Over the past six months, we’ve been giving the Los Angeles Health Department’s Vehicle Inspection Program (VIP) examples of deficiencies in their enforcement policies. After reviewing “inspection” reports we found that inspectors and supervisors were misinformed about basic public health regulations. Some inspectors did not know the difference between hot water (120º) for warewashing sinkes and warm water (100º) for handwashing sinks. Inspectors were using an improper code when shutting trucks down for restroom access violations until we pointed out their mistake. The Department did not understand the limits to their authority when issuing “Community Event” permits. The regulations are written in the County Code and the State Code and we have asked that they follow these codes to the letter. Unfortunately, when the codes conflict with their “policies” they refuse to make changes and have even said, “if you don’t like it, you can sue us.”
Even more troubling is the frequency in which the Nouveau Food Truck industry is being inspected. Every truck is required to be inspected 2 times per fiscal year. Our members have already been inspected an average of 2.4 times for the 2011/2012 fiscal year which ends June 30, 2012. There are over 2600 trucks that need to be inspected twice for the 2011/2012 fiscal year. Currently, there are over 1700 trucks that have not received one inspection this fiscal year. These are figures from County’s own website (http://publichealth.lacounty.gov/rating/ Search: Catering Truck -sorted by: Inspection Date). Even more troubling is the fact that there are over 450 trucks that have not been inspected since the 2009/2010 fiscal year. In 7 months, The VIP have inspected 750 or so trucks out of the over 2600. At this rate they will never get through all of the trucks. At the end of last fiscal year, 30% of the trucks did not even receive one inspection. Some of our members had as many as 6 inspections last fiscal year.
Under “About Us” on the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health website, they have a mission statement. It reads: “The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health protects health, prevents disease, and promotes the health and well-being for all persons in Los Angeles County. Our focus is on the population as a whole, and we conduct our activities through a network of public health professionals throughout the community.” The SoCal Mobile Food Vendors’ Association has been working for the interests of our members since January 2010. We believe the interests of our members coincide directly with interests in Public Health. If the public is not protected, our industry will suffer.
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