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TALKING POINTS TO REVIEW BEFORE CITY COUNCIL MEETING ON NOVEMBER 14TH

Please Submit a Public Comment to DEMAND the Fontana City Council STOPS criminalizing working Street Vendors and their families!

Step 1) Prepare your comment Use this Script below or the talking points to help write your comment:

My name is ___________ I am a resident/vendor of Fontana and I am here to demand that you DO NOT adopt the resolution to impose an Impound Fee! o

• Do not over-criminalize and lead working-class folks into debt traps. The $232.00 will be required from any Sidewalk Vendor who wishes to recover Impounded Items. Impounding items alone is a huge property violation and other cities have gained nothing by impounding items!
• Create better policies – vendors need you to change/rescind your ordinance number 1925, amend your Sidewalk ordinance, and end the contract with 4Leaf Inc. We need you to create an equitable ordinance for merchandise and food vendors. Work to be open for ALL businesses and enable sidewalk vending
• Two weeks ago you decided to pass an ordinance that violates state law. Today I ask that you not create debt traps for vendors, you’re doing enough damage by confiscating private property
• State law already allows you to regulate time, place, and manner. Your current ordinance needs to be amended to reduce the costs of citations and more now than ever when vendors are working to formalize their businesses
  • Revolution Carts has designed one cart that will allow vendors to work with restaurants or other commercial kitchen spaces if they sign a Shared Agreement, this is one of the solutions to allow restaurants and vendors to co exist
  • Restaurants can also partner with TFF vendors and caterers and charge a set fee for the kitchen rental. We need Fontana and the other 27 cities in San Bernardino county to work with us to demand DEH to host regular information sessions to bring awareness to the business opportunity
• Studies have shown street vendors bring extra foot traffic to existing businesses and we’ve seen this in countries in Latin America and all across the world
  • If we don’t look too far downtown San Bernardino is starting to flourish with food markets, art events, and city events. A sidewalk vendor is complimentary to this space
• The resolution states “Said Impound Fee shall be payable in full before recovering the Items and upon demonstrating proper proof of ownership of the Items.” What kind of proof of ownership will you require? How will you store the items? Will the vendors receive a receipt of the property? And will it be in Spanish? Which department will be able to answer public inquiries?
• The resolution also states “If said Impoundment action is appealed and the hearing officer upholds the appeal, no Impound Fee shall be required.” Will vendors be informed about the appeal process in Spanish? Who is the hearing officer and will an interpreter be offered for the appeal hearing?

As we said last month – the Sidewalk Ordinances you’ve adopted have only worked to criminalize sidewalk vendors. This council has dedicated the last FOUR years to practices that purposely criminalize these small businesses. You decided to invest thousands to millions of dollars to enforce regulations that claim to protect health and safety but in reality, only look to protect some businesses. As an elected official you need to listen to all stakeholders and clearly, you’re only working off one-sided information reportedly by Latinx businesses.

I am here in support of the street vendor community. I ask that you work to invest time in real solutions –

• Contact vendors, brick-and-mortar, chamber of commerce, and advocates, and let’s create a solution together.
• Work with San Bernardino to host information sessions that will encourage restaurants to share their commercial kitchens for a set fee
• Invest $2 MILLION of your city budget to invest in education and outreach instead _ and extend the Sidewalk Vendor reimbursement program
  • Moving forward, include vendors in the program design. Leading a program with enforcement is asking for it to fail.
• Invest $1 MILLION to help vendors purchase carts and other required equipment. Vendors do not have access carts that cost $7,500, we are working to implement the changes we made with state law to modify the California Retail food code you can pass a one-year moratorium to not confiscate items or cite vendors

As we said before we need the city to Invest in the infrastructure needed for vendors to be successful so they, too, can continue contributing to our economy. The policy changes and $600,000 investment you proposed only further criminalize, but fail to properly address the real problem, which is that the proper cart required to comply is limited or DOES NOT EXIST for some vendors and therefore makes it nearly impossible to receive permits. You have the opportunity to approve funds, food truck ordinances, and staff time to support vendors and talk to us and other CBOs to learn more.

OTHER TALKING POINTS –

• January 2022 you approved Municipal Code Amendment (MCA) No. 22-01 and we demanded the council to not move forward with this ordinance.
• Sidewalk vendors are the pioneers of outdoor dining and they’ve been in our communities for over 100 years
• Sidewalk vendors are the future food truck and brick-and-mortar owners
• ICIJ invested $600,000 SEED dollars to address the capital attainment street vendors and other micro food entrepreneurs need. CBOs can support vendors in navigating the permit process, engineer and buy carts, other equipment, and permits all this while providing technical assistance to formalize their businesses and become part of the city’s formal economy.
• ICIJ has been advocating to advance street vendor rights since 2018 in collaboration with local and state campaigns, providing Know Your Rights, citation support, and small business/Temporary Food Facility education classes
• We are structuring a popular education curriculum to ensure our reach increases
• We are working to implement the changes we advocated for to modify the CA Retail Food Code (SB 972 was signed into law in September 2022)
• By adding “interfering in any way” to the new ordinance, Fontana city officials can use their discretion to overly criminalize this regulation.
• Unfortunately, this can have a detrimental effect on street vendors, many of whom have mixed status. A misdemeanor charge can prevent them from obtaining residency or citizenship, making it extremely difficult to support their family.
• A few months ago, Fontana code enforcement began to cite a handful of vendors. This summer police arrested a street vendor for questioning their enforcement. If this happened today he would be cited with a misdemeanor.
• Mayor Aquanetta Warren has a clear agenda to go against immigrant and working class people, this is not the first time you’ve faced criticism for your views and policies regarding BIPOC communities.
  • Back in 2010, you received backlash for supporting SB 1070, a law that enabled law enforcement to racially profile Latinx individuals and request documentation, and 287(g), which permitted them to hand over undocumented people to ICE, even for minor traffic violations.
• Fontana needs to invest in the community. Fontana can do the following to include street vendors in the local economy:
  1) amend ordinance to enable street vending which can include stopping citations and confiscations; 2) increase staff time to implement an education framework; 3) invest city funds for grants and other resources to help vendors understand the complicated permit process which involves 10 permit processes.

Fontana made one attempt to support some sidewalk vendors when it announced a special program, this was an attempt to take on an idea ICIJ had presented to the council back in January 2022, but the city failed to make it a real working program. Fontana city promoted funds for vendors under the old rules of sidewalk vending, alluding to there being a permit for all street vendors while also citing the pre-SB 972 ordinance, which states that only fruit vendors can operate if they have a commissary to cut and pre-packaged their fruit, SB 972 now makes it possible for fruit vendors to cut fruit on their carts with the right equipment and health permit.

ICIJ proved community investment works! In 2021 to 2022 we used $800,000 to address the capital attainment street vendors and other micro food entrepreneurs need. CBOs can support vendors to navigate the permit process, blueprints for carts, car inspections, and other equipment and permits while providing technical assistance to formalize their businesses and become part of the city’s formal economy.

MORE CONTEXT

• The Safe Sidewalk Vending Act is a 2018 California law that decriminalized street vending and legalized street vending under certain conditions. The purpose of the Safe Sidewalk Vending Act (SB 946) is to decriminalize and formalize street vending of pre-packaged food and merchandise throughout the state.
• No thanks to the modification of the California Retail Food Code Vendors that abide by the California Retail Food Code and are compliant with San Bernardino County requirements and guidelines should be allowed to sell without feeling harassed by law enforcement or other city authorities.
• Street vendors should be allowed the same opportunities as any other small business owners. City officials should create programs and incentive opportunities such as Micro Kitchens and/or training to obtain health permits to comply with health standards. City officials also have an opportunity to support a resolution that will expand food entrepreneurship programs like the MEHKO opportunity that already exists in Riverside County.
• Giving ALL city employees the ability to enforce the health department regulations
  • This is problematic because city employees, especially those who don’t already do something like code enforcement, are not trained in health regulations like Department of Health inspectors are
• Making it unlawful to fail to identify oneself to any city employee who makes a “lawful request”
  • The way this is written, it doesn’t just apply to matters related to health, even though it’s in the health section of the local municipal code – it’s any request by any city employee who is doing their job, which is a massive overreach
• Allowing the city attorney to prosecute any violation of the health regulations as an infraction or misdemeanor
• We are concerned that any “physical resistance or bodily attack” on an employee or officer is punished by a minimum of 10 days in jail WITHOUT an alternative option of a fine. That is absolutely draconian, especially given how little “resistance” a person has to offer before they get arrested.

On Tuesday, October 10, the City of Fontana passed an ordinance to use half a million dollars on Code Enforcement to further criminalize sidewalk vendors. This is not the first time the City of Fontana has spent city resources to enforce draconian policies on our working street-vending community.

ICIJ has proven to use $600,000 to $800,000 to address the capital attainment street vendors and other micro food entrepreneurs need. CBOs can support vendors in navigating the permit process, engineer and buy carts, other equipment, and permits all this while providing technical assistance to formalize their businesses and become part of the city’s formal economy.

• ICIJ has been advocating to advance street vendor rights since 2018 in collaboration with local and state campaigns, providing Know Your Rights, citation support, and small business/TFF education classes
• We granted $600,000 in micro-grants with funding from the SEED initiative.
• We are structuring a popular education curriculum to ensure our reach increases
• We are working to implement the changes we advocated for to modify the CA Retail Food Code (SB 972 was signed into law in September 2022)

OTHER INTERESTING READINGS AND INFORMATION

Los Angeles Vendor’s trial date for 8 No Vending Zones

San Bernardino Sun Article

Work in Coachella: Letter with ICIJ recommendations