Food Truck Operations within the City of Melrose Ordinance. Proposed Ordinance relative to Food Truck Operations within the City of Melrose. (ID# 12951)

Transcript (~14 min @ 2:05)

Speakers identified by voice; unnamed voices are numbered within this recording. Auto-caption text — verify against the video.

▶ 1:54 Maya Jamaleddine: And for tonight, the only ordinance and item on our agenda is ID number 2025 dash 1 23 Food Truck operations with the state of Merose ordinance, proposed ordinance relative to food truck operations within the state of Merose. ID number 12 9 5 1. And for the record, um, we, the legal and legislation have been discussing, um, the suggestion that, uh, colleagues have been, um, proposing. And, uh, I will open it to consular Ro, who is one of the co-sponsors.

▶ 2:30 Cal Finocchiaro: Yes, thank you. And I know, um, city Solicitor Phillips is here and is going to speak, but I just wanna give some context before we start in. Um, right now, as a mobile food vendor, if you come to the city, um, you would go to the health department to get like a temporary, not, not even, so a temporary pass. It's more like right sign offs by the, the health department. Um, so that's what we're kind of calling the temporary one day pass right now, or permit. Um, but overall, this, um, ordinance is for an annual license application. Um, and we're gonna try to streamline it, streamline it so that if someone comes into the, the building, they would have to go to city clerk's office. And if they just wanna try out the city, um, operating here for one day, they would still have to apply for a one day pass permit. So we'll have basically two different permits. Okay. One would just be one so that you just come in, um, you just have to sign off on the health department and not all the other permit application requirements, um, that is required for the annual pass permit. Um, and the city clerk will actually keep track of that. So if they're only allowed to take out three of these one day permits.

▶ 3:58 Cal Finocchiaro: Hmm. Okay. So the city solicitor, I mean, sorry, the city clerk will track that. So after three applications of one vendor, you know, taking out three applications of these one day, um, permits, um, they'll be asked to move two pay for an annual permit. Okay. So I think that just a little, um, difficulty sort of, some people were having difficulty understanding that. Um, but ideally what we're, we're going after is for, um, food trucks or mobile vendors that want to operate business in our city regularly. And that would be the annual permit, which would use separate permit application through the city clerk's office. And that would be $500.

▶ 4:38 Speaker 2: Um, so I just wanna clarify that. Does

▶ 4:40 Maya Jamaleddine: That make sense? Thank you. Okay. Thank you. Um, counselor Ro, um, we have city ster, um, with us, uh, the floor is yours.

▶ 4:50 Speaker 1: Excellent, thank you. So I took a look at the last version that council had, um, before you on the food check ordinance at the request of Councillor Frio. So I'm happy if, if you think it would be helpful to take you through some of the edits that I'm proposing. Absolutely. Um, so I did attach the Red Line version as well as the clean version, um, to the agenda for tonight. So I can take you through the various edits. Um, you'll see a lot of the deletions that I made, um, are just addressed in different sec, different sections of the ordinance. It was just a different way to restructure a lot of it. Um, so starting with the, uh, 1 27 13 license required, um, that's the case for that. That's just a, a rephrasing of the language that had been there. The same meaning is still in place. The second, um, we did add the requirement, human consumption to the general public health director, uh, Anthony Chu did clarify for food service permits. We're not talking about, um, a private catering company that comes to someone's house for a private party. We're really trying to regulate food trucks that are open to the general public for consumption. That's where his office gets involved generally with food service permits. So we wanted to make that clear. Um, so we added that language into the, um, the second paragraph of 1 27 13. Um, and you'll see we also included the purpose that Counselor Vandiver, that I I believe expresses the intent to counsel for this license ordinance. Just that it was, uh, intended to, um, apply to streamline the operation of these trucks, uh, within the city of Melrose, um, on a recurring basis within city limits. Um, and then the last paragraph of this first section, 1 27 13. This is where I put all the exemptions that I think council had previously had at the end of the ordinance. Um, and you'll see, um, they're consistent with what council had previously wanted, vendors associated with the farmer's market. Those would still go through directly through the health department, which they do now. They pay, they pay a fee, um, for that. They get inspected by the health department, fill out an application, vendors selling food and beverages on a one day basis or for special events, same thing there. They also have, um, events. They also have, um, rental applications, I would say, through either DPW or the schools or whoever they're renting from. Um, and they also go and get food service permits from health beverage or snack cart services provided at Mount Hood Golf Course or Bellevue, uh, was exempted at the requested council. And then also, like I mentioned before, private events that are not open to the general public are not meant to apply. Um, this ordinance is not meant to apply to. Um, and then the next section, again, this is just outlining the application process. I think it's consistent with what council had previously been proposing. The annual license fee of $500 a form prescribed by the city clerk, uh, which I believe will, will probably track initially the Common Vic, um, application. And we'll work off of that in order to craft one for this license. Um, b contains a lot of the license specific requirements for this mobile food vendor license. Um, it doesn't include everything, um, that the Common Vic might have. Just the standard. Um, it, it includes anything that might be different, I would say for the mobile food vendor license that council wants to put in place. So, um, you'll see you need a food service permit issued by the Board of Health. You have to have the Hawker Peddler's license. You'll see it still has all the approvals like with the Common Vic that are required from the various departments. Fire would be an inspection, health department would be an inspection. Um, I did add in here, um, phrases relative to insurance, what we'd be requiring for insurance coverage, for example, not the specific limits, but if they're not operating on private property, we'd want an indemnification agreement, which I'd, I would probably add into the application that the clerk puts together, uh, for their sign off that they would indemnify the city if something were to happen on city property while they're operating on this. Um, and also general liability policy. Um, the, we did change the language. The DPW engineering division, um, would issue occupancy permits if there would be any parking along the public way. So that's where a lot of, um, if a location is requested along the public way for one of these trucks to park, it would be worked out in advance before it got to council. So that's the point of having all of these in place. It would be part of the application process. So when it gets to council, everything would already be vetted by the appropriate departments. Engineering would already have given the occupancy permit dependent on council approval of the license. Um, c after approval, after all the application materials were reviewed by the city clerk for completeness, it would go before counsel for a hearing. Um, you'll see we took out, um, the short term permit requirements. Um, again, I believe, uh, councilor Kyra mentioned previously, but, um, director Chu said he does issue these one days on a, you know, regular basis to various like Cookie Monster truck or something that's coming into Melrose just for a one-time event or for a fundraiser. So we didn't see any reason to really complicate it. Um, he said sometimes they get 14 day notice, so it didn't seem to make much sense to now put that in front of council and have to have you rush to improve these things, um, for these one time events. Um, let's see. And then each permit, so I, we just deleted vehicle business information. Those vary the specific information that we had previously had in here. This is all gonna be on the, uh, food service permit. So we would have that anyways. Um, I think all of the rest of this, uh, approved locations of operations, I guess we can go to that now. Um, that I kept the same. Counsel wants to have, no, applicant shall be approved to park within 50 feet of an entrance of a restaurant unless they've received written consent from owners of any restaurant within 50 feet. Um, and then two, I just deleted out. Um, there was just general statements that locations in the city may be established by order of the traffic commission. We took that out, be I took that out because we don't have any specific locations yet approved. There's nothing, um, saying they can't do that in the future. But as of right now, there's no designated areas. So, um, and I did review this with Director Ellis this afternoon. Uh, she re she suggested I add in as applicable by the traffic commission. Um, so we did add that language in there, which sort of envisions possibly in the future, them approving zones that may allow for these.

▶ 11:09 Speaker 1: Um, I think that's it for that section. And then conditions of operation, if we wanna go to that section 1 27 15. Um, so for this one, I largely kept A through D the same. Um, e we've changed the language of slightly just because, uh, the occupancy permits issued by engineering division, those will usually alter, um, parking requirements and things like that. So we wanted to just make it clear, except a specifically allowed by the occupancy permit that they receive before they get to city council. They have to comply with any posted traffic and regulations because there's a lot of them they're not gonna have to comply with given the occupancy permit. Um, and then number one of that section, we just took out the reference of the specific 20 feet of an intersection. Uh, director Ellis just thought there's a lot of different measurements, um, and restrictions within the traffic code that she would also want to apply. Mm-hmm. So instead, I think it would, I, I think it would make sense if we just cited chapter two 20 vehicles in traffic, which is the traffic code. And then when this actually went to get updated in E code, we could put a hyperlink where the two 20 is, and it would take any person that looked at this ordinance to the traffic code. Um, so that's why I folded that. And number one, um, of that section, um, f we, uh, I've just clarified a lot of other cities had had this, I added it for council's consideration, just that food vendors may not conduct business with people in vehicles, nor they, nor they should allow customers who stop or park vehicles in a vehicle or bike traveling near the mobile food vendor, uh, that they will not serve those customers. So this is a lot of other communities that had this, I thought it sort of went along with the intent of council that they might wanna see this. So I've added that in there. Uh, g again, there'd be, there'll be no dining area tables, chairs, boosts, bar stools, benches, standup counters. I think that changes the nature of the mobile food vendor to more of a business that would require a Common Vic. Um, and then each of that section is just a catch all. They have to keep all of their underlying licenses. They have to keep all of their approvals, their state hawker and peddler's license, uh, comply with all federal, state, local laws, regulations, and ordinances in order to keep the mobile food vendor license for the year. So the enforcement section, I've changed around a bit. I think I still included everything that council had previously intended on, uh, but maybe added a few more provisions in here just for clarity. Um, so a of this section, this is just in the situation that either the mobile food vendor wants to modify a license or counsel might wanna modify a license. Uh, it gives an opportunity in a process to do so. Um, so counsel for cause after reasonable notice to the licensee, um, can have a hearing proposing a modification to the license, or licensee can also request that, um, and have a hearing before counsel to modify it. Uh, b this just sort

▶ 14:01 Speaker 1: of gives an opportunity in case DPW police need to move a food truck that has been given permission already by counsel through a license to be somewhere on public property or public way in the event of a snow emergency construction, other public benefit, that we have the right to do so and move them temporarily to another location. C uh, gives counsel the right as the licensing author to suspend, revoke or decline, uh, based on cause. Um, uh, the mobile food vendor license D again, is just referencing the licensing, a author, uh, the enforcing authorities. So that's the police department, DPW Fire Department, and the Health and Human Services director all are all authorized to enforce this ordinance. E gives, um, any of those individuals, if there is an immediate public safety or health hazard, the opportunity to immediately suspend the license. I think council had previously had 30 days, I reduced that to 14 just for due process concerns that I think it would be smarter if we had a shorter window where we're shutting down the business. Um, so I did reduce it to 14 days and just set a public hearing would be held within that timeframe. Um, regarding the suspension, um, f I've added regarding, um, any me, any vendor that is operating without a valid license. Again, this is what consistent with what a lot of other communities are doing, and consistent with, uh, the ability of counsel to put this in here, that, uh, anyone operating without a valid license shall be deemed a public safety hazard. Um, and that would give the opportunity for police, uh, to tow, basically to ticket or tow and pound the vehicle. Um, G again, is just 40 20 1D that's a violation each day. A violation will be, uh, they can be issued a hundred dollars per day ticket. Um, And that's under the non-criminal disposition procedure under state law. And again, the remainder of the deletions, I think, have been addressed. I don't think I've, I've tried not to leave anything out and keep, you know, the intent of the previous versions still in here. So I'm happy to answer any questions on the edits I made.

▶ 16:09 Maya Jamaleddine: Um, counselor, uh, gpe. Yeah,

▶ 16:12 Mark Garipay: Ma, uh, Madam Chair, if, uh, we could gavel out and get into, um, appropriations with, I'm supposed to start at seven 20 at this time. I'll make a motion to, uh, recess. Um, Legale

▶ 16:24 Speaker 2: Second.