Welcome to our meeting.

The date is April 7, 2026.

The time is 6 p.m.

This is an open meeting of the Grand Island City Council.

The City of Grand Island abides by the Open Meetings Act in conducting business.

A copy of the Open Meetings Act is displayed in the back of this room as required by state law.

Now I ask that you rise and join us in the Pledge of Allegiance.

And to the Republic for which it stands one nation under God.

The clerk will now perform roll call.

Councilmember Sheared.

Present.

Councilmember Stelk will be absent.

Councilmember Conley.

Present.

Councilmember Nickerson.

Present.

Councilmember Brown.

Present.

Councilmember Hazi.

Present.

Councilmember Mendoza.

Present.

Council President O'Neill.

Present.

Councilmember Pollock.

Present.

Councilmember Lanfear.

And Mayor Steele.

Present.

Also present are Jill Grinier, the city clerk.

Patrick Brown, the city administrator, Carrie Fisk, the city attorney, and Keith Kurtz, the public works director.

A sign-up sheet was available in the lobby for individuals wishing to provide input on any of tonight's agenda items.

If you did not sign up to speak on an agenda item, please come forward, state your name and the agenda topic on which you will be speaking.

So we shall continue with item 5A, permitting mobile food units.

Mayor and Councilman.

This is one of the one of the first things that I kind of learned that we are not doing is permitting mobile food units.

So that's we've been working on this process for several months now.

Just kind of the issue at hand.

One of the things is mobile food units combine open flame, propane systems, electrical loads, and the the big differences from restaurants is the public proximity.

They're right next to all the people.

Section 319 specifically is mobile food unit section.

And so we're just we're a little bit behind behind the ball here.

The first meeting was very well attended.

There was there was over a hundred people came to that first meeting.

But what we found out is there was a whole bunch of Spanish speaking that didn't understand at all what we said.

So we we had another meeting that was Spanish only speaking with an interpreter.

In incorporated their feedback into the proposed process that was in your packet.

The fire code requires a permit for mobile food units.

So since that is our adopted code, I think we could probably start permitting them, you know, several years ago, but there's just not a process for it.

And I'm sure the city wants other rules, and that's that's what's this packet's about.

So their current requirements for food truck, they have to get their Nebraska sales tax, they have to get GI food and beverage tax.

The Department of Agricultural annual food establishment fee.

They go to the Central District Health Food Vend and get a vendor permit.

And really, all they're looking at is food safety and how they wash their hands and keeping hot water.

It's not nothing about fire and life safety.

Just the proposed requirements is that they would have safety inspections.

This is nothing different than local restaurants here in town do.

They have to have their hoods inspected, their sprinkler system inspected.

When my inspectors go in there, they look for those documents that they have been inspected, the hood's been cleaned, and basically that's what we'd be looking for on food trucks.

One of the specific things for food trucks that they would need to do is an annual propane system leak test.

Um that that is very specific to food trucks.

Uh annual hood test, just like any restaurant, and annual fire extinguisher inspection again, just like any restaurant.

Um this is just an idea for how we're gonna go through this permitting process.

Uh they would do an online application submission through Citizen Serve, which is what we do all our permitting through right now.

Upload all the required documentation because they got to have all that stuff before they come to us.

Um a multi-department review, which that's the way Citizen Serve works, goes from the fire department through the people that need to approve it.

Uh the kind of the final thing would be pass a fire safety inspection.

So after they have all their other permits and they're signed up to for the food and beverage tax, and uh pay their permit, they got to pass the inspection, then we could fire, could issue the annual permit.

Um Chad Nabity added this slide, and he was gonna be here still not here.

Okay.

Um, this is nothing new to me, so I can I'm sure I can talk on this.

Um where can a mobile food unit legally operate?

Uh zoning applies to mobile food food unit operations.

Uh, they can legally operate in any zoning district that allows restaurants.

If you look in the zoning matrix, there is not mobile food trucks, mobile food trailers, but there is restaurants in the matrix.

I think that's something we probably ought to add later on is add that into the zoning matrix, mobile food units where they can actually be.

But right now, restaurants are allowed in these in these different zoning districts.

Uh planning departments working on an interactive map that could be used by mobile food unit owners, property owners, and code enforcement.

Uh, one thing we talked about, so they they can all legally operate in those zones.

What happens if they have a birthday party or something where they need to operate in a zone it's not allowed.

Uh we talked about doing special event or temporary use permits.

Uh, when they're trying to operate an area of zoning and other regulations do not allow, such as parks and residential districts, they would already have to have their grand island annual permit, and then would be a very simple process in citizen serve to log into their account they already have and say I want to operate for a day or two in a in a different area.

Um fire I put on here that we could make the final approval on that.

Uh it got brought up at the state fair.

I even contacted the state fire marshal, uh, talked about we were gonna be working down this process, and but I kind of asked him for any any assistance or help, and he just kind of told me let me know what you're going to do because you need to do something for the state fair.

Um mobile food units at State Fair being inspected as part of this of the state fair inspection process.

And for those of you that don't know, the day or two leading up to state fair when they're all setting up my inspectors are out there inspecting all the buildings, making sure all the exits are clear, and we already have a state fair inspection fee, and I'm just proposing that we increase that a little bit because we will also do the mobile food units.

Uh these are just the proposed fees, so the state fare inspection fees currently 1600, just proposing raising that to 2,000.

Uh annual mobile food unit permit would be $100, which that is the that's the same permit fee we charge businesses in town.

Uh special event temporary use is just $25 per day.

The main thing is we want to know that they're operating in that area.

Um, and then the $25 would be used for administrative fees.

Uh one of the things we really took away from those two meetings with the public was they need some time to ramp up to to meet the codes.

Um thing that we really learned, and we've had a lot of comments from people that operate food units outside of Grand Island, where they do permit them, they are they're good to go.

They're ready day one whenever we decide to do this.

But there's other ones that have never left Grand Island, they've never been permitted or inspected, they don't have the right stuff.

Um so they really wanted some time, so we're proposing we've been begin this process next year, um March of 2027, and it issue an annual permit that starts April 1st.

That's about the time or the you know spring spring's coming and get the food trucks out.

Uh one thing that we discussed was we talked about those fees of a hundred dollars.

We talked about having uh whatever we want to call it, but a food truck rodeo, like at the event center, where they all come there, and then we can inspect them just one after the other.

It would reduce the time that it takes for us to inspect them.

Um, and then since it's reducing that time, we could actually have a reduced fee if they come to that one day only.

And then if they pass that, we even talked about you know, working with the event center on having like a food truck weekend out there, so maybe they could make their money back just in that in that quick weekend.

So why is this important?

Uh reduces liability exposure.

We're supposed to be permitting, and we have not been.

We just we need to get this going, aligns with the adopted fire code, uh, creates a consistent enforcement for the food units, improves public safety at events and gatherings.

And one of the things I just if you guys are thinking about this, or if you go to Google, if you just if you just Google mobile food unit fires or explosions and look at the images, they're all over.

I mean, these are happening.

Uh, we've been pretty fortunate in Grand Island.

We haven't had an explosion like they did in Hastings or a fire that they also had in Hastings with another mobile food truck.

So and it supports responsible local businesses.

The ones that are doing this and doing it well, they're all like I said, they're already set up.

It's the one we were talking out here with Doug.

Um it's the ones that don't have a type one hood already in their trailer that's gonna be expensive.

That that's the that's the one thing.

And if they cook with grease-laden vapors, they have to have a type one hood.

And that's I had three or four come up to me during our meetings, and they're those are the ones that don't have them.

That's that's all I have for the presentation.

I in your packet that had the the full word document with all the all the rules and proposed fees, and I also I included our version one uh checklist for permitting and inspecting, and it shows all the different things we our inspectors would be looking for for to meet the IFC 2021.

Mr.

Brown has some comments.

I've been in the food service business for over 20 years in Grand Island, and this is very comprehensive and detailed and it goes right to the point.

I didn't see anything in all this that I reviewed that uh I thought was questionable.

It's everything kind of much what we have to do in a restaurant as it is right now.

And uh it's probably should have been done maybe five years ago or so, ten.

But uh you did a real good job and looks good to me.

Mr.

Sheard.

Thank you.

Uh thanks for putting all this together.

I think it's fantastic that we are uh I'd say proactive, but you made it clear that maybe we're behind the the A-ball a little bit, but I appreciate in your new role that you're you're taking this on.

Uh I think most people would agree that food trucks are kind of a vibrant part of a city.

Um they're great asset, uh adds to nightlife, it adds to just variety, and uh it's just a uh a difference that you know when people come to a town that has them, they're looking for them.

Uh so I appreciate that we're trying to be welcoming of them.

Uh a couple of things you said and a couple things you didn't say that I want to ask you about.

Uh you mentioned that we had to have a meeting for Spanish speaking, uh, which would tell me that that's a pretty uh big population of food trucks.

Is the permitting process going to be done in Spanish?

I will definitely have a Spanish version, yes, Spanish version of that.

And yeah, if they go to the website, we can we can do it in Spanish also.

I think that would be wise.

Absolutely.

Um if if we're truly doing this not as a punitive thing, but as to help their business be uh better, then let's let's be open and and supportive.

One thing I I gave all of you English versions.

I also have Spanish versions of this that we had at those meetings.

Awesome.

I'm not smart enough to speak Spanish or read Spanish, but I appreciate that you that you have it.

Uh on the process, you mentioned kind of the steps through it.

How long is that process take?

If I came to you with my food truck and I said, hey, I I need to get this done right.

What is the length of time it takes?

Like a brand new food truck or so brand new food truck, like you gotta start with the state and work kind of work your way down, get the Central District Health Department.

I mean it.

If you buy a brand new food truck, it'd probably including us, it'd probably take a month or two.

Okay.

And if I'm existing and I just want to get compliant, uh a lot of those are probably gonna be the same steps if I haven't taken them.

But the paperwork that you mentioned in here or that process uh on our side of the city, what is the timeline you think?

I think it'd be pretty quick within two weeks, I would say.

Yeah.

Okay.

All right.

Um is there an enforcement of this?

Is you guys are doing the permitting.

Who is enforcing the permitting?

Is that gonna be code enforcement?

Is that gonna be GIPD?

Talked about code enforcement in the in the committee meetings.

Yep.

One of the things I know that the Central District Health Department has talked about uh when I've met with them on some different topics, is it's hard to track them down because they're not always in the same spot, they don't go to the same place.

Is there anything in this process that would require heads up when they're gonna be someplace or notificating notifying people in a surrounding area they're gonna be somewhere?

Is that part of the process at all?

Not at this time, but they definitely could be.

I'm just curious because there's different things with the uh zoning of where they can be and where they can't be.

I just didn't know if they had to get permission to be in those places from anybody.

So we actually have somebody in finance who peruses Facebook because when they come, they need they advertise, right?

And so we have our list, you know if they're not on the list, and then it'll start that process.

Well, that's smart because here I'm thinking of just the people in town, but then I think about like on the hook, the fish truck that comes, and every time they come, I see them on Facebook, and my wife says we're going to the fish truck tonight.

If you in my meeting with the Central District Health, that's how they do it too.

They look for them on Facebook.

They watch for them to advertise that they're gonna be in this area, and then they look at their list and see if they got them on the list, and if they don't, they go out there and inspect them.

So if somebody's traveling through and they want to stop, they have to go through this whole process as well.

That was a big question.

I'm not sure we have a great answer for that yet.

That might I mean that might be preventative of somebody stopping in Grand Island or Nebraska for that matter.

That kind of gets to my question on the state fair, then.

I know there's somebody at the state fair who's in charge of all the food trucks.

Uh and he's a great guy.

He mentioned to me that there's uh provision in this about the proximity from one truck to another.

Can you speak to that a little bit?

Uh it's it's 10 foot.

They have to be 10 feet away from anything combustible.

So from each other, from buildings, from yes.

And that's that's in the code.

Is that okay?

Did they speak to you about that being prohibitive for them?

Or we have a year at least to rework.

Not yet, we haven't.

Okay.

Uh when they come from out of town for the fair or a food truck thing, is there an abil ability to do something expedited that gives them like you talk about the state fair coming and seeing them all there while they're lined up?

But is there any thought or have you put some more thought into an expedited version for visiting trucks?

And we probably should.

Yeah, okay.

Well, I think this is great work so far.

Um I think it's important work, and I appreciate the work you guys are doing on it, and appreciate you trying to keep Grand Island safe.

Mr.

Nickerson, well, thank you, Phil, for bringing this to us tonight.

I'm interested in your meetings, the two meetings that you had.

How talkative was was the group, how much informal feedback was there between everybody?

Was it more one directional, or did you get a lot of interaction?

How did that go overall?

Well, we we definitely had quite a bit of interaction towards towards the end.

I mean, for each each meeting.

Uh the one real one food truck came to me and basically said, you know, how is the city gonna pay for my new type one hood?

That was the really only negative comment that I had.

To ask you how how's the city going to pay for what they need to install?

Okay.

Now that was really the only negative comment that we had.

The rest of them are just kind of they were just asking what do we need to do to get ready.

Right.

And it so there wasn't a lot of initial pushback, except this one person that's not happy with whatever they need to do, more than likely was not in compliance with what you've expected.

They said we've been in Grand Island for five years without a type one hood.

Can we be grandfathered?

No.

Answer is no.

No, and I think the good point is fire code 2021 kind of tells you this is what the rules are now, right?

I mean that's what we fall back on, and it's not that we're we're not reinventing the wheel.

This is this is the code, and this is what you're gonna be held to now.

Council adopted code, so yeah.

So I yeah, man, it takes the the monkey off our back and it just says this these are the rules.

This is this is what we need to live by.

So the type one hood, is that a one that has a built-in suppression system?

So that's just what that means.

It has to have a built-in suppression system, and it you can see them on the trailers.

If they have a big exhaust thing on the top, they have a type one hood.

But what goes with that is they need to have it regularly cleaned, and they have to have it regularly inspected.

And I I'm guessing if they don't leave Grand Island, they don't do that.

Yeah, and that's the important part.

I come from a obviously food processing business for 20 years where we ran it on a large scale basis.

You know, we're talking about 20, 30,000 pounds an hour on one line through fryers and all of that.

So we're I am very well aware of the importance of keeping these things cleaned and what can happen if they're not cleaned.

And and that's to your point, I think we're lucky that nothing major has happened, no major fires, no explosions, because it's just a matter of time and people not doing their job that this stuff does happen.

It just takes one incident and and lives can be at stake here.

My question, and I also kind of interested in this type K extinguisher.

Apparently, as I I looked at that to see it, it's kind of a foamy, soapy foamy stuff is what they use to kind of blanket the fires.

Is that how that all works?

And type K just basically stands for kitchen, and it one of the main things you can use it for is so it doesn't ruin all the food and you know it's better on grease fires.

So they they would actually need both of them, an ABC and a K.

Right if they have grease-laden vapors in the suppression system itself, is it based on a K system, you think?

If they have grease laden vapors in the suppression system itself, is it based on a K system, you think?

Or they're different, but it's it's very similar to where it doesn't ruin everything.

Right.

Right.

Okay.

Well, then I'm interested in the inspection process.

I know fire safety, that's what your group will be doing.

But when you're talking about hoods, leak tests, extinguishers, and all that, is that a totally separate group now that's out there has their own businesses that are out doing that?

So these folks have to contact them.

That's I was even, you know, as I was trying to set this up, like I talked about that food truck rodeo.

You know, I was I even talked to a few people here in town, and most of them said they'd be willing to come to that and basically just be a stop, stop, stop.

Oh, yeah.

One stop shop, get it all done and we'll get it all done.

Yeah.

Any idea what the price is on all that stuff?

Is it quite expensive for all the because again, we're talking about the vendors, they've got to pay this money before you can ever sell uh whatever you fry.

Uh so they got to pay all this money up front before they can even start making a profit.

Do you have any idea what the burden is going to be on a food operator?

I don't have a total.

I the one the one I I called several places about the leak testing because we've we haven't been doing that, so I wanted to know there's places in town that do it, and it was $75 to do leak testing.

Not unreasonable.

I so I don't know how much a hood cleaning for a little hood and uh inspection would be Doug says that's about $400 for a good thorough cleaning, probably.

Yeah.

And the leak tests are do you think they're the super sniffer type things, or they the foam that you spray on it to see if anything's leaking or basically they would pressurize the system and see if the pressure leaks, you know, leaks down.

Okay.

All said that they would do it.

Um there may be other places in town too.

Part of this process, then when we go to the permit area, will you have a list of people, potential people who can meet these other needs?

It would be nice if we talk about a one-stop shop to go have all this done.

It would be nice if I go to my permit page.

Now I've got a list of these people can do hood inspections and cleanings, these folks can take leak tests, these folks can do your extinguisher tests.

Can we kind of link that together?

Or do you want to do that?

Well, I actually I actually already handed that out to them.

Like I handed them a list on both meetings on because my inspectors carry around a list with them of hood cleaners, hood inspectors.

The only thing I had to add was that LP leak testing, and I just handed them had had the sheets for them at the meeting.

Okay.

When you answered the question about permits in Spanish, that's obviously very important, and you got that covered.

The education process, we've had two meetings, but then we've got to educate folks that are out there now that are already in business to know that this is the new business.

This is what we have to do.

And how do you how do we do that?

How do we let them all know?

That's what the way we started was everybody that's paying the food and beverage tax.

We have their name and address, and I mean, we could probably do another meeting on here's the actual rules, because the first two are informative, and and you know, we just had back and forth discussion.

You know, the next one could be here's what it actually is, but we're just haven't got there yet.

Okay.

I see we've got uh city attorney.

In addition to kind of the efforts, did the fire department go to in 2023, the legislature passed it looking at the call it the uh Nebraska Pure Food Act, which also regulates the Department of Agriculture mobile food vendors, they maintain a pretty comprehensive list of all the regulations and an ongoing list of all of the active city regulations across the state of Nebraska, so that way mobile food vendors have kind of a one-stop shopping place to go to look at both the state rules and each respective city's rules.

So I think in Mr.

Thomas's presentation where he included that Department of Agriculture notice, that's to make sure we get on that list so those vendors have that one-stop shopping place to look.

Um that's available 24-7 as well.

Good, very good.

Then my other question was you're proposing a fee increase from sixteen hundred to two thousand dollars for the state fare.

And is that what's that four hundred dollars for?

What what what inspections are entailed in that four hundred dollar increase?

Basically everything that they do right now, but they would have to add in going to every mobile food unit and inspecting them just like we would ones that are in Grant now.

So I'm trying to figure out where you came up with a $400 price tag.

I'd I would assume that we'd base this on an hourly figure.

Well, how many hours do we think it would take to me not knowing what you're talking about?

$400 seems like a pretty steep increase to go from $1,600 to $2,000 if we're only spending an hour at a at a food truck.

And I so you're gonna have to help me understand that because I think that's a little bit that's sixteen hundred for the whole thing.

So 400 extra would be for the 20 food trucks.

So you know, if it takes not per truck, it's for the whole fair.

Oh, so it's not a per unit.

No, I and I wouldn't have to do that.

So on that help me understand that then.

So I wouldn't even say 1600 is probably pretty low, but that's the fee that I came into this business.

Sixteen hundred dollars for your I'm gonna say you is it you or somebody else that's six.

I two my two inspector, I have two inspectors.

Okay, so the sixteen hundred covers the costs of covering all of the inspections of that.

Okay, and we don't know.

Do we know how many food trucks that is roughly?

I mean, I've been in the state for several times, but I'm guessing 30, 40.

60 to 70 people.

70, okay.

So again, when we break that down to an hourly fee, that's not terribly high.

Probably low, to be honest.

But so if you're you're saying we're gonna add additional inspections for the 400 increases, what you're saying.

Yeah, so my inspectors spend at least two days right now going through all the buildings, and I would say it'd probably take the two of them another day to okay.

So I was just thinking this was a price each unit had to pay, and I thought, holy mole you guys sell a lot of fried ice cream and whatever else to get that.

I'm really hoping a lot of them are from Grand Island.

I know they're not, but if they were from Grand Island, it'd be very simple to just check off because they get they already got the Grand Island annual permit.

Okay.

So the 2,000 proposal is really for your group to do all of the state fair food truck.

Okay, that makes more sense to me.

I just thought that was a big jump.

Well, not if you're spreading it across everything.

In our committee, we had a kind of a big debate on the state fair and how we're gonna handle all the different food trucks, and that was that was just my idea that we would increase that a little bit to cover the cost of my inspectors being out there.

Sure.

And I I again, if we spread that over the cost of each unit, it's not an astronomical amount of money for people that are out there devoted to safety.

Okay, well, thank you, Phil.

That covered all of my questions.

I appreciate it.

Mr.

Hossee.

Thank you, Mayor.

Uh, thanks for your presentation, Phil.

I think we definitely need to have you know the facility fire hazard codes updated and and to where we need to be.

Um, but I also think that you know the foodborne illness side of this is also probably a bigger risk to the public than the fire hazard that they're both risks, both the facility or you know, the fire hazard.

You know, and so one of the things I'd like to see is a coordinated effort and a single list.

And I know that Carrie mentioned that that uh Nebraska Pure Food Act, you know, which is a probably a good part, you know, step in that.

You know, but we have the uh Central District Health Department, and I don't know how often do you know how often they do the food site inspections?

Because you said earlier that they do the food vendor permitting.

Do you know how often that is?

They do it yearly also.

So I would I would say that it seems to me that restaurants have a little bit of a different standard with the USDA inspections and all the stuff, and and uh you know, got to wash your hands before you, you know.

There's all kinds of rules.

They're much harder to enforce in a mobile food truck, you know, and and seems to me that once a year on a food truck, that's really not enough inspections for all of the stuff that's going on there.

Um so I I'd like to see the center, you know, you had a list of three departments, you were talking about finance, and I didn't see the health department on that list, but I'd like to see them all coordinated.

So when they do food inspections that you know when they've done food inspections and that finance knows, you know, so that they can educate them on the food and beverage tax or the sales tax, or you know, so I think finance needs to be a part of it as well, but I want to make sure it's one city coordinated effort because we pay the health district money to enforce our city codes, you know, so it's all code compliance for from my perspective, it's all city codes for anybody that happens to be in Grand Island, whether it's health codes or fire codes, I want to make sure we have one team effort uh in in addressing the the mobile food unit uh people.

Um so the other the other part, and I we don't I don't personally buy a lot of uh food from the mobile unit, but I do like on the Four Street Festival and others, there's people that I talk to and buy some of their stuff that they make at home, and then they go downtown and set up a table or even out of a truck.

They might make it at home.

You know, one person I talked to that I bought a taco from, he he made the beef at home, and he brings his pot in his truck.

He's not gonna have a hood, but I'm saying what's the difference?

How do you how do you handle those mobile food places that make their stuff at home?

Because it seems to me that the USDA will have very strict guidelines about how long can you have that pot of hamburger or that pot of whatever, and you're gonna serve it in the community, maybe and maybe you only make it once a week.

I mean, I and there's I'm sure there's temperature standards and record requirements, all of that stuff that I'm sure is available.

How are we, no matter if it's a health district or fire department or finance or who building or code enforcement?

How do we all know what those rules are, or how do we try to address it as one city?

I did not know that people actually brought stuff without a food truck.

So one thing I will say is there's there's many food trucks in town that don't create grease-laden vapors, and they've already contacted me and they've showed me what they do.

They do not need type one hoods.

So there are some of those out there too.

Like one of them is a hot dog vendor.

All they do is the hot dogs just rotisserie, they don't ever cook them, they just bring them to temperature.

Well, they don't need type one hoods.

Um I would assume what you're talking about is more the health department, because I won't I won't be involved in a food truck for them.

But yeah, because I I was on the health board as a city council rep for a dozen years, and I and it was a big issue.

And uh I don't know that annual is enough for the food side.

I don't know how often we do restaurants either.

Forget the mobile side when you have a brick and mortar store.

I don't know how often we inspect them, but it seems to me that it ought to be more often than once a year, no matter what it is.

I just want to make sure that we have one unified effort as a city, and and we don't have everybody having to call the city three different times to get three different sets of inspections.

So I think that's important.

The other thing that I heard a lot of about it, you know, like the location.

As a council member, I got one call.

They had one set up in the in a in a residential front yard.

And uh ironically, he was in a B2 zone, and so because it was along Eddy Street, there was a house, it was actually zone business.

And so he couldn't do it in the front yard, but he could move it over to the driveway and so it's still in front of a residential house.

And so the zoning, I think was part of the answer to the complaint that I'd received as a council member and just by working through that.

So, but I'd also heard that they're on private parking lots.

For example, JBS might have uh several of these mobile food units right in the parking lot, you know, so when the shift changes or whatever they do, that these are out there too.

And and you could have it at another, you know, establishment as well.

So I don't know when we start talking about approved locations, you know, some people just have them come out there to address where where the people are, you know, and so I think that's an important part to keep in mind.

But I'd also like to understand the ones that need the hood versus the ones that don't need, because we had a brick and mortar store here on South Locust that actually had a TIFF uh project that didn't meet the requirements because of the type one hood, and it cost them a lot of money from my recollection of that conversation.

Um, and it cost them a lot of money just in a brick and mortar store to have that type of hood actually put installed there.

So I think it's it's a big deal if you're the mobile food unit.

You know, so I think that'll be important uh to find out there.

Um I think that's all I had, so thank you, Phil.

Mr.

Landfair.

I was at the I attended the meeting that you had out at the library, and I want to compliment you on having excellent presentation.

The things that I took away from that, the concerns they had were what they would have cost them to to come into compliance, and how would this hurt their their business, their profits?

And just looking at this, I would say you have put together something that they should be able to live with.

My one concern is enforcement.

What happens when you find someone who will not come in through compliance?

What do you do?

That's it's kind of at least there's a little bit of an outline in it in those in those rules towards the towards the end on what happens.

Um that's where it comes down to code enforcement.

And code enforcement does work.

Uh I can issue fines and daily fines and it might have to Okay.

Again, you've done an excellent job, and this is something that the city needs.

Thank you.

Mr.

O'Neill.

So really the the main intent is is public safety in this.

And I think you mentioned uh some recent things in and hastings where a couple had issues, and you talked about you know kind of getting on Google and researching a bit.

Are there any type of stats over the type of injuries that come out of this stuff or fatalities or uh severity of that?

Sure, there is, but I do not have anything.

No problem.

But um, and I get it, because you're you're saying in this case, people are just a lot closer to the kitchen than they would be in a in in a restaurant, so it's the liability is definitely higher.

Um so in reality, we so we adopted a fire code, and it was that about four years ago.

We adopted the code that had it, we just didn't really have the permitting process.

Right.

And that's all we're trying to do is give you the extra tool to be able to issue those permits and try and get people and have that so we can make it safer for everyone else.

Um I really like the idea too on what you talked about, maybe doing the bulk inspection.

I I'd really support that idea.

I think it'd be easier for you, easier for them, and love the idea of trying to support that into making like a a bigger event out there as well.

I think it's a great idea.

Um I think you guys have a lot of really good common sense type of controls out there on the fire extinguishers, so those have to be inspected annually as well, correct?

I think when they get a tag on them.

So that'd be a little extra cost, but technically they should probably have those anyways.

I'd assume we're doing business, but that's no different than uh a restaurant or a business in town.

Yeah, we're just kind of making sure everyone plays on the same field, basically.

Um one other question, this might be a PAC question.

Um the memo in there, it said something about maybe an extra ten thousand dollars in total fees overall.

Um if that's the ballpark number you think you were talking about.

So for the food and beverage tax, we have right at a hundred that are reporting, and so I just a hundred dollars times one hundred.

And then so where does the money for the fees technically end up getting deposited at then?

Uh more than likely the uh fire department.

Stay in house, okay.

Gotcha.

Um that's all I have, but thank you.

Mr.

Brown.

Yeah, just uh a little update.

We get it we get inspected about every six months, at least every six months or more.

And uh a hood cleaning is three to four hundred dollars for our one hood we got.

And uh the inspector comes from used to be that the guy right out here, and he do it takes about an hour, and it's about 150 dollars a year to inspect the fire extinguisher system.

So Mr.

Hawsey.

Yeah, I think my last comment is really about the compliance side of how do we make you know do compliance.

Um, I know we've mentioned code enforcement, but um what I think code enforcement that they're more reactive to complaint-driven basis, and it's all citizen-driven.

I I would really like the mobile food units to be more proactive, is that you're due for an inspection, and we just need to know when to go out and inspect it.

You know, and and uh I don't know that a reactive code compliance enforcement is really gonna be effective.

And I don't like passing laws or rules that we don't enforce, you know, and so as much as they want the council to you know support whatever rules we decide on.

I I don't I don't know that code enforcement is the right one, the way that we operate today, because versus just there on a reactive complaint only basis type of system, you know, where I think we really with with food safety and fire safety, it needs to be a little more reactive or proactive approach to when are you doing and because I know that finance needs to know this as well is when we first started the food and beverage tax and we had it as an occupation tax, our ability to get compliance was very challenging because it's a lot of education, a lot of phone calls, a lot of maybe go knock on the door kind of stuff.

I mean, and like the amount of effort that it would take for finance to get compliance with an occupation tax like food and beverage, i it was a yeoman's effort to get everybody on board.

And I don't know if you know if if code enforcement's the right tool to do the compliance checks.

And so I think we need to maybe look at that one a little bit closer and look at how do we want to best manage that that compliance side?

Mr.

Shear, well, first Mr.

Brown.

So on the new software that we're implementing, this uh citizen serve.

Uh we can so it's very like you can really put anything in there that you want.

So we'll put in dates as in uh when it was uh approved, and then it would also then send out a form or email probably an email to the owners saying, hey, it's up time for renewal.

So we're we're getting to close to the 21st century.

Mr.

Sheard, thank you.

And in regards to what Chuck's talking about with the enforcement, is there is there a camaraderie amongst or uh organization of any sort that they belong to, or is there a band of brothers of the food truck world in Grand Island?

Close.

Okay.

And then also in hopes that they would move to a brick and mortar.

That's kind of the the whole thing, and there's uh one lady that's in charge of that.

She is also bilingual and was my interpreter on the on the Spanish along.

That's the closest they have is to like kind of a group leader.

There's so many organizations that if there's regulations about it, there's a pride in being up to regulation and a uh camaraderie or uh expectation that if you join us and you're not up to snuff, we want you to get there because you give us all a bad name.

And I'm just wondering if there's a way to help push that along or promote this.

Um they have their business model should incorporate that.

I guess to me, if you're gonna have a business, I'm a business owner, I have expenses.

Uh just it's a part of doing business, even if it's a uh a business that isn't traditional, that's still gonna be a an expense.

So finding a way to get them to comply, tracking them down.

You know, I don't know, Chuck, if it's not code enforcement.

Do we want GIPD out going around door to door either?

I don't really want that, and I don't know if I want the fire department doing it.

So finding out what is the right way, I think it's a good discussion for us at some point, but I uh I I think code enforcement's probably where we start.

I just comment on that.

You absolutely can.

You have a microphone.

We do this with businesses in town and restaurants right now that aren't paying their permit or they have violations, and it comes.

I have a I have a system that I've kind of worked through that once we get to this day, just like Hossey said, is I go knock on their door.

I go knock on their door, and hey, we need to get this done.

So I I'm guessing if the food trucks get to that, it'll probably be me, but there's a certain point where it's got to go past me.

And that's you know, that's for you guys to decide in the legal difficulty here is you know, brick and mortar doesn't move around town and avoid you.

Right.

Well, kind of we want to make sure we can support this, uh, knowing that it's a different, I mean, you know that it's a different beast than just a regular uh brick and mortar.

Uh I think that's been an issue probably from the beginning of these, and that's why it's been this long since we've been getting to this point, is tracking them down, finding them, knowing where they are, and you find them, whether it's looking for this or as Pat talked about, getting them to get their food and beverage taxes paid, uh, then they move across town and you don't know where they are.

So we don't have a little beacons on them all.

Uh and it's all voluntary to to start with.

So it's a tough thing, but I appreciate you doing the work.

Thank you, Division Chief Thomas, for your good work.

We have completed our agenda.

We are adjourned.

Good evening, everybody.