City food truck law spurs protests

City officials are promising at least one public hearing in the coming weeks on rules governing how food trucks can operate in Hono­lulu’s Capitol Special District under a two-year pilot program that became law last week.

Citing concerns raised by vendors, Mayor Kirk Caldwell allowed Bill 1 to become law on March 28 without his signature.

The ordinance leaves the details of the pilot program up to the administration — including how many permits will be issued, where the permits will allow trucks to be parked, how much they will cost, and how long they’ll be valid.

Administration officials had supported the bill’s concept as it went through the City Council. But Caldwell said that since the Council passed the bill last month, food truck operators had come forward to raise concerns that they would not be allowed to work in the Capitol District from 10:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. weekdays unless they won a permit to operate through a bidding process.

Caldwell said he’s asking the Department of Transportation Services to hold public hearings as part of the rule-making process and attempt to resolve the issues raised.

"If they cannot, DTS will report back to the Council that the issues cannot be resolved through rulemaking and request a repeal of or an amendment to the ordinance," the mayor said in his memo to the Council explaining why he left the bill unsigned. "I believe it is premature to implement this pilot project without getting more input from the businesses that will be impacted."

Through three readings of the full Council and two airings before the Council Budget Committee, no food truck vendors testified for or against the measure, although a number have raised objections since then.

Council Chairman Ernie Martin, in response to Caldwell’s memo, said in a news release Tuesday that he and colleagues are worried the administration may be trying to kill the measure "by using the bureaucracy to delay or stifle" its implementation.

"This (the law) is an attempt to make the competition for street space fair, provide a reliable service to the public and earn a small amount of revenue for the city," Martin said.

The administration, at the request of the Honolulu Star-Advertiser, released communications from several food truck vendors urging Caldwell not to sign the bill.

Among them was Camille Komine of Camille’s on Wheels, a lunch truck owner who lobbied for a 2012 law that gave vendors the chance to park and conduct business at marked stalls for up to three hours at a time. Komine, in raising objections to Bill 1 to Caldwell after its passage, said while the 2012 legislation "decriminalized" food vending, the latest law "completely undermines those efforts and will be the demise of many small-business owners."

City Transportation Services Director Michael Formby said his department will begin looking for potential areas where "superstalls" dedicated to food trucks may be located next week. His agency will also work with the Department of Enterprise Services on the language of concession contracts.

He said he hopes the city will be able to find "a minimum of five locations" and possibly more "if there is more interest."

Also yet to be determined is the period of time the permit would cover, he said. Formby previously had suggested one possibility would be to require a minimum bid of $400 for a monthly permit.

A community hearing on the pilot project should be held in the next two or three weeks, he said.

It’s possible more than one permitted site could be located in the same area, he said.

That’s a key point for current downtown food truck vendors, as many as a half-dozen of whom cluster on Mililani Street between King and Queen streets, where they draw crowds from nearby government buildings and downtown business towers.

Vicky Siu, manager of Nicky Lunchwagon, said she initially opposed the bill but has started to view it neutrally. After paying for other government permits and taxes, profit margins are already tough without the need to bid for a costly permit, she said.

But she and her father, truck owner Darrell Siu, have come to the conclusion that requiring the permit could thin out the competition, especially those who are not operating with all the necessary permits, she said.

Siu said she hopes the minimum bid amount will be less than $400.

Nicky Lunchwagon has been around about 25 years, and the familiar yellow truck that features a variety of local dishes sits on Mililani Street five days a week.

Thomas Zufrass-Hall, co-owner of the Wurst Wagen, said he and his partners oppose the new law.

"It’s sad the city would like to implement more rules and regulations," especially on small businesses, he said.

The truck, which specializes in German food, operates most days at Schofield Barracks or Hickam Air Force Base and spends one day a week on Mililani Street. So Wurst Wagen’s owners don’t expect to bid on any permits. The truck will likely spend one day a week somewhere else in Honolulu, outside the capitol district, Zufrass-Hall said.

Martin told the Star-Advertiser on Thursday that the idea of exclusive stalls for food trucks first was raised by vendors during discussion on the 2012 bill.

He denied suggestions by critics that he introduced the bill to limit the number of trucks in the capitol district, adding he has no problem with a "reasonable" number of permits being issued.

"The intent was really to have a dedicated space to accommodate that particular industry, but at the same time not allowing them to monopolize the space" to the detriment of motorists seeking to park in metered stalls, Martin said.

Kemtis Kunanuraksapong, a frequent customer of the Mililani Street trucks, said there are ample stalls at the downtown post office and doesn’t see public parking as an issue.

Kunanuraksapong, who works at a nearby information technology company, said lunch trucks provide tastier and cheaper lunch options for him than brick-and-mortar restaurants downtown. A permit system would reduce those options, he said.