Costa Mesa Council Rejects Ban on Pushcarts : Health: Stricter regulations and sanctions are needed, one member agrees, but says removing them from city streets is ‘slightly fascist.’

Calling the measure overkill, the City Council on Tuesday rejected a proposed ordinance that would have banned pushcart vendors from city streets.

In a 3-2 vote, with Councilmen Orville Amburgey and Ed Glasgow dissenting, the council directed the city attorney to prepare a substitute ordinance that would place more restrictions on street vendors.

“What I have heard here is that pushcart vendors are a problem because they don’t have the permits they are supposed to have, which makes them illegal, which makes them a nuisance,” said Councilwoman Sandra L. Genis.

“We need proper sanctions and more regulations, but to ban them outright is slightly fascist.”

City officials had maintained that the vendors, mostly Latinos who sell ice cream, snow cones and other food items, are a threat to the public’s health and safety.

“If one of your children bought an item from a vendor that was not approved from the health department and got food poisoning, you would probably have second feelings about this,” Amburgey said. “If council members took the opportunity to inspect these vendors, they would be alarmed at the unsanitary conditions.”

During one 10-day period in August, police cited 14 vendors for operating without a business license or health permit and eight others for soliciting without a permit, according to code enforcement officials.

City officials said they have received numerous complaints from residents about vendors going door to door, causing children to run across busy streets, and, in some cases, purposely giving incorrect amounts of change to children after purchases.

According to a staff report, a recent investigation by the county Health Care Agency found that one Costa Mesa vendor was operating an ice cream business from an unapproved industrial warehouse in another city that was also being used for living quarters. The county confiscated and destroyed 850 pounds of food and 27 pushcarts found behind the warehouse and arrested seven employees.

Jim Houston, assistant director of the Health Care Agency’s division of environmental health, said unauthorized street vendors pose a growing problem in many cities.

The county enforces state laws that impose some structural and operational requirements on food trucks and pushcarts, requiring an overall clean, healthy operation.

“The cart has to be kept clean and in good repair and the food must be labeled and come from an approved source,” Houston said. “It has become a difficult enforcement activity because of its mobile nature and has led to more and more cities . . . regulating or banning the activity.”

In fact, at least three other communities--Anaheim, Newport Beach and Brea--already ban pushcart vendors on city streets. And a Santa Ana official said that city, because of complaints, is reevaluating its current vendor law, which requires a health permit and business license.

Although Amburgey and other city officials maintained that the ordinance is not aimed at Latinos, many critics argued that it would have had a discriminatory impact.

Rebecca Jurado, an attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union, citing the spate of recent controversial actions undertaken by the city to deal with illegal immigrants, agreed that the ordinance appeared to be aimed at Latinos.

She noted that vendors in the city are already required to obtain a city business license and a county health permit.

Under new regulations to be considered by the council, pushcart vendors would be required to display city business licenses, health permits and photo identifications, and would face fines for carts found to be in violation of regulations. The city could also confiscate or impound illegal carts.