Milwaukee Mayor Barrett Should Veto Southside Alderman Donovan's Ban Of Arandas Taco Truck On Portion Of W. National Ave.

At least 14 members of the Milwaukee Common Council were made fools and now Alderman Donovan wants Mayor Barrett to join the lot of fools by signing his deceptive resolution #181572 to ban the only taco truck on W. National Ave. in the 8th Aldermanic District.

By H. Nelson Goodson

Hispanic News Network U.S.A.

March 5, 2019

Milwaukee, WI - City records show that resolution #181572 prohibiting parked vehicles selling articles on the West portion of W. National Ave., which passed by the Milwaukee Common Council (MCC) on a vote of 14 on February 26, remains at Mayor Tom Barrett's office waiting for his signature to become an ordinance. The resolution was introduced by Alderman Robert "Bob" Donovan from the 8th Aldermanic District in a deceptive practice, in other words, Donovan apparently lied by not letting his fellow aldermen know, that he was actually targeting one Mexican taco food truck called Arandas at the 3700 block of W. National Ave.

According to the Safety & Health Committee hearing on February 14, Ald. Donovan claimed that parked vehicles selling articles were parking way out into the East and West bound busy traffic lanes and since no one was present at the hearing to challenge the resolution, it passed without an objection. Ald. Donovan failed to present any history and evidence of any parked vehicle selling articles including the Arandas Taco food truck vendor ever getting a citation from the Milwaukee Police Department for parking way out into the traffic lanes. Also, Ald. Donovan failed to notify businesses or residents around the 3700 block of W. National Ave. that he was going to introduce a resolution to ban the particular taco truck from W. National Ave.

The resolution is certainly discriminatory as well, it only prohibits parked vehicles from selling articles from S. Layton Blvd. (S. 27th) along westward of W. National Ave. to the city limits and it doesn't ban any food truck East of W. National Ave. from Layton Blvd. in Ald. José G Pérez 12th Aldermanic District. Pérez also voted to pass Ald. Donovan's resolution #181572.

What's behind Ald. Donovan's motive? Well his legislative aide exposed it on Facebook. 

According to Donovan's legislative aide, Patty Doherty, in a response to Justin Bielinski, a former Aldermanic candidate in the district, who then posted her response in his Facebook account revealed the actual motive behind Donovan's resolution and it wasn't because parked vehicles were selling articles way out and close to the traffic flow lanes as Ald. Donovan wants everyone to believe including other aldermen, but according to Doherty, she claims that complaints have been made and released the following statement, "Dear Justin,

Most of the complaints were over the phone, but maybe it would just be easier to go over the situation and what steps we took from beginning to end. The first call I got was from a landlord on the 3700 bl. of W. National Ave. whose commercial tenants were concerned about a huge ice dam that had formed in front of their organization. I have attached the picture. DPW took the picture when I sent them out to address the complaint. The tenants said the leak was coming from a food truck that parks in front of their organization every day for about 10 hours a day.

In response to the ice, I sent Sewer Maintenance and the Health Dept. The Health Inspector verified that the truck was leaking water and issued orders for them to get it fixed. It was also determined at that time that there was a slow underground waterline leak that was also causing the ponding, and the freezing. I then got the contact info for the owner of the food truck and I gave him a call and talked to him about the water and also the complaint from the businesses on that side of the block about the fact that he parks there all day every day and that the people coming to their businesses/organizations have nowhere to park. I asked him to refrain from parking there at all for a few days while the City tried to get rid of the ice dam and after that, I reminded him that he had to follow the posted parking rules, which state 2 hour parking.

A few days after that I got a call from the brother of the food truck owner. His brother called because his English is better and he wanted to make sure they understood the complaint. I talked to him about the need to respect the other people trying to do business at this building and went over the parking rules with him – rules that are given, in writing, to all applicants for food truck vendor licenses. He argued with me saying they were unfair, especially in winter when not all parking spots are open due to snow. I told him that when we receive a complain like this, first we verify it through parking enforcement, which we did, but I requested that they just ask him to move and not ticket him. Once the complaint of all day parking was verified, I – personally – reached out to the owner to try to work things out without having to resort to any type of enforcement. In this case, it didn't work. Over the next week, I received almost daily calls from the LL saying his tenants are still complaining and that the food truck is still parking there all day.

At that point, we requested that parking citations be issued, and they were. I didn't make the request daily because I wasn't trying to hurt the guy financially, we were only trying to get him to be reasonable and comply. He did not, and I continued to get calls. Now the LL was getting upset and asking how long before this office could actually do something about this. I don't blame him. That's when we turned to using legislation to fix the problem. I'd also like to add that I told all of this to the food vendor's brother and said that the very last step, and one we don't want to be forced to take, is to ban trucks from the street. I can't explain why they refused to follow the parking rules, but it is what it is, and that's a shame. They are still allowed to park just around any corner, on a side street, but only for 2 hours at a time. Those are the rules for any food truck anywhere across the City unless they obtain a special event permit.

I have been told that the truck now parks further west on National Ave. possibly in West Milwaukee. I really don't know what else we could have done here, and is it really so awful to require food truck vendors to follow the rules and be fair to others in the community? We also had a complaint from a business owner on 30th and Lincoln about a food truck. The truck was parking outside of this tavern at bar time and staying until 3 a.m. This meant that customers stayed in the neighborhood, outside, eating food from the vendor. The complaints were numerous and many from neighbors (loud music from cars, loud voices, lots of litter). The police went out on noise complaints from neighbors and the bar owner was worried that he'd be blamed for the neighborhood nuisance when it came time for the license renewal. I called the owner of the truck and explained the problem and what do you know, he understood and stopped the 3 a.m. business plan. That's how things should work. I honestly feel bad that that's not how it went on National, but it's not like he lost his license, he just has to park around the corner or down the street."

It seems that the MCC has been restricting and prohibiting food trucks including taco trucks from certain streets, which in many cases tend to be main and busy streets and avenues around Milwaukee. Food trucks provide a variety of good tasting food at an affordable price for their customer base.

Ald. Donovan ran for Mayor and was defeated by incumbent Mayor Barrett. Ald. Donovan hasn't confirm, if he will run for re-election or Mayor and word in the district is that he might not run for alderman. Ald. Donovan has banned at least 5 other food trucks from W. Lincoln Ave., W. Mitchell Street and W. Greenfield Ave.

Update:

On Tuesday, Patty Doherty, Alderman Robert Donovan's legislative aide responded to the Hispanic News Network U.S.A. (HNNUSA) article. Doherty states, "If you find a block on National Ave. where the businesses there have no objections to a food truck parking there all day, please let us know and we will be happy to revisit this issue."
Doherty and Ald. Donovan have yet to explain why he lied and used a deceptive tactic to ban one taco food truck, Arandas from the 3700 block of W. National Ave.