Stacy Head's Office Releases a Statement About Landrieu's Food Truck Veto

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Cm. Stacy Head has released a statement in response to Mayor Mitch Landrieu's seemingly unexpected veto of the food truck ordinance that the city council passed last month. In her statement, Head expressed disappointment at Landrieu's decision, which, according to Rachel Billow, came as something of a surprise to members of the Food Truck Coalition who have been working closely with the mayor's office for months with nary a hint of an impending veto.

From of the Office of Stacy Head:

Statement from Councilmember-at-Large Stacy Head Regarding Food Truck Legislation

May 2, 2013 – New Orleans, LA – I am disappointed that the mayor has vetoed the food truck ordinance, but I await his suggested improvements as he promised he would provide in his veto statement. I wish to thank those in the administration, my colleagues, neighborhood groups, restaurateurs, the New Orleans Food Truck Coalition, and the Louisiana Restaurant Association for their hard work over the past 10 months to draft legislation upon which we could all agree. I believe the end result was a thoughtful compromise position that supported the regulated growth of the food truck industry and I do not agree with the rationale for the veto. Nevertheless, considering the practical difficulties of a veto override, I have today introduced an ordinance that concedes to the mayor's desire to maintain the status quo while a complete re-write of the law is accomplished, but allows for an additional 75 itinerant vendors (with no distinction between food trucks, seafood vendors, fruit vendors or the like). While I believe the series of amendments that the council passed was preferable, in a pragmatic effort to move forward, I have submitted this alternative.

The alternative is Food Truck Ordinance 29, 547, which attempts to at least maintain the additional 75 permits that the original proposal set for itinerant vendors. Increasing the amount of available permits was one of the big issues that food truck operators like Billow and Empanada Intifada's Taylor Jackson singled out as especially important in the effort to ease the city's food truck regulations, so Head seems to be trying to salvage what is salvageable in order to ameliorate the food truck "status quo" at least a little in the short-term.

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