As part of their duties in a recent Santa Barbara County grand jury investigation, jurors visited dozens of food trucks and carts across the region.
Their observations of several state food safety code violations, combined with interviews of local health officials, inspired the jury’s verdict that the county needs to get a better handle on its street vendor scene.
“I’m really grateful to the grand jury because this is an issue that we’ve identified and they validate that,” 3rd District county Supervisor Joan Hartmann said at the Board of Supervisors’ Sept. 23 hearing. “I think many of their recommendations are right in sync with what we’ve been learning. So right on, grand jury.”
The board approved county staff’s responses to the grand jury report with a 5-0 vote during the meeting. Environmental Health Services (EHS) Director Lars Seifert walked supervisors through the report’s findings and recommendations.
While staff disagreed with the grand jury’s finding that the county lacks any “established process by which the public can report unpermitted mobile food vendors to county health,” Seifert outlined a pilot program that aims to give community members a new way to file food complaints beyond calling or emailing county officials.
“EHS does provide public phone numbers/email addresses specifically for submitting complaints or concerns,” Seifert said. “These channels are monitored regularly by staff during business hours, and complaints are tracked and promptly responded to.”
“[We’re] currently piloting this online reporting form and should have this available to disseminate to the public in the near future,” he continued. “[It] will support more timely and efficient enforcement actions by enabling the public to provide information directly from a mobile device regarding the location and operation of unpermitted street food vendors.”
On Sept. 26, EHS debuted the new feature online for the public’s use.
During the Board of Supervisors’ review of the grand jury report, 2nd District Supervisor Laura Capps noted “that when the grand jury took this up, we were in a very different climate on our streets.”
“This is predominantly an immigrant issue, and there’s a lot of fear out there. … I just hope that we keep perspective,” Capps said at the September meeting. “While I know that of course no one is in support of bad meat or open flames or public spaces being used improperly. … I just want to make sure that we keep things in balance.”
“I know that LA County has paused enforcement of food vending given ICE raids, etc.,” she added.
Supervisor Hartmann said she appreciated Capps’ comment but added that the county’s come across several unpermitted vendors “largely controlled by a few operations working out of Orange County and LA [that are] very exploitative of the labor that they use.”
“When we talk about balance, I think it’s important that people play by the rules, and I think that this is something that’s being exploited not for the benefit of the immigrant community, but the benefit of people who are taking advantage of them from a few small companies,” Hartmann said. “That’s why there’s a concern about human trafficking. They’re also competing with Latino restaurants, and they also have many Latino employees. In my area, the Santa Ynez Valley, one [restaurant] is really struggling to keep in operation because a food truck is right there.”
Enforce our laws. Now. Hurry up. This is so simple. You needed the Grand Jury to help you understand? That is crazy. Stop making this about race while you are at it.