Columbia is considering designating the Farmer’s Market on South High School Avenue as the only place to sell farm-raised produce in response to complaints from businesses about roadside seafood vendors.
“The property has signage. They expect to have fresh garden items. Maybe that could be designated as the only site that you could sell farm-raised produce from,” Mayor Justin McKenzie said during a March 6 meeting. “We may want to look at this and not have them selling at a closed establishment. I think that would curb a lot of complaints on this.”
City Attorney Lawrence Hahn said the city has authority under the law to have certain reasonable restrictions in place.
“How restrictive you could be would be the question,” he said.
Permits, regulations and local ordinances regarding food vendors have been on the minds of aldermen lately after Columbia businessman Wayne Ledet, one of the owners of Rajun Cajun’s restaurant, spoke to them about how about street sales of fish and shrimp are hurting him.
Ward 4 Alderman Mike Smith said he is concerned for the “brick-and-mortar people,” the businesses that sell said items.
“They can haul a trailer out there and they don’t pay rent and don’t pay city taxes,” he said. “We end up hurting the people that have invested in Columbia.”
Hahn said he clarified the seafood issue with state officials.
“The bottom line on that is that the city has no jurisdiction to regulate or cite or do anything with respect to seafood sales out of coolers, which is what we were talking about,” he said. “I spoke with the Department of Marine Resources on two or three occasions and they were extremely helpful. There is also an attorney general’s opinion on it that the jurisdictional part falls under the Department of Marine Resources, with some authority as well on the Department of Health. The city can go by and make sure that they are permitted, but the city cannot issue citations – they have their own enforcement people. We can certainly call and report, but there is just not much room for city enforcement with respect to seafood sales.”
Alderman-at-large Edward Hough asked about the process, including purchasing seafood from a supplier.
“They (vendors) didn’t grow those shrimp or catch those shrimp,” he said. “If that is this case, how can they sell under those regulations?”
“We probably do have people that are bringing fresh seafood up here and you also may have people that are doing what you are talking about,” Hahn replied. “When I was looking into it, I did not realize that part of the allegation was that people are selling pre-packed commercially packaged items. I would suspect that is a whole different subject area. The question is how to prove that. I think you would have to involve Marine Resources in that. Someone with the authority or jurisdiction to do something would have to be involved. That might be something we would have to cooperate with the state with.”
Hahn explained that the transient vendor statute allowed certain types of sales to occur.
“Many of the vendors fall under this statute,” he said. “But the seafood people fall under the Department of Marine Resources. If you’re selling shrimp from a food vendor, frozen shrimp, that may very well fall under the transient food vendor statute. We need to enforcement our transient vendor ordinance.”
McKenzie said that currently transient vendors purchase a $250 license from the city. Hahn added that the fresh seafood sales did not require a transient vendor license. Produce vendors, however, must do it.
