ANAHEIM : Lawyer Says Vendors Might Violate Ban

An attorney representing 113 street vendors said Friday his clients will probably have to violate the city’s ban on residential street sales, even though a judge refused to halt enforcement of the ordinance.

Attorney Salvador Sarmiento said he would not tell the vendors to violate the city’s ban, which took effect last month but has not been enforced. However, he said that if citations are issued, he would try to fight each one individually in court. City Code enforcement officials said Friday they plan to begin Wednesday citing anyone found selling from a truck in a non-commerical area.

“What choice do the vendors have?” Sarmiento said. He said a trial on the vendors’ lawsuit to overturn the ban will not be heard for a year and by then it will be academic. “If they don’t sell, they are out of business,” he said.

Sarmiento said he will also ask the 4th District Court of Appeal next week to overturn Superior Court Judge William F. McDonald’s decision allowing the ban to be enforced. The judge, during a packed hearing Friday at the Orange County Courthouse in Santa Ana, refused to consider Sarmiento’s argument that state law says cities have the power to regulate street sales but does not say they can prohibit such sales.

“This is a difficult case in some respects because street vendors are a part of Americana,” McDonald said. “I grew up with them. But that doesn’t mean the city has to agree.”

Sarmiento told McDonald that his decision could “put a lot of people out of business.”

“I’m aware of that,” McDonald said.

After the judge announced he would not halt the ban’s enforcement, the homeowners who wanted the ban rejoiced, while some vendors said they will have to go on welfare while they try to find another line of work.

“I’m just praying they’ll enforce (the ban),” resident Susan Kocsis said. She told the City Council in August before it enacted the ordinance that the noise caused by vendors on her street had forced her to give up her job as a free-lance mathematician.

Vendor Ahmad Akbari said it has taken him three years to make his route profitable, and now it is gone. He said it will be too costly to move to another city that allows street vending and start over.

John Poole, City Code enforcement supervisor, said his department is trying to find vacant stores that vendors could rent and operate out of legally. He said he will wait until Wednesday to enforce the ban to make sure the City Council does not change its mind at its Tuesday meeting.