Head Kills Veto Override, Landrieu to Present Ordinance

According to Bruce Eggler of the Times-Pic, Councilwoman Stacy Head has given up hope of overriding Mayor Mitch Landrieu's veto on her recently passed food truck ordinance, "saying she saw little chance she could have mustered the five votes needed" and asking the council to defer a vote on the override, "thereby killing the measure."

Landrieu is "expected to present a substitute ordinance that would achieve most of the same goals as her proposal" but with a few added see what I just did there hands in the face. Landrieu's ordinance is not expected to include the weirdo access-to-public-bathrooms measure (which Head also seemed to find rather asinine), and will also eliminate any "buffer zone" between trucks and restaurants, which has been a hotly contested measure in that it seems to protect existing restaurants from any new competition and therefore can be considered unconstitutional.

Head states that Landrieu's administration also wants "relax the rules on areas of the city where the trucks cannot operate," which means opening up residential neighborhoods and much of the CBD. Per the Times-Pic:

Unlike Head's ordinance, which would have authorized 100 new food-truck permits but only for a one-year trial period, the administration apparently favors authorizing at least 100 such trucks on a permanent basis, without a trial period, and allowing at least 100 other mobile food vendors selling items such as ice cream, uncooked seafood and fresh fruits and vegetables.

Erm, this actually sounds like good news for the Food Trucks, annoying news for Stacy Head, and possibly bad news for the Louisiana Restaurant Association and others with issues surrounding Head's ordinance, which amounted to all the fussiness, strange measure requests (such as wanting to make GPS a requirement) and revisions. Head says she hopes the administration will have its ordinance ready to introduce by next month, and maybe they will if they just copy her original version practically verbatim and send Milli Vanilli out to perform it for City Council.

· Stacy Head Accepts Mayor's Veto of her Food-Truck Ordinance But Sees Agreement Ahead [NOLA.com]
· All Food Truck Coverage [-ENOLA-]