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hyperlocal_politics12/17/24 - Woodland, CA - City Council Meeting
Just to start out, I want to put a plug in for communities still livestreaming and recording their routine meetings. For people like me, who have trouble going out, it makes a huge difference in our ability to engage with local politics and policy discussions. It also means that those with busy schedules (also sometimes me) can catch up on current events a little late when necessary.
Y’all do not have to be as longwinded as me - but my hope here is to share “what’s going on locally” for folks who can’t or don’t want to actually watch these two-hour council meetings themselves. In particular, I wanted to capture some of the nuance which is only discussed verbally, and which is easy to miss when you just read the agenda.
Feel free to skip to parts you care about; I’ve tried to add a tl;dr on longer sections as well. Feel free to comment - I’ve done a little editorializing, but I’m far from infallible and happy to discuss.
(And of course, feel free to discuss your own local meetings, politics, and events - this community is open for anyone to post to.)
The big highlights:
- New city ordinances were approved for mobile food vendors (food trucks, carts, etc.)
- Waste Management gave their annual updates and request for rate adjustment.
- City staff gave their annual reports on how sales tax funds were spent.
Meeting information online, including the livestream recording, agenda, and attached items.
Public comments:
- James Voorhees praised the city for a lovely holiday parade.
- Two emailed comments on the proposed mobile food vendor ordinance (discussed further below).
Councilor comments:
The council expressed appreciation for the incoming school board trustees, also beginning their term 12/17, and those responsible for the Woodland holiday ice rink and holiday parade.
WM (our municipal waste management company) is a major corporate sponsor of both the parade and ice rink, and sends a reminder to please compost Christmas trees, and not put garlands, Christmas lights, and broken ornaments in the compost or recycling. Please don’t break the equipment.
The BeeLine was launched in the last few years, and is seeing increased ridership. This is a part of Yolo Public Transit, and offers on-demand taxi service within city limits for $3 - cool stuff.
(As someone who’s housebound and can’t drive, this is how I’ll get to the doctor or grocery store or vet if there’s ever an emergency and my partners can’t drive me - and I’m really grateful that exists, because biking or traditional bus routes aren’t options for me. Woodland has made a point of prioritizing transit and access for folks who don’t have access to a vehicle, mostly lower-income and disabled folks, which is very cool.
The big gap I see is that those who live in Woodland and work in a neighboring town - Davis or West Sac, mostly - don’t have a great public transit option. The bus routes take a long time - 90-120 minutes at rush hour - and van pools are a lot less available these days. It would be nice to have more public transit options for commuters. I’m sure that’s a big budgetary discussion and probably waiting on more of the COVID fallout to settle, though.)
Councilor Stallard also notes the great work done by the Solano Air Quality Board - back in the 70s and 80s, when you drove to Sacramento, you didn’t see the Sierras because the smog reduced visibility so much. There’s been a ton of progress, particularly some local big emitters like the tomato cannery in town, which has really reduced emissions in recent decades.
There was also the first local Kwanzaa dinner recently, which several councilors attended and noted positively.
The Sacramento region had the most new computer chip development in the country in the last couple of years. Bosch has taken over the derelict Roseville facilities, with federal investment of $60 million and about 1400 new jobs in our region.
The 2025 City Council calendar was adopted. Next meeting will be 1/21.
The 1/21 meeting will include changes to truck routes (where delivery/semi-trucks are allowed to drive). A lot of trucks travel along Main Street while going from I-5 to Hwy 113, and the city hopes to move much of that traffic to East Street.
The 1/21 meeting will also discuss redevelopment of public housing at Yolano & Donelly, owned by the county housing authority. The county received federal funding from HUD to redevelop the apartments, which are some of the oldest housing owned by the Yolo Housing Authority.
Consent Calendar
These are items which are only going to be discussed if there’s some public comment or concern - otherwise, the council just accepts them for the record. They’re mostly minutes from other committee meetings (so this is basically the 19th century version of a link to those meetings).
tl;dr because this is long: There were some meetings. Road maintenance is continuing as expected. Housing construction in Spring Lake is also continuing as expected. The city is slightly loosening its affordable housing ordinance.
1) Commission on Aging meeting minutes for 10/17/24.
2) Parks & Recreation Commission meeting minutes for October 2024.
3) Sustainability Advisory Committee September 2024 minutes.
4) 2023 Assistance to Firefighters Grant. If I understand right, the city staff recommend that $39,260 of “general” federal funding be spent on cardiovascular and cancer screenings for all firefighters. Fair enough.
5) City of Woodland Prohousing Incentive Program Application. The city is applying for state funding to build more affordable housing.
6) Adoption of city ordinance. Woodland has pretty strict requirements that new housing developments include a certain percentage of affordable housing. This ordinance would let developers dedicate land or pay fees instead of building affordable housing, if the city approves.
This had a robust discussion at the last council meeting, with Councilmember Fernandez raising a concern that this would lead to more segregated neighborhoods, and Councilmember Stallard noting that more flexibility would allow the city to build more affordable housing more quickly, because it would have more ability to negotiate with developers - it sounds like red tape has been a big issue there in the past, and he worries about “perfect being the enemy of good”, which… sounds like California all over.
7) The city is soliciting bids on a pedestrian crossing improvement project.
8) The city is soliciting bids on an expansion of the parking lot at the Woodland Community Center on East Street, next to the Sports Park. It’ll have 96 parking spots, 8 ADA stalls, and 4 stalls with EV charging (with equipment added for another 14 charging spots in the future).
9) The city is soliciting bids for 2025 road maintenance.
10) The city has accepted a bid for SR113 and E. Gibson Road Interchange Improvements. It’s going to add a stoplight to the northbound 113 off-ramp at Gibson, and a pedestrian/bike crosswalk. (This is probably because the ongoing Spring Lake development means more traffic.)
11) The city approves a contract with West Yost to start planning the East Main Pump Station Generator Rehabilitation Project.
12) The city approves a contract with BSK Associates to test water quality in 2025.
James Voorhees (general public) commented on this one. He asks that the testing also include the watershed in district 5, particularly in light of waterfowl and other potential contamination/ecological concerns. He also suggests that the council authorize only $148,861, not the 10% contingency proposed in the contract.
(It seems like James comments on city council meetings a lot, so we may see a lot of him!)
13) The Spring Lake Recycled Water Project is done - basically, better drainage along East Gibson Road, Harry Lorenzo Avenue, and Marston Drive. Flood protection and efficient irrigation are always nice in my book.
14) The city accepts Lennar’s landscaping and utility plans at Pioneer Village, the new development just north and east of 113 and Gibson. This will add a bit to Spring Lake’s Lighting & Landscaping budget, but no more than expected.
15) The city accepts Lennar’s building plan for Ruby Estates, the new development at Miekle and 25A. Again, this is all part of the Spring Lake plan, they’re just agreeing on the specifics.
Phew. Anyway, all of this passed without a hitch, as expected - that’s why they put it on the consent calendar.
Public Hearings - Mobile Food Vendors
tl;dr: There are a lot of unlicensed food carts, tables, trucks, etc. The city is trying to cut down on this, by helping unlicensed vendors become fully licensed, and fining those who won’t fall into line. Most of the rule changes are fairly minor - basically, vendors need permits and liability insurance, and larger trucks need a commercial kitchen to dispose of their food waste.
There are a lot of unlicensed food vendors in the city and county. Both are working together to enforce licensing requirements, and a pilot program will launch early this year to help unlicensed food vendors become fully compliant with the law.
As part of this initiative, the city is updating some ordinances - both outdated language and complying with new legislation. This mostly has to do with “compact mobile food vendors”, a term defined in 2022 Senate Bill 972, which basically means “tables, pushcarts, and other nonmotorized sidewalk food sales.”
There’s been city, state, and county rules updates in the last decade which all change the rules around food vending. The local ordinances have focused on food trucks and other “larger” mobile vendors, rather than like, bake sale tables or little snowcone carts, which has caused the latter to fall through the cracks a bit.
In particular, 2018 Senate Bill 946, the Safe Sidewalk Vending Act, legalized sidewalk food vending statewide, and allows local regulation only for health, safety, and welfare.
Restaurant owners have expressed concerns that unlicensed food vendors are undercutting their business, since they don’t need to comply with all city regulations or to pay rent for a fixed location. (Which is at least partially fair, because health & safety regulations can be expensive to comply with, and exist for a reason! But any food truck has the advantage of not having a brick-and-mortar rental location too, so… complicated.)
The city has started issuing citations to property owners with unlicensed food vendors on them - since the food vendors are mobile, they’re hard to cite. This has made the property owners kick unlicensed food trucks out, so the unlicensed vendors are setting up in more out-of-the-way areas, and continuing to get chased around by enforcement.
The county has been more focused on education as well as enforcement; the city has been focused on enforcement, because most of the vendors they’re citing by nature can’t really comply with health & safety regulations.
(Apparently, small sidewalk vendors and food trucks/carts are fine if they follow licensing rules - the city’s concern are big outdoor kitchens with open flames and a lot of food-prep on-site, because there’s a concern about safe food storage, cross-contamination, lack of plumbing to wash/decontaminate without runoff, waste disposal, and potentially fire risk. It sounds like the big concern is a few very specific vendors, not all the little farm produce stands at street corners.)
The city is going to have all licensed sidewalk vendors get a sidewalk vendor permit and keep general liability insurance. In addition, the current code requirements apply - a business license, county health permit, and California seller’s permit. No one ever said California is paperwork-light, but that does all sound… in line with every other food business around, including like, farmer’s market stalls. Apparently, the California seller’s permit is how the city is verifying that businesses are paying sales tax.
Food vendors with motorized vehicles need a mobile vendor permit, worker’s compensation, and vehicle registration, which I’m guessing is to fall in line with… all businesses that involve driving a car.
There’s a limit of 13 stationary food trucks on private property (which is based on how many there were last time the code was updated), no limit to other vendors, and restaurants can have one food truck exempt from the limit. Giving restaurants a “freebie” will deal with the existing waitlist, so everyone who wants a truck can have one for the moment.
(The restaurants would like fewer food trucks to reduce competition; no surprise there, so it sounds like this is a compromise. The number will be re-evaluated about annually.)
Vendors can’t block the right-of-way, need to have a small distance from farmer’s markets and events (probably so it doesn’t seem like they’re affiliated without paying to be part of the event), and have a few other location requirements (like not having a big food truck in a random residential neighborhood, probably because that would mess with traffic or blur the line between “house” and “business”). Stationary food trucks can’t operate on vacant lots or vacant buildings’ lots, because the city doesn’t want that to be a barrier to redevelopment and revitalization of vacant sites.
Only “basic” food prep is allowed to be done on site - basically, it sounds like the county is worried about sanitation and waste disposal. Functionally, that means that a lot of vendors need to be associated with a commercial, licensed kitchen which does the food prep - and under the new rules, the mobile vendors need to go to that commercial kitchen to get rid of food waste, used oil, etc. at the end of the day.
Sidewalk vendors will have a $100 fee to start and $50/year renewal; mobile vendors will have $300 to start and $50 renewal. Those fees are apparently in line with other local municipalities. The council is also considering waiving all permit fees until July, to help with the “road to licensure” program - basically to avoid excessively burdening folks who are trying to start following the rules.
The city has tried to communicate all this with stakeholders - they’ve talked to the county, local businesses, current vendors, and posted information in the newspaper.
Public comment -
- A resident asks if vendors must be city/county residents. Not per city ordinance - the city staff aren’t sure if such a requirement would be legal, but all of the larger food trucks are based locally at this time.
- James Voorhees suggests requiring POS systems rather than cash sales, to make sure taxes are paid, and to allow the county to more effectively monitor sales. I don’t hate the idea, but it’s probably more complicated than it sounds.
- Manuel Valanzuela, a licensed food vendor, notes that the gap while waiting for rules to change has been painful for his business. He also believes that restaurants’ concerns about competition are overblown; restaurants have always had a high failure rate.
- Councilmember Stallard notes that there were about six identical hotdog pushcarts at the holiday parade, and wonders if, since they’re all identical, they’re actually acting as more of a large-scale business rather than truly independent vendors. Is this something the city is looking into? City staff note that regulation would be very difficult even if they are truly acting as a single business. (Councilmember Stallard also notes that having hotplates and cooking implements weaving through the crowd at parades seems like a safety concern - probably another good reason to require some distance from local events, honestly.)
- Councilmember Moreno suggests evaluating how all this is going in about a year.
Reports of the City Manager
Presentation from WM/Waste Management, our municipal trash/recycling contractor -
- Looks like this is their 2024 retrospective, nothing wild.
- Discussed their promotions, focused on women in a male-dominated industry, and new dedicated customer service reps for Woodland specifically. Working on improving customer service/issue resolution speed.
- Improving turnaround time for dumpster rentals
- Cart and bin inventory are now fully stocked
- WM office on Paddock Place is now open for in-person customer questions and service.
- Sacramento regional recycling location (where our recycling goes) has been thoroughly renovated to modernize and improve capacity. Tours are available for the general public.
- Outreach/education with commercial buildings and other larger customers (schools, multifamily apartment complexes), particularly in light of Senate Bill 1383 which requires trash/recycling/compost for all customers in the state.
City council approved WM’s usual annual rate adjustments - apparently it’s basically just reflecting cost changes at the landfill.
Annual reports on how the city spent taxpayer-approved sales tax revenues. These are here, and personally, no complaints; Woodland’s been a real model of transparency from what I’ve seen. I’ve rarely seen spending that I don’t agree with, or that I can’t understand - unlike other cities I’ve lived in. (The bill definitely stings, but… yeah, I can’t say the council isn’t doing a good job.)
Measure R funds half of the library’s book budget and nearly all its programming. Per Councilmember Stallard, this measure was approved in 2014 to bring youth programming back - during the 2008 recession, the city dropped from about 400 full-time employees to about 270, and basically all youth services were stopped to make the budget work. The library was open about two days per week, there were no summer programs, etc. He notes that in the last election cycle, when a sales tax measure failed, many folks said they wanted public safety funding to come from somewhere else in the budget - and there just isn’t much “fluff” to cut.
Measure F handles park and landscape improvement projects, including the southeast side pool project, routine road maintenance like pothole repairs, 6 police/fire staff, and 1 city staffer doing economic development work. The 2008 recession and other economics meant the city didn’t collect enough taxes to pay off loans on the east-side community center; we have one more year paying off that debt with Measure F funds.
Per city staff, without Measure F, we wouldn’t have enough funding to keep the roads maintained - we’re getting as many grants as possible to match funds, but road construction is expensive. Measure F is also the only reason we have a fire marshal - we had the police chief acting in both roles for years.
Our engaged friend James Voorhees is advocating for the DARE program as marijuana dispensaries become permitted within city limits.
(Unsurprisingly, I don’t agree with it being DARE, as a graduate of that particular program - but using dispensary sales tax for youth education and other sensible purposes seems fair. Honestly, I’m inclined to trust the city council to use those funds sensibly; everything I’ve seen has seemed sensible .)
More on government spending in a few months with next year’s budget plan.
Councilmember Stallard again expresses his appreciation for the town and the folks who make it such a nice place, and wishes everyone happy holidays.
And we’re done!
As a note on doxxing, as well - I’m going to again recommend that folks use caution about connecting their other online handles or real names to these discussions. The internet is forever. I’m personally using this handle (withleftbeef) because… frankly, it’s not hard to work out that the person who made the community is the first poster, and it’s probably useful to know that I, as the admin, am contributing.
I’m also fairly insulated from public opinion - I’d like to have some plausible deniability in case any neighbors take issue with my opinions, but my big reason for privacy is that I can’t make public political statements under my own name, as a condition of my job. Since this is pseudonymous, I’m not tying my job’s public reputation to any political opinion, and I’m relatively in the clear.
(Also, honestly, anyone who doesn’t like my politics will probably really not like my queer ass in person - so the added risk is relatively limited.)
However, this is a calculated risk. You can infer what town I live in, and that’s a concern.
I’m not tying this identity obviously to any account where I talk about say, childhood trauma, photos of my house, my physical movements, or anything else that might make me vulnerable if someone finds this account, doesn’t like my politics, and tries to doxx me.
It’s unlikely, but the internet is forever. Better to be careful.
Just to start out, I want to put a plug in for communities still livestreaming and recording their routine meetings. For people like me, who have trouble going out, it makes a huge difference in our ability to engage with local politics and policy discussions. It also means that those with busy schedules (also sometimes me) can catch up on current events a little late when necessary.
Y’all do not have to be as longwinded as me - but my hope here is to share “what’s going on locally” for folks who can’t or don’t want to actually watch these two-hour council meetings themselves. In particular, I wanted to capture some of the nuance which is only discussed verbally, and which is easy to miss when you just read the agenda.
Feel free to skip to parts you care about; I’ve tried to add a tl;dr on longer sections as well. Feel free to comment - I’ve done a little editorializing, but I’m far from infallible and happy to discuss.
(And of course, feel free to discuss your own local meetings, politics, and events - this community is open for anyone to post to.)
The big highlights:
- New city ordinances were approved for mobile food vendors (food trucks, carts, etc.)
- Waste Management gave their annual updates and request for rate adjustment.
- City staff gave their annual reports on how sales tax funds were spent.
Meeting information online, including the livestream recording, agenda, and attached items.
Public comments:
- James Voorhees praised the city for a lovely holiday parade.
- Two emailed comments on the proposed mobile food vendor ordinance (discussed further below).
Councilor comments:
The council expressed appreciation for the incoming school board trustees, also beginning their term 12/17, and those responsible for the Woodland holiday ice rink and holiday parade.
WM (our municipal waste management company) is a major corporate sponsor of both the parade and ice rink, and sends a reminder to please compost Christmas trees, and not put garlands, Christmas lights, and broken ornaments in the compost or recycling. Please don’t break the equipment.
The BeeLine was launched in the last few years, and is seeing increased ridership. This is a part of Yolo Public Transit, and offers on-demand taxi service within city limits for $3 - cool stuff.
(As someone who’s housebound and can’t drive, this is how I’ll get to the doctor or grocery store or vet if there’s ever an emergency and my partners can’t drive me - and I’m really grateful that exists, because biking or traditional bus routes aren’t options for me. Woodland has made a point of prioritizing transit and access for folks who don’t have access to a vehicle, mostly lower-income and disabled folks, which is very cool.
The big gap I see is that those who live in Woodland and work in a neighboring town - Davis or West Sac, mostly - don’t have a great public transit option. The bus routes take a long time - 90-120 minutes at rush hour - and van pools are a lot less available these days. It would be nice to have more public transit options for commuters. I’m sure that’s a big budgetary discussion and probably waiting on more of the COVID fallout to settle, though.)
Councilor Stallard also notes the great work done by the Solano Air Quality Board - back in the 70s and 80s, when you drove to Sacramento, you didn’t see the Sierras because the smog reduced visibility so much. There’s been a ton of progress, particularly some local big emitters like the tomato cannery in town, which has really reduced emissions in recent decades.
There was also the first local Kwanzaa dinner recently, which several councilors attended and noted positively.
The Sacramento region had the most new computer chip development in the country in the last couple of years. Bosch has taken over the derelict Roseville facilities, with federal investment of $60 million and about 1400 new jobs in our region.
The 2025 City Council calendar was adopted. Next meeting will be 1/21.
The 1/21 meeting will include changes to truck routes (where delivery/semi-trucks are allowed to drive). A lot of trucks travel along Main Street while going from I-5 to Hwy 113, and the city hopes to move much of that traffic to East Street.
The 1/21 meeting will also discuss redevelopment of public housing at Yolano & Donelly, owned by the county housing authority. The county received federal funding from HUD to redevelop the apartments, which are some of the oldest housing owned by the Yolo Housing Authority.
Consent Calendar
These are items which are only going to be discussed if there’s some public comment or concern - otherwise, the council just accepts them for the record. They’re mostly minutes from other committee meetings (so this is basically the 19th century version of a link to those meetings).
tl;dr because this is long: There were some meetings. Road maintenance is continuing as expected. Housing construction in Spring Lake is also continuing as expected. The city is slightly loosening its affordable housing ordinance.
1) Commission on Aging meeting minutes for 10/17/24.
2) Parks & Recreation Commission meeting minutes for October 2024.
3) Sustainability Advisory Committee September 2024 minutes.
4) 2023 Assistance to Firefighters Grant. If I understand right, the city staff recommend that $39,260 of “general” federal funding be spent on cardiovascular and cancer screenings for all firefighters. Fair enough.
5) City of Woodland Prohousing Incentive Program Application. The city is applying for state funding to build more affordable housing.
6) Adoption of city ordinance. Woodland has pretty strict requirements that new housing developments include a certain percentage of affordable housing. This ordinance would let developers dedicate land or pay fees instead of building affordable housing, if the city approves.
This had a robust discussion at the last council meeting, with Councilmember Fernandez raising a concern that this would lead to more segregated neighborhoods, and Councilmember Stallard noting that more flexibility would allow the city to build more affordable housing more quickly, because it would have more ability to negotiate with developers - it sounds like red tape has been a big issue there in the past, and he worries about “perfect being the enemy of good”, which… sounds like California all over.
7) The city is soliciting bids on a pedestrian crossing improvement project.
8) The city is soliciting bids on an expansion of the parking lot at the Woodland Community Center on East Street, next to the Sports Park. It’ll have 96 parking spots, 8 ADA stalls, and 4 stalls with EV charging (with equipment added for another 14 charging spots in the future).
9) The city is soliciting bids for 2025 road maintenance.
10) The city has accepted a bid for SR113 and E. Gibson Road Interchange Improvements. It’s going to add a stoplight to the northbound 113 off-ramp at Gibson, and a pedestrian/bike crosswalk. (This is probably because the ongoing Spring Lake development means more traffic.)
11) The city approves a contract with West Yost to start planning the East Main Pump Station Generator Rehabilitation Project.
12) The city approves a contract with BSK Associates to test water quality in 2025.
James Voorhees (general public) commented on this one. He asks that the testing also include the watershed in district 5, particularly in light of waterfowl and other potential contamination/ecological concerns. He also suggests that the council authorize only $148,861, not the 10% contingency proposed in the contract.
(It seems like James comments on city council meetings a lot, so we may see a lot of him!)
13) The Spring Lake Recycled Water Project is done - basically, better drainage along East Gibson Road, Harry Lorenzo Avenue, and Marston Drive. Flood protection and efficient irrigation are always nice in my book.
14) The city accepts Lennar’s landscaping and utility plans at Pioneer Village, the new development just north and east of 113 and Gibson. This will add a bit to Spring Lake’s Lighting & Landscaping budget, but no more than expected.
15) The city accepts Lennar’s building plan for Ruby Estates, the new development at Miekle and 25A. Again, this is all part of the Spring Lake plan, they’re just agreeing on the specifics.
Phew. Anyway, all of this passed without a hitch, as expected - that’s why they put it on the consent calendar.
Public Hearings - Mobile Food Vendors
tl;dr: There are a lot of unlicensed food carts, tables, trucks, etc. The city is trying to cut down on this, by helping unlicensed vendors become fully licensed, and fining those who won’t fall into line. Most of the rule changes are fairly minor - basically, vendors need permits and liability insurance, and larger trucks need a commercial kitchen to dispose of their food waste.
There are a lot of unlicensed food vendors in the city and county. Both are working together to enforce licensing requirements, and a pilot program will launch early this year to help unlicensed food vendors become fully compliant with the law.
As part of this initiative, the city is updating some ordinances - both outdated language and complying with new legislation. This mostly has to do with “compact mobile food vendors”, a term defined in 2022 Senate Bill 972, which basically means “tables, pushcarts, and other nonmotorized sidewalk food sales.”
There’s been city, state, and county rules updates in the last decade which all change the rules around food vending. The local ordinances have focused on food trucks and other “larger” mobile vendors, rather than like, bake sale tables or little snowcone carts, which has caused the latter to fall through the cracks a bit.
In particular, 2018 Senate Bill 946, the Safe Sidewalk Vending Act, legalized sidewalk food vending statewide, and allows local regulation only for health, safety, and welfare.
Restaurant owners have expressed concerns that unlicensed food vendors are undercutting their business, since they don’t need to comply with all city regulations or to pay rent for a fixed location. (Which is at least partially fair, because health & safety regulations can be expensive to comply with, and exist for a reason! But any food truck has the advantage of not having a brick-and-mortar rental location too, so… complicated.)
The city has started issuing citations to property owners with unlicensed food vendors on them - since the food vendors are mobile, they’re hard to cite. This has made the property owners kick unlicensed food trucks out, so the unlicensed vendors are setting up in more out-of-the-way areas, and continuing to get chased around by enforcement.
The county has been more focused on education as well as enforcement; the city has been focused on enforcement, because most of the vendors they’re citing by nature can’t really comply with health & safety regulations.
(Apparently, small sidewalk vendors and food trucks/carts are fine if they follow licensing rules - the city’s concern are big outdoor kitchens with open flames and a lot of food-prep on-site, because there’s a concern about safe food storage, cross-contamination, lack of plumbing to wash/decontaminate without runoff, waste disposal, and potentially fire risk. It sounds like the big concern is a few very specific vendors, not all the little farm produce stands at street corners.)
The city is going to have all licensed sidewalk vendors get a sidewalk vendor permit and keep general liability insurance. In addition, the current code requirements apply - a business license, county health permit, and California seller’s permit. No one ever said California is paperwork-light, but that does all sound… in line with every other food business around, including like, farmer’s market stalls. Apparently, the California seller’s permit is how the city is verifying that businesses are paying sales tax.
Food vendors with motorized vehicles need a mobile vendor permit, worker’s compensation, and vehicle registration, which I’m guessing is to fall in line with… all businesses that involve driving a car.
There’s a limit of 13 stationary food trucks on private property (which is based on how many there were last time the code was updated), no limit to other vendors, and restaurants can have one food truck exempt from the limit. Giving restaurants a “freebie” will deal with the existing waitlist, so everyone who wants a truck can have one for the moment.
(The restaurants would like fewer food trucks to reduce competition; no surprise there, so it sounds like this is a compromise. The number will be re-evaluated about annually.)
Vendors can’t block the right-of-way, need to have a small distance from farmer’s markets and events (probably so it doesn’t seem like they’re affiliated without paying to be part of the event), and have a few other location requirements (like not having a big food truck in a random residential neighborhood, probably because that would mess with traffic or blur the line between “house” and “business”). Stationary food trucks can’t operate on vacant lots or vacant buildings’ lots, because the city doesn’t want that to be a barrier to redevelopment and revitalization of vacant sites.
Only “basic” food prep is allowed to be done on site - basically, it sounds like the county is worried about sanitation and waste disposal. Functionally, that means that a lot of vendors need to be associated with a commercial, licensed kitchen which does the food prep - and under the new rules, the mobile vendors need to go to that commercial kitchen to get rid of food waste, used oil, etc. at the end of the day.
Sidewalk vendors will have a $100 fee to start and $50/year renewal; mobile vendors will have $300 to start and $50 renewal. Those fees are apparently in line with other local municipalities. The council is also considering waiving all permit fees until July, to help with the “road to licensure” program - basically to avoid excessively burdening folks who are trying to start following the rules.
The city has tried to communicate all this with stakeholders - they’ve talked to the county, local businesses, current vendors, and posted information in the newspaper.
Public comment -
- A resident asks if vendors must be city/county residents. Not per city ordinance - the city staff aren’t sure if such a requirement would be legal, but all of the larger food trucks are based locally at this time.
- James Voorhees suggests requiring POS systems rather than cash sales, to make sure taxes are paid, and to allow the county to more effectively monitor sales. I don’t hate the idea, but it’s probably more complicated than it sounds.
- Manuel Valanzuela, a licensed food vendor, notes that the gap while waiting for rules to change has been painful for his business. He also believes that restaurants’ concerns about competition are overblown; restaurants have always had a high failure rate.
- Councilmember Stallard notes that there were about six identical hotdog pushcarts at the holiday parade, and wonders if, since they’re all identical, they’re actually acting as more of a large-scale business rather than truly independent vendors. Is this something the city is looking into? City staff note that regulation would be very difficult even if they are truly acting as a single business. (Councilmember Stallard also notes that having hotplates and cooking implements weaving through the crowd at parades seems like a safety concern - probably another good reason to require some distance from local events, honestly.)
- Councilmember Moreno suggests evaluating how all this is going in about a year.
Reports of the City Manager
Presentation from WM/Waste Management, our municipal trash/recycling contractor -
- Looks like this is their 2024 retrospective, nothing wild.
- Discussed their promotions, focused on women in a male-dominated industry, and new dedicated customer service reps for Woodland specifically. Working on improving customer service/issue resolution speed.
- Improving turnaround time for dumpster rentals
- Cart and bin inventory are now fully stocked
- WM office on Paddock Place is now open for in-person customer questions and service.
- Sacramento regional recycling location (where our recycling goes) has been thoroughly renovated to modernize and improve capacity. Tours are available for the general public.
- Outreach/education with commercial buildings and other larger customers (schools, multifamily apartment complexes), particularly in light of Senate Bill 1383 which requires trash/recycling/compost for all customers in the state.
City council approved WM’s usual annual rate adjustments - apparently it’s basically just reflecting cost changes at the landfill.
Annual reports on how the city spent taxpayer-approved sales tax revenues. These are here, and personally, no complaints; Woodland’s been a real model of transparency from what I’ve seen. I’ve rarely seen spending that I don’t agree with, or that I can’t understand - unlike other cities I’ve lived in. (The bill definitely stings, but… yeah, I can’t say the council isn’t doing a good job.)
Measure R funds half of the library’s book budget and nearly all its programming. Per Councilmember Stallard, this measure was approved in 2014 to bring youth programming back - during the 2008 recession, the city dropped from about 400 full-time employees to about 270, and basically all youth services were stopped to make the budget work. The library was open about two days per week, there were no summer programs, etc. He notes that in the last election cycle, when a sales tax measure failed, many folks said they wanted public safety funding to come from somewhere else in the budget - and there just isn’t much “fluff” to cut.
Measure F handles park and landscape improvement projects, including the southeast side pool project, routine road maintenance like pothole repairs, 6 police/fire staff, and 1 city staffer doing economic development work. The 2008 recession and other economics meant the city didn’t collect enough taxes to pay off loans on the east-side community center; we have one more year paying off that debt with Measure F funds.
Per city staff, without Measure F, we wouldn’t have enough funding to keep the roads maintained - we’re getting as many grants as possible to match funds, but road construction is expensive. Measure F is also the only reason we have a fire marshal - we had the police chief acting in both roles for years.
Our engaged friend James Voorhees is advocating for the DARE program as marijuana dispensaries become permitted within city limits.
(Unsurprisingly, I don’t agree with it being DARE, as a graduate of that particular program - but using dispensary sales tax for youth education and other sensible purposes seems fair. Honestly, I’m inclined to trust the city council to use those funds sensibly; everything I’ve seen has seemed sensible .)
More on government spending in a few months with next year’s budget plan.
Councilmember Stallard again expresses his appreciation for the town and the folks who make it such a nice place, and wishes everyone happy holidays.
And we’re done!
As a note on doxxing, as well - I’m going to again recommend that folks use caution about connecting their other online handles or real names to these discussions. The internet is forever. I’m personally using this handle (withleftbeef) because… frankly, it’s not hard to work out that the person who made the community is the first poster, and it’s probably useful to know that I, as the admin, am contributing.
I’m also fairly insulated from public opinion - I’d like to have some plausible deniability in case any neighbors take issue with my opinions, but my big reason for privacy is that I can’t make public political statements under my own name, as a condition of my job. Since this is pseudonymous, I’m not tying my job’s public reputation to any political opinion, and I’m relatively in the clear.
(Also, honestly, anyone who doesn’t like my politics will probably really not like my queer ass in person - so the added risk is relatively limited.)
However, this is a calculated risk. You can infer what town I live in, and that’s a concern.
I’m not tying this identity obviously to any account where I talk about say, childhood trauma, photos of my house, my physical movements, or anything else that might make me vulnerable if someone finds this account, doesn’t like my politics, and tries to doxx me.
It’s unlikely, but the internet is forever. Better to be careful.
