Food truck vendors at Manatee parks will need licenses. How much will it cost them?

The Parks and Natural Resources Department is looking to get a handle on the number of unauthorized food trucks showing up at Manatee County parks and facilities to sell their refreshments.

Charlie Hunsicker, the department’s director, asked commissioners this week to give him the chance to implement a pilot program to register food trucks with the county to regulate when and where the mobile businesses are allowed to operate.

“This is our first effort to put our arms around the many vendors that are out there and say we’re welcome for their variety but we can’t have them parking randomly all over the place,” Hunsicker said. “We want to control where you park and how long you might be there and working with you to make sure that you have registrations with the health department and your food is safe.”

The county is hoping to rein in food trucks that previously didn’t have rules or regulations for when they might appear at county parks or other facilities for events or general sales.

After a year, Hunsicker says he’ll come back before the board and update them on how the licensing system has worked and at that point, he will recommend a suitable fee for food trucks to pay for the participation. As part of the program, businesses will have the opportunity to bid for exclusive rights to serve certain parks.

Commissioner Carol Whitmore was adamantly opposed to running the program for free in the meantime.

“We’re allowing a private business to come on our property and we’re going to make sure they have everything in order, which is costing us money, and we’re paying for them to have something on our property and there’s no reimbursement,” she argued. “The taxpayer is paying for that administrative cost.”

Whitmore explained that a year would be too long for her to support and suggested a six-month window instead. Commissioner Reggie Bellamy agreed and suggested an update from Hunsicker in six to nine months.

“I don’t think it’s going to be an easy process for staff to gauge the people who want to be a part,” Bellamy predicted. “It’s going to be easier said than done.”

Other commissioners were more supportive of the yearlong time frame.

“I understand where Commissioner Whitmore is coming from, but we haven’t been receiving money anyway,” Commissioner Vanessa Baugh said. “We need to see if it’s going to work for them.”

Commissioner Misty Servia also was willing to allow a one-year period for Hunsicker’s licensing program, warning that it would be ill-advised to implement an arbitrary fee when county staff don’t know how much of a strain the process will be on resources.

“I think to charge a fee before we’re ready isn’t what we want to do,” she said.

“Certainly maybe a fee is appropriate at some point, but we don’t know what that fee is going to be until we know what the work is going to involve in trying to monitor this,” Commissioner Betsy Benac said.

A motion to approve the food truck licensing pilot program was approved by a 6-1 vote, with Whitmore casting the dissenting vote.

This story was originally published March 27, 2019 at 4:51 PM.