It’s been two years since the city of Pomona passed its latest ordinance regulating street vendors. Now, the city has issued a report about the costs of the law.
Pomona’s city council voted to approve an ordinance in 2024 to regulate sidewalk street vending. According to a report shared by the city this week, enforcement of sidewalk vending rules has contributed to over 420 citations issued totaling more than $140,000 in fines. Of the fines, about five percent have been paid.
But enforcement of the rules has cost the city $310,000. This figure makes up overtime costs for code compliance officials, public works staff and police who typically conduct street patrols in the evening during weekends.
Gluba said like any policing policy, the goal with enforcement is compliance rather than cost effectiveness.
“This includes enforcement activities to ensure public safety, health and well-being out there in the field, we don’t necessarily tie that budget to our ability to recover costs,” Gluba said.
The ordinance prohibits vendors from operating near crosswalks, fire hydrants and bus stops and sets a curfew of 12 a.m. for stationary vendors and 8 p.m. for roaming vendors. Additionally, the new law prevents vendors from operating in certain zoned areas and on smaller sidewalks.
The new laws responded to what the city described as “sidewalk safety and access concerns.” In the staff report on the ordinance, the City Manager Anita Gutierrez wrote that unpermitted vendors “posed a threat to public health.”
Mark Gluba, a spokesperson for the city, said before the ordinance, vendors blocked sidewalks and threw grease in the street.
At the time, Pomona estimated that 150 active vendors operated throughout the city, mostly along Holt Avenue, and only 24 did so legally with the required permits.
Gluba said the situation after the ordinance is observably better but that vendors have asked for more freedom.
“We have to balance that freedom with the public interest and the safety and conditions on our public rights of way,” Gluba said.
Ivan Hernandez, the Director of Movement Building at Gente Organizada, an organization that has advocated for vendors in Pomona, said the group understands the need for compliance in the city. But Hernandez said that the city has taken an approach of over enforcement that has impacted vendors’ abilities to operate.
“The city claims that they have not banned street vending,” said Hernandez. “But their strict regulations have led to a reality that vendors can’t obtain the necessary permits, much less sell their food/merchandise to make a living.”