Illegal Vendors

[AyatollahGondola]

Well, I have seen the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly during my campaign against illegal vendors. During that endeavor, I have become more aware of issues surrounding the cleanliness of illegal and legal vendors. Last night, I was in the town of San Jose, CA...which is not looking to American these days...and went in to a 25 or 30,000 sq ft grocery store that has either escaped any health department scrutiny, or the health department is terribly derelict in their administration of food safety. This store was filthy all over. Dust and grime in every corner. products stacked on the floors where vermine can access them in the back room and sales floor. I was motioned to the office for some paperwork and my climb upstairs had me stepping over toilet paper that had been dragged from the restrooms and was being tracked out. By the time I reached the top of the stairs you could smell the bathrooms which were still 20 feet away and with closed doors. There were clearly visible liquids trailing out the door of the mens. There were at least 100 flies buzzing the landing and hallway to the bathrooms. There was trash and products stacked on the floors, which had not been swept or mopped for some time. Glancing at the sales floor, everything was in spanish. all the signs, pricing info, and graphics. the clientel appeared 99.9 percent latino and non english speaking. Their kids ate from the displays as they walked the aisles, and played on the floors.
I could go on, but you get the drift. I got the hell out of there as quickly as possible. Welcome to the third world. It is now San Jose

[AyatollahGondola]

Somewhere around 2006, SOS and Fight Back in Sac held protests of the day labor center in Sacramento. One thing that became apparent to the lot us at the time, was that we had many different violations of law that were not being enforced in addition to labor and immigration laws. Since we were not going to get the head of the monster cut off at the top, the next strategy is to chop off it's feet, hands, and food supply. All the illegal activity that fed and contributed to the growth of illegal alien populations in the general vicinity was targeted. One of those was the illegal vendors that were a constant source of support for the underworld's growth in the neighborhood. Taco shopping carts, cars with ice chests, and even bicycles selling all types of foodstuffs could be found each day hawking their wares without benefit of regulation that the legal population generally adhered to.
The authority was clear on this, as there were local laws, albeit not too much interest in enforcement on this partivcular section of town, for reasons we can easily conjure up. But the law is the law, and it took some intense lobbying, if not outright threats to spur the agencies interest and action. It al started with an email to the heart of the matter:

__________________________________________________ ____
Craig,

I am confused as to why the County has not taken action on the illegal food vendors that sell from unsanitary facilities without permits, and without the regulation that the department subjects those who play by the rules. I have compiled photos and videos from just these two habitual offenders who vend here weekend after weekend for months on end, and have communicated with at least one other complaining person about the lack of action taken. This other person(complaintant) has indicated recieving emails from either your office or code enforcement stating the vendors equipment had been siezed. As you can see by visiting this link:

http://www.fightbackinsac.com/forums/showthread.php?t=183

The equipment these vendors use week after week is still the same. We have taken the time to provide your office with enough documented evidence to show that this is a recurring operator, and that the means by which they are operating is unsanitary, unsafe, and uninspected. Why is such an easy to locate target like this being ignored to this degree? They are both there pretty much every weekend.

Davi Rodrigues__________________________________________________ ___________

Of course there was a need to be tenacious, as well as organized. We got hold of the list of people who had been forced to live under the thumb of the authorities and showed them that others got by without it:

__________________________________________________ __________
Craig,

A while back, I asked if we could get a weekly list of inspections and actions taken by the department. I'd like to follow through with that please. I realize that we can get individual outlest inspections by name, but we are interested in seeing how the department conducts business on a weekly basis. Is that something we can obtain without doing a PRA?

Davi Rodrigues__________________________________________________ ___________

It took a little more time, and a few more people, as well as some hard evidence (videos), but they eventually took interest and action:

__________________________________________________ _________

To: [email protected]
Sent: Wed, 11 Mar 2009 3:41 pm
Subject: RE: uninspected food handler


Mr. Rodriguez, can you tell me specifically where and at what time of the day(s) this is occurring? We are meeting with other agencies and forming a sweep team in the near future and would like to have this information. Thank you for your assistance.__________________________________________________ __________

Admittedly they were still reluctant to make a big deal out of it, likely again due to the political climate being thrust upon us by state and federal government and media, so the results were sent via email to us:
__________________________________________________ ____________

Hi All,
I just wanted to update you on the sweep that took place Countywide (in City of Sac and County) on Sat May 30th. This is the update for the NH/Antelope/Rio Linda areas:
1. Impounded a cart and all fruit from rainbow fruit vendor at 6253 Watt Ave.
2. There were no vendors at Watt/Don Julio. We did many drive-bys that day and no one was in Kragen lot. I think the letter to the owner of Kragen from Code Enf helped.
3. Shut down fruit vendors at the following locations:
Diablo/Don Julio
Roseville Rd/Oakhollow
Elkhorn/99
Misc ones on various streets
4. We impounded 5 other fruit carts throughout county.
5. We also did a sweep in the City of Sac on Fri May 29th so we were out 2 days in a row and hopefully sent a strong message.

We will continue these sweeps so send us any locations of illegal vendors that you see.
Thanks, Kelly McCoy __________________________________________________ ___________

Now here we are going mainstream. Attached is a PDF document of a copy from this weeks article in the Business Journal, front page no less, detailing the effort to prevent and curtail the operation of illegal food vendors:

__________________________________________________ ___________

we get comments like why are you harassing a guy who is trying to make a living," Carl said. "Every-body is trying to make a living -
-but licensed ven-dors and farmers' markets are doing itlegally and some roadside vendors are not."

[repairsea]

Illegal Vendors

This is a multi-million dollar business. 1 vendor can feasibly make 100 dollar per day. This is 30k a year taking into consideration that Sacramento normally has 60 days of rain. If you have 100 vendors, this is 3M dollars a year. Now you would think the county would want to collect penalties and taxes on this industry. The restaurant association needs to complain at the political level.
The county needs to ask the Sacramento DA to investigate the kingpin businesses.