City to revisit street vending ban
Mayor asks police chief to 'hold off' enforcement until May 7 meeting
By Kyle Jorrey kjorrey@theacorn.com

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers BACK TO WORK- Simi resident Agustin Martinez sets up his strawberry stand on the corner of Madera Road and McCoy Place on Wednesday, a day after receiving word from the city manager that police would be pulling back, at least temporarily, their enforcement of the city's controversial anti-peddling ordinance. Martinez has been selling fruit in Simi for 15 years.

One by one they approached- some with tears in their eyes- offering heartfelt handshakes and thank-yous to a much chagrined city manager, who tried with no avail to explain to the group of longtime Simi Valley strawberry vendors that the good news he had just delivered was not his doing.

Standing only a few feet from the room where two months earlier the City Council voted 40 to adopt the antipeddling ordinance, Mike Sedell told the group of seven the six words they had been praying to hear since the law first went into effect March 14: "You can go back to work."

Wednesday, acting on orders from Mayor Paul Miller, Sedell contacted Police Chief Mike Lewis to tell him to "pull back" on enforcement of the ordinance until City Council revisits the matter at its May 7 meeting.

JANN HENDRY/Acorn Newspapers MARKET ON THE MOVE- Simi Valley resident Sylvia Martinez sets up her strawberry stand on the corner of Sinaloa and El Lado Drive on Wednesday. Martinez was recently ticketed twice in the same day for violating the city's anti-peddling ordinance, which requires those vending from their cars to move 500 feet every 10 minutes.

The decision to put the onemonth old law back on the agenda was made two nights prior at the council meeting, when Miller asked for- and received- approval from council members to do so.

"I believe there is some way we can help give them some relief," Miller said of the strawberry vendors. "Let's have staff bring it back and give us some options so they can continue to do what they do and not put them out of business because I do think they provide a service to the community."

The "they" the mayor is referring to is the Martinez family, strawberry vendors who have been selling in Simi Valley for nearly 20 years. The family comprises one grandfather, three husbands, three wives and six grandchildren.

After customers told them that the city had approved an ordinance that made their way of making a living illegal, family members and fellow vendor Javier Gonzalez tried to speak up at a City Council meeting in March despite their limited English but had no success.

Fortunately for the vendors, Simi resident and teacher Rita Henry happened to be in attendance that night to speak against the city's proposed ban on panhandling and was touched by their story.

"I'm a single parent, and I couldn't even imagine if someone gave me 30 days and said, 'Oh, by the way, you're going to lose your source of income in the country where you don't know the language,'" said Henry, who teaches in Port Hueneme.

After approaching the group following the meeting, Henry, who speaks fluent Spanish, decided to take up the family's cause full force once she determined that the vendors had all the documentation to operate legally in the city before the passage of the ordinance.

City ordinance No. 1109 prohibits peddlers from selling items- including flowers, food and other goods- while standing or walking on city streets, medians or sidewalks. The law also requires those selling goods from motor vehicles on public property to move their vehicle at least 500 feet every 10 minutes.

In the four weeks since they formed the alliance, Henry and the Martinez family visited with all five City Council members and all four Neighborhood Councils to present their side of the argument: that the city's 10-minute time limit makes it impossible for them to do business, since it takes them nearly a half-hour to set up their display.

"It's impossible," Gonzalez said. "We'd like the city to get rid of that part of the law."

Henry and the vendors were outside of their fourth and final neighborhood council meeting Tuesday when they heard the good news from Sedell, who told the Acorn that the mayor's decision to have police hold off on enforcing the ordinance was not out of the ordinary.

"The general policy is to not enforce something we know the council has a concern with and may want to reconsider," the city manager said. "Why do you want to cite somebody for doing something illegal when you may come back and change it right away anyways? It doesn't make sense."

Sedell said police would reserve the right to enforce the ordinance if it received complaints or found someone disobeying the law blatantly.

When asked if the fact the council is revisiting its antipeddling ordinance two months after it was passed without complaint is a sign that the ordinance was flawed to begin with, Mayor Miller said, "Once we enact a law it doesn't mean it's going to stay that way forever. If other issues come up that are worthy of examination, we're going to do it," Miller said.

Councilmember Michelle Foster said, "This ordinance was never intended to put people out of business . . . and I think the mayor's request to bring it back is a good, healthy thing for this council to do. This council has never acted in a way where we have tried to be heavy-handed."