Food trucks might soon be serving up good eats more easily in Hutchinson. The City Council on Tuesday discussed amending the city’s food truck ordinance following a request from Dan Hart, owner of Bobbing Bobber Brewing Co.
In a letter sent to City Administrator Matt Jaunich, Hart requested City Council consider changes to ordinances pertaining to food trucks. He said the current ordinance makes it difficult to attract food trucks for one-time events.
“The current license fee for a food vendor in Hutchinson is $125,” Hart wrote. “We are concerned this cost for a one-time visit would be prohibitive. To try and attract food vendors in from metros that may be an hour away, we would like to try and come up with a way to make it easier for these food vendors to come to our location and city.”
Hart proposed lowering the cost of the license from $125 a year to $25 for a one-time license.
The City Council has traditionally allowed food trucks to be exempt from the ordinances if they’re taking part in an event sponsored by the Hutchinson Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism, such as RiverSong Music Festival. A defined policy outlining that practice doesn’t exist, but its been recommended that city code be updated to include those exemptions.
Jaunich brought up the possibility of drafting a sponsorship clause to the city code, or implementing a temporary license allowing food vendors to do business in Hutchinson. He cited Minneapolis and Albert Lea as cities that offer temporary food vendor licenses.
Council members Chad Czmowski and Mary Christensen were on board with the idea of a sponsorship or temporary license.
“I like the idea of a sponsorship option,” Czmowski said. “I also like just having a temporary, one-day option in case somebody’s not part of a bigger event or going to the brewery.”
“I like the sponsorship idea, and I also like the one-time because you might have someone who’s only going to show up once,” Christensen said.
But City Attorney Marc Sebora was concerned about insurance liability should the city be named in a lawsuit.
“You always think of the worst-case scenario,” Sebora said. “Here you have a situation where the city is issuing a license for this person or entity to be conducting business and someone gets hurt. The tendency for when the person sues is going to be suing everybody that’s involved. The city granted the license for that person to be conducting an activity, and I would have no doubt that the city would be named in a potential lawsuit.”
The city currently requires food vendors to be additionally insured to offer an extra level of protection for the city. That means the insurance policy is owned by someone other than the city.
Should the city decide to change the city code, a first draft of a proposal could be given as early as the next City Council meeting.
“At the earliest we could have something approved at the Sept. 10 council meeting,” Jaunich said.
