What’s at stake?
Advocates for the city’s sidewalk vendors have until next Wednesday to convince Fresno City Council members to make changes to the proposed “Sidewalk Vending Ordinance.”
A controversial new ordinance regulating sidewalk vendors in Fresno narrowly passed an initial vote from the city council on Thursday, but the fight isn’t over with more last-minute changes to the law expected.
The new “Sidewalk Vending Ordinance,” which restricts where the city’s vendors can sell food, passed through a 4-3 vote, with one of the law’s own sponsors voting against it Thursday.
The regulations have drawn sharp criticism from Fresno’s Mobile Food Vendor Association and advocates over the past month. A dozen spoke out in opposition to the ordinance Thursday, most of whom were active vendors.
“We’re asking for more help and more time,” said Miguel Lopez, president of the vendors association, through a Spanish interpreter, “to learn what we need to do.”
Councilmember Miguel Arias, one of the ordinance’s three sponsors who voted to approve it, said that despite the opposition from vendors, the regulations are needed to address a number of bad actors concentrated in the Tower District particularly.
“It is a handful of people that continue to violate basic rules,” Arias said.
“In order for us to enforce the rules in any part of the city, we need to have basic rules across the city so that these individuals simply don’t move a block next door,” he added, “and create a replica of the same problem somewhere else.”
Councilmembers were divided on the new restrictions, however, with Tyler Maxwell, Nelson Esparza and Luis Chavez voting to oppose it.
Chavez, who co-sponsored the ordinance with Arias and Council President Annalisa Perea, requested the council push an initial vote on the ordinance back to the next meeting, though Arias and Perea denied that request.
“I don’t want to give the impression that we did not listen,” Chavez said. “There were a lot of people that came here and spoke – took time out of their day. I want to make sure that we at least honor that.”
Arias and Chavez both said from the dais they plan to meet with vendors as soon as Friday to discuss additional changes.
City ordinances, like the new sidewalk vending regulations, require two passing votes in order to become law.
The ordinance will come back before the council Dec. 5, though it remains to be seen whether that will be a second vote on the ordinance with minor tweaks or a significantly revised version – potentially requiring the council to reintroduce it and start the voting process over.
“If they do adopt it without more significant changes, the street food vendors are going to be negatively impacted,” said Veva Islas, executive director of Cultiva La Salud, in an interview with Fresnoland following Thursday’s meeting.
Fresno sidewalk vendors worry about violence and lost income
Ten vendors appealed to the city council during public comments Thursday, asking them not to approve the ordinance.
Some of them had also spoken at the council’s last meeting Nov. 7. The council was supposed to take their first vote on the new ordinance then, but delayed the vote until Thursday’s meeting to make changes in response to concerns from vendors.
Several vendors Thursday spoke of dangerous working conditions, with two saying they’ve had a gun pulled on them while working in Fresno. Some worry this ordinance, by placing new restrictions on where vendors can set up, will make them even more vulnerable to violence.
Chavez and his fellow sponsors insisted Thursday the “people that are here are not the problem,” alluding to the Mobile Food Vendor Association members.
The bulk of issues with vendors have happened in the Tower District, city officials have emphasized. Those issues include vendors obstructing walkways and dumping grease on sidewalks.
Chavez asked the City Attorney’s Office whether it would be possible under existing state laws on sidewalk vending to create regulations “confined to a specific geographical area” like Tower – a question Assistant City Attorney Christina Roberson said would take more time and information to answer.
Arias and Perea, however, both opposed creating different rules for just one neighborhood of the city and opted to move forward with an initial vote on the ordinance Thursday.
The other two “no” votes came from Councilmembers Tyler Maxwell and Nelson Esparza.
Maxwell took issue with the fines set forth in the ordinance for violators, which range from $25 to $100 – already down from $100-$500 in the version of the ordinance discussed Nov. 7. Those fees would kick in after a six-month education period, when only written warning will be given.
“For folks making $100 a day,” Maxwell said, “a potential penalty for $100 is the difference between feeding your family that day or not.”
Islas, whose nonprofit organization works closely with mobile food vendors, said without significant changes, she’s worried how this will affect the vendors’ livelihoods.
“They’re going to be fined,” she said, “and the city is then going to have to reconcile how it is that they’re putting these micro-businesses out of business. Who does that ultimately serve?”
What’s next for Fresno sidewalk vendors?
Islas confirmed Arias and Chavez had scheduled a meeting with Cultiva and mobile food vendors Friday to discuss further changes to the ordinance.
At Thursday’s meeting, City Attorney Andrew Janz said the council has until Nov. 27 to make changes to the ordinance for the Dec. 5 agenda, due to the short week with the upcoming Thanksgiving holiday.
Perea said depending on how significant the changes are, the council will either bring the ordinance back for a second and final vote, or reintroduce an updated version for a first vote at the meeting.
The city council only has two regular meetings left this calendar year: the next meeting Dec. 5 and another the following week on Dec. 12.
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