Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Council Member De La Rosa inquires about agency training for new vending laws
0:47:16
·
3 min
Council Member Carmen N. De La Rosa raises questions about the implementation of proposed vending bills, focusing on how agencies will be trained on enforcement and regulations. She expresses concern about the current situation where vendors are encouraged to apply for licenses that are not available due to long waitlists.
- Joshua Goodman from the Department of Sanitation responds, explaining their current approach to licensed and unlicensed vendors and assuring that staff will be updated on any law changes.
- Haris Khan from the Department of Small Business Services discusses their role in coordinating with other agencies and providing compliance assistance if the cap on licenses is lifted.
Carmen N. De La Rosa
0:47:16
Thank you.
0:47:17
I just have a quick question.
0:47:20
Once these bills are made into law, what is going to be the training specifically with the agencies on the enforcement and regulations around these bills.
0:47:34
One of the things we see in district like mine for example is if DSNY, just to give the example of that agency, comes in and does enforcement, they often tell our vendors well you can go apply for a license and then the vendor goes, applies for a license, goes down to apply for a license.
0:47:53
There is no license to be applied for.
0:47:55
There is a waitlist forever and ever.
0:47:58
And so it's kind of like a false hope that is being created, but also a false standard where they are not able at this moment to regulate their status as vendors.
0:48:11
And so once these laws that my council that my council colleagues are hoping to get done, we're all hoping to get done, what is gonna be the process across the agencies for training and ensuring that the information filters down to the vendors on the street?
0:50:16
Thank you.
Joshua Goodman
0:48:29
Well, I I can just start by saying, council member, that as I mentioned in my testimony, about a quarter of summonses issued by DSNY for street vending violations are for unlicensed vending.
0:48:42
The number of interactions with unlicensed vendors is likely higher than a quarter because one of the first things that an unlicensed vendor will do when they see enforcement personnel from any agency is to leave the area.
0:48:55
In general, we do typically find interactions with licensed vendors about the rules and regulations around vending to be more productive than interactions with unlicensed vendors.
0:49:05
Look, our staff are trained and licensed peace officers.
0:49:09
They obviously are required to always be up to date on the law.
0:49:13
If the law changes, they will be up to date on that.
0:49:15
I will say that there's a lot of implementation work that would be required, but I can tell you something about what our interactions are like with licensed versus unlicensed vendors.
Haris Khan
0:49:32
Councilmember, thank you for the question.
0:49:33
Once if there's a decision to lift the cap by the council and if there if that is the policy decision that takes place, and when we are in the development of implementation across the agencies that would be SPS would certainly play a role in coordinating with those sister agencies and making sure our material, our resources, and our team that provides compliance and regulatory assistance is trained in the new pathways available to street vendors as they take advantage of those opportunities.
0:50:02
And that has happened consistently whenever there are new opportunities that arise in the regulatory scheme.
0:50:07
One example could be the cannabis entrepreneurs that we've helped at the agency as the state rolled out new license opportunities for those particular businesses across the city.