Food truck meeting causes a stir in Hazleton

Apr. 14—An unadvertised meeting that three members of Hazleton City Council attended Monday at city hall to hear concerns from business owners about food truck regulations left some members of council and the public with a bad taste.

A councilman who was not invited to the meeting and a resident who said she wasn't afforded the same opportunity when asking some council members for a meeting earlier this month to discuss the regulations take issue with a lack of notification.

Councilman Jack Mundie said that he learned about the meeting when photos and videos of the meeting were brought to his attention.

"Nobody told me about it," Mundie said while questioning the legality of the gathering. "You can't have a meeting like that with three council (members). It's against the rules of council and against the ethics rules."

However, council members who did attend said the meeting was well intended and insist they did not violate the Sunshine Act, since their participation was limited to listening to concerns.

Council President Jim Perry, who attended the meeting along with Vice President Tony Colombo and Councilwoman Lauren Sacco, said Tuesday that officials checked with the city solicitor before attending.

All three council members said Tuesday that they did not answer questions or deliberate.

"There's a fine line between, are we going to create more of a problem or help solve a problem," Perry said. "We didn't want to be perceived as violating anything."

Perry said that Mayor Jeff Cusat spent more than an hour addressing concerns raised by an estimated 50 people who attended.

Perry believes it made more sense for council to listen to concerns before it holds its regular meeting and work session Wednesday since the food truck topic is broad and an attendee had to serve as an interpreter.

Officials laid out the rules at the start of the meeting, with Cusat saying attendees were informed that council members could not answer questions because the meeting was not advertised.

Cusat said he had questions earlier in the day about whether the meeting, which was requested by a representative from the Spanish Business Association of Hazleton, would violate the Sunshine Act.

After checking with the city solicitor, council members agreed that they would not deliberate or participate in discussions, Cusat said.

Cusat said he agreed to do the talking during the meeting.

A Pennsylvania NewsMedia Association lawyer said the meeting does not constitute a Sunshine Act violation if council members only listened to the public and did not deliberate, but said an advertised public meeting would've been the best way to reach all interested parties.

"The Sunshine Act only applies when there is quorum deliberation of agency business, and if there is no deliberation of agency business (they just listened), the Sunshine Act did not apply," PNA Media Law Counsel Melissa Melewski said in an email. "That doesn't mean a public meeting would not have been beneficial, it just means the Sunshine Act was not triggered.

"Anytime an agency holds a gathering like this, it is ideal to have as many interested people involved as possible so that elected officials can understand the broad range of opinions on the issue. The best way to get the word out is to advertise and hold a public meeting in the same way the agency usually does: consistent with the Sunshine Act."

Perry said the food truck issue will be discussed again Wednesday during the regular council meeting.

Organizers

Vianney Castro, president of the Spanish Business Association of Hazleton, said Tuesday that he and Sacco organized the meeting to give food truck operators an opportunity to explain why regulations that would require food trucks to move every two hours in commercial districts is not feasible for business and poses a danger to operators and the public.

"To heat the oil, it takes a half hour," he said. "By the time they prepare the kitchen to cook, they would have to start moving. Imagine having hot oil and having to move. It can cause an accident. You cannot be moving this type of food preparation every two hours."

Orders take between 10 and 15 minutes to prepare, which limits the amount of business that food trucks can conduct, he said.

In Castro's estimation, food truck operators need at least eight hours to operate in a location.

Castro said he believes the meeting was beneficial, as it gave operators and their families an opportunity to explain how the ordinance could impact businesses.

Sacco said she originally planned to meet with Castro and listen to his concerns, which she would then relay to council.

She planned to meet with him at her family restaurant, but the meeting was moved to city hall Monday after she learned that a large group of people wanted to be heard.

"It was open to anybody," she said of the meeting. "All we did was act as a sounding board. We took all of the information down and on Wednesday, when we come to the meeting, we will reassess it and go from there."

More concerns

Councilwoman Allison Barletta said the solicitor initially indicated that only two members of council would attend to avoid having a quorum for a meeting that was originally scheduled for 3 p.m.

The meeting wasn't advertised and was not part of a list of work session and regular meeting dates that was compiled earlier in the year, she said.

Later Monday, the Greater Hazleton Chamber of Commerce sent an email for people who wanted to attend virtually, but the start time for the meeting was listed as 7 p.m. in that link, she said.

Barletta said she received reports from people who wanted to participate, but could not access the meeting virtually.

After photos and video of the meeting surfaced on social media, Barletta said she's concerned that social distancing wasn't enforced, as audience members appeared to have "packed" into council chambers.

City council candidate Nicarol Soto said that she asked Colombo, Barletta and Mundie on April 4 if they could arrange for a meeting to discuss food truck regulations but said she was told that a meeting could potentially violate the Sunshine Act.

"There was a back and forth within that week and was I finally told because of the Sunshine Act we couldn't meet, which I understood right away," Soto said. "But it looks like Castro, he went on his way and asked other council members and they kind of tried to push the meeting for him."

Soto said she was disappointed to find out Castro was granted a meeting after her request was denied. She also questioned whether the meeting was properly advertised.

Castro, she said, promoted the meeting on Facebook.

"It's Spanish media," she said. "Not everyone would be alerted."

Soto said she plans to participate in a council meeting Wednesday.

Mundie, meanwhile, said that he does not support the food truck regulations because they are too restrictive.

Contact the writer: sgalski@standardspeaker.com; 570-501-3586