some other issues have also come to light because of that we’re focusing on those on Long Island, South Hampton especially.”

The DOH launched an investigation Monday into the event, demanding answers from organizers and Southampton officials — the town Supervisor, Jay Schneiderman, who performed at the charity concert and even played the opening set.

The town, as well as organizers In The Know Experiences, could face criminal and civil charges.

“It’s come to our attention there’s been violations in the village of Southampton and the Department of Health is doing an investigation with the supervisor of Southampton town and the village mayor to find out what’s going on, seems like there’s an issue of police enforcement and we’ll get to the bottom of that,” Cuomo added.

The State Liquor Authority separately issued 29 new violations to bars and restaurants found to be out of compliance with COVID-19 restrictions set by the state.

“Yesterday, the SLA did 29 violations on bars [and] restaurants that were not following the law,” he said, rattling off the new figures: “Two in the Bronx, seven in Brooklyn, 11 in Manhattan, five in Queens, one in Staten Island and one in Suffolk — and that was a total of 29. So, follow the law — that’s always good advice.”

Businesses found guilty of violations by the SLA could be subject to a maximum fine of $10,000.

Cuomo also denied the notion that increased inspections are linked to revenue raising efforts — despite the SLA increasing their enforcement ranks by reassigning state workers from other agencies to work as inspectors in the five boroughs and on Long Island.

“I don’t even think I mentioned fines, it has nothing to do with the fines. They are suspensions,” said Cuomo.

“The infection rate has not gone up since we started the reopening eight weeks ago.”

“Statewide there has been a reduction in the infection rate. Why? Because we have rules on our reopening and we enforce the rules on our reopening. If you didn’t have rules on the reopening we would be called Florida, Texas, Arizona and the 34 other states snow seeing increases.”

Meanwhile, state budget officials are predicting a whopping $14 billion hole blown into the state budget thanks to massive revenue losses this year tied to the pandemic, and $16 billion total for the following year.

Cuomo argues without an increase in federal aid for local governments, the state will be looking to fill budget holes in other areas, like $12 billion for the MTA and $3 billion for the Port Authority.