Taco trucks and mobile food vendors may come under closer scrutiny as the Lodi City Council looks into issues such as possible code violations or any problems associated with the operation of such mobile food preparation units. (News-Sentinel file photo)

Council discusses problems with lunch trucks, other code issues

Taco trucks, lunch wagons, commissary vans or even mobile food preparation units, as they're known in bureaucratese, have an ubiquitous presence in Lodi.

The city is home to the second highest number of the trucks in the county, and that significant number earned the attention of the Lodi City Council Tuesday morning.

During a conversation about the city's code enforcement, council members began discussing the laws regulating lunch wagons and the problems that often accompany the trucks.

Councilwoman JoAnne Mounce said she recently stopped at a local business that had a lunch wagon parked out front.

Mounce recounted that a man who had been eating at tables around the truck got up and urinated on the wall of the business.

"I'm sorry but that was enough for me," she said. "There are problems that need to be addressed."

Community Improvement Manager Joseph Wood presented the City Council with a report on the various code enforcement issues facing Lodi.

Council members indicated support for a vigorous approach to code enforcement, and City Manager Blair King suggested that city staff could come back in October with a "policy statement" of enforcement areas that council members could prioritize.

Wood said Lodi still has its share of problematic neighborhoods that have a gamut of problems from shopping carts stacked up on street corners to broken down vehicles lining sidewalks.

He said some lunch wagons, which are technically only allowed to remain at one place for am hour, instead remain at locations all day and well into the night. Some of these trucks often dump their waste illegally, run power cords out to their trucks and compete with established businesses.

And he said a good number of the trucks have business licenses that have expired.

While the city code does regulate vendors operating in public right of ways, such as sidewalks or streets, lunch wagons on private property pose a trickier issue.

Councilman Bob Johnson recalled that when he served as an interim council member about eight years ago, the lunch wagon issue arose. At that time, he said, a truck owner suggested the City Council just take an hour to watch how many city employees frequented her truck.

Johnson said he did, and couldn't believe the number of police cars, electric utility truck and public works vehicles that stopped during a lunch break.

But he added it may be time for the city to step up its enforcement. He said there is one truck he sees regularly at the same spot and it would not be hard for a patrol officer to check on it, even if that officer also patronized the truck.

"When he finishes his taco he should write a ticket," he said.

Contact reporter Andrew Adams at andrewa@lodinews.com.