Fountain Valley is joining a growing number of cities in Orange County that require street vendors to obtain special permits before selling food or drink in public spaces or face fines and ultimately get their equipment impounded by local code enforcement officers.

But there could be limitations on how tight city enforcement can be.

Fountain Valley City Attorney Colin Burns cautioned that state law contains enforcement restraints on municipalities.

“There are limitations in what we can do with our food vending ordinance citations,” Burns said at the April 15 meeting. “Last time I checked, I believe we can only do an admin cite (citation).”

An administrative citation is “basically like a parking ticket,” Burns said in a follow-up phone interview, adding it’s a non-criminal, non-civil en

See Full Page