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SYRACUSE - In a marathon three-hour work session Friday, Syracuse Town Council members, with the exception of Larry Siegel who was not present, hashed through the town ordinance and discussed what to put into a mobile food truck ordinance.
Town Manager David Wilkinson requested the town ordinance be updated as some sections hadn’t been updated for decades and some items simply didn’t apply anymore. The council and town manager went through the ordinance section by section where updates were recommended by department heads. Many of the changes had to do with increasing the minimum or maximum amount of permit fees or penalties. Several of the minimums were raised to $50 from the current $10, $15 or $25 amounts.
No action was taken at this work session. Council President Nathan Scherer said they were “making recommendations so Jay (Rigdon, town attorney) can draft an ordinance we can approve at a regular meeting.”
There was discussion about section 2.41, relating to a building commissioner as the town doesn’t have one. It has a building inspector, who is an employee, and a building commissioner would be appointed by the council. Currently, the ordinance states in lieu of a building commissioner, if a hearing is necessary the town manager would have the final say. Rigdon suggested keeping the building commissioner and having the council appoint a separate person to fill that role to be in line with the state and to take that responsibility away from the town manager. The council agreed.
It was determined that the nepotism and conflict of interest statement should remain the same. However, Scherer questioned whether it needed to be more comprehensive to deal with situations like voting on issues dealing with property owned. Rigdon pointed out that the conflict of interest in this section deals with nepotism. Councilman Paul Stoelting said they’ve always operated on the premise that even if something has the appearance of a conflict, whether it fits the legal description or not, they should abstain for the sake of the public.
When it came to raising cumulative funds, the council agreed to get the assistance of Jim Higgins, of London Whitte, the town’s accounting firm, due to recent state legislation and the effect it might have on local government funding.
Scherer said, “I don’t want to pay any more taxes than anyone else, but I don’t want to cut services. If we wait to do it down the road, it might be too late and too short-sighted.”
The council decided to re-energize and appoint an affordable housing committee consisting of the town manager and two council members. Councilmen Bill Musser and Stoelting volunteered. They used to have a partnership with the Warsaw Housing Authority, but it hasn’t been in place in years, and Wilkinson wanted to keep it in town. There’s a fund that people who qualify can apply to get assistance if a furnace goes out, for example.
Fees for bad checks may be increased to cover the cost the town pays so the ordinance, if approved, will read the fee will be current bank charges, plus administrative fees of $45. Garage sale permit fees may increase from $2 to $5. They deleted sections dealing with charges to house runaway dogs and cats, fire alarms and burglar alarms. They discussed charging out-of-towners for vehicle identification number checks. Police Chief Jim Layne said he’s working with Rigdon to come up with an ordinance to charge for police videos — the time involved and the storage device.
The council also recommended increasing the pier rental fee from $100 to $500. The town has about 13 pier spaces they rent out. Not everyone was in agreement, but Scherer suggested putting it in and they can vote on it when the ordinance comes to them. There were other miscellaneous increases and deletions. Rigdon will prepare the ordinance with changes and bring it back for the council to approve.
The council looked at two possible drafts of a food truck ordinance for the town. This first became an issue several months ago when a brick-and-mortar restaurant owner came to the council complaining that a food truck that was operating continuously in town was hurting his business. Some of the questions Scherer said they needed to address was the cost of the permit — whether it would be daily, weekly, monthly or yearly, whether they want to limit the number of mobile food vendors operating in town on a single day, and whether they need to establish a minimum distance between the food truck and a brick and mortar restaurant.
Wilkinson brought up that Park Superintendent Chad Jonsson had some concerns about park events where they have food trucks, like on the 4th of July and at the Farmer’s Market. The Park Department currently charges food trucks $50 a day and Jonsson wanted to separate the park department events from the rest. That caused the council to recommend raising the daily rate (currently $15 a day) to $50 a day to be in line with the park department’s charges. After much discussion, the consensus was to recommend $50 daily or $600 annually with no limit on the number of times someone with an annual permit could operate.
As they tried to determine protecting brick and mortar businesses who pay taxes versus food trucks, Rigdon pointed out that they could have 50 restaurants in town and while they’re collecting tax revenue from them and not from the food trucks, the food trucks are paying for permits that the restaurants are not, so he said it’s always a balance. Scherer admitted when the chamber board asked the businesses, some said they should charge fees, some didn’t and some didn’t care.
“I think it’s appropriate if you’re an outside vendor coming into town to the benefit of yourself and your business, you should pay something into town because that’s what other businesses have to do. It’s only fair,” Scherer said.
The council agreed without discussion that the vendors should have insurance and indemnity and get permission to be on town or private property. As discussion continued about whether they should limit the number of food trucks in town on a single day, no one could come up with a maximum amount. Councilwoman Cindy Kaiser threw out the number 10. Rigdon pointed out that it might be hard to administer. They left that topic to be determined.
As they started to get into the details of distances, Stoelting said, “I feel like we’re creating a problem that doesn’t exist. Let’s get something in place and address others if it becomes an issue. I don’t know why we’d have a bigger number of vendors coming in than we’ve had over the last 30 years, so I don’t know what we’re trying to eliminate that’s pressing.”
They decided to leave the matter of distance between food trucks and brick and mortar restaurants out and ended the discussion on a consensus if someone violates the ordinance by not getting a permit, the first offense would be $200, the next $500 and if the violations continue they’d be banned from town. Once an ordinance is drafted the council will vote on it.
They planned to also look at an updated employee handbook but decided they could trust the recommendations of the department heads and go through it quickly at a regular meeting.
