Late-night food fight

Deciding how to regulate temporary food vendors has proven to be a tall order for Whitefish City Council members, one they’re still trying to digest.

To buy the time needed to reconsider a vendor ordinance passed less than a year ago, the council on April 5 will consider putting a moratorium on new downtown food-vending permits until it decides what to do with the existing ordinance.

Meanwhile, there’s no love lost between Second Street Pizza owner Dave Sheeran and Red Caboose Diner owner Richard Kramer.

Sheeran operates a late-night pizza stand on a vacant Central Avenue lot for a few hours each weekend to cater to the bar crowd. In a tight economy, he says it’s a way to make ends meet. He’s tired of the controversy, though, and told the council in January that he’s “seen a lot of smear campaigns, but I’ve never been the target of one.”

Kramer, whose business is kitty-corner from the pizza stand, maintains the vendor is taking business away from the diner, to the point where he’s having to lay off employees. He and his employees repeatedly have told the council it’s not fair for temporary vendors to swoop in and take business away from permanent downtown restaurants.

And now there’s a second vendor operating across the street from the Red Caboose.

Adhering to the vendor law still on the books, the council last week approved a 60-day permit for a hot-dog and pulled-pork sandwich stand operated by Michael Tigue. His mobile stand is at 100 Central Ave.

Tigue said he, too, saw a vendor business as a way to help make a living right now. A stone mason whose job crumbled in the recession, Tigue got into cooking through barbecue competitions. He doesn’t want any part of the controversy, though.

“I just want to blend in,” he said, adding that he followed all the requirements of the city’s vendor ordinance.

Tigue notified all property owners within 250 feet of his food stand. Objectors had 14 days to lodge a complaint. Kramer and one other anonymous property owner filed complaints.

For Kramer, the second vendor permit may be the straw that breaks the proverbial camel’s back. In e-mails sent last week to city officials, he voiced his displeasure.

“I must assume that this new permit will once again be directed at hurting my business and no one else’s,” Kramer said in the e-mail. “This seems to be a pattern...”

Kramer told the Daily Inter Lake on Monday that he’s already laid off two employees because of the vendors and plans to close down the restaurant after Easter until closer to the summer season. The late-night shift — Kramer’s Red Caboose is open until 3 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights — is his most profitable time slot.

“Loss of this business has had a detrimental effect on my business and certainly will affect what I can sell it for,” Kramer said. “This also has an influence on the value of surrounding properties.”

The recession also has affected Kramer’s business, which has been for sale for the past couple of years.

The once 24-hour diner had the meal contract for BNSF Railway workers, but as the railroad laid off workers it meant less business for the Red Caboose. Kramer said the $5,000 monthly stipend from the railroad no longer covered his costs to stay open around the clock, so he gave up the contract and it reverted to the Pin ‘N Cue.

The City Council passed a more detailed ordinance for temporary vendors last July because the existing law was too vague.

At the time there was concern from some council members and citizens about the effect it would have on permanent downtown restaurants. They said it seemed unfair for food vendors to poach the best hours and seasons and undermine permanent businesses in the process.

But what about free enterprise, others argued.

The Whitefish Chamber of Commerce hasn’t taken a position, chamber director Kevin Gartland said. Both Kramer and Sheeran are chamber members. But the chamber does have a new government affairs committee that will meet this week and may address the vendor issue, he said.

Kramer pointed out that the vendor ordinance states its intent is to “promote small business growth on a temporary basis in order to promote future permanent location and operation.”

So, he asked, what about a vendor, like Sheeran, who already has a permanent business?

Whitefish Planning Director David Taylor, who has the authority to renew or deny vendor permit renewals, has opted to take direction from the council because of the controversy. He said he sees both sides.

“I understand the issue of undercutting the brick-and-mortar businesses, but Whitefish is a late-night destination community and vendors add to the festive atmosphere,” Taylor said.

He’s had inquiries from other potential food vendors who now are waiting to see what the council does about a moratorium. Vendors have operated for years near the Great Northern Bar, Taylor said, noting a hot-dog vendor in particular who used to set up for the bar crowd. It didn’t seem to be a problem until the pizza peddler arrived on the scene.

“I’m just trying to roll with that the [council] wants to do,” Taylor said. “It seems it’s one step forward and two back.”

Kramer maintains there’s not enough restaurant business in Whitefish to allow vendors on a regular basis. At special events such as Winter Carnival or the Farmers Market, they’re fine, he said.

SHEERAN said the “hot-dog guy” next to the Great Northern Bar was a friend of his, and when that vendor left he saw an opportunity.

“I noticed a void, so I did pizza,” he said. “Everyone likes my product.”

He sells cheese or pepperoni pizza slices from midnight to 2 a.m. on Friday and Saturday nights, and occasionally on Thursday night if there’s a crowd in town. He doesn’t sell drinks.

Sheeran gave the council a petition with 400 signatures — some of them fellow restaurant owners — in favor of his pizza stand.

“I pick up trash that isn’t even mine,” he said. “I bend over backwards.”

Taylor acknowledged that Sheeran has made “a good faith effort” to abide by the conditions of his permit.

Sheeran’s permit expires on March 25, but he has submitted the $30 fee to extend it another 60 days, until May 25, in light of the pending moratorium.

Kramer has lodged several complaints against Sheeran, even supplying cell-phone photographs to the council that showed Sheeran operating past the 2 a.m. deadline. The permit requires him to stop serving food at 2 a.m. and have the stand removed by 2:30 p.m.

Taylor made site inspections twice and found that on one occasion Sheeran didn’t take down the stand until about 2:45 a.m. But Taylor said the regular vendor law allows a tear-down deadline of 3 a.m., and he’s puzzled why Sheeran’s deadline is 2:30 a.m.

Sheeran also wonders why he’s being singled out. During the Winter Carnival weekend there were six other food vendors who were allowed to serve food longer into the night, while he had to close the same time as the bars.

That’s a flaw in the existing ordinance for temporary vendors, Taylor contended. It’s after the 2 a.m. bar closure when most patrons go looking for something to eat.

“In hindsight the 2 a.m. [vendor deadline] is kind of stupid,” Taylor said.

Not all City Council members voted in favor of considering an urgency ordinance to stop new vendor permits. John Muhlfeld and Ryan Friel opposed it.

Council member Turner Askew is among those supporting a moratorium.

“I want to stop operating under this ordinance,” Askew told fellow council members at a recent meeting.

Last week, he said he still supports the idea of “backing up and starting over” with the vendor ordinance.

“What is the benefit to the city?” he wondered. “I’m still asking that. All I hear about is the problems ... I thought there would be problems from the very beginning of this.”

 Features editor Lynnette Hintze may be reached at 758-4421 or by e-mail at lhintze@dailyinterlake.com