Food truck fight at Shadyside council meeting
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SHADYSIDE - Tempers reached the boiling point during Shadyside Village Council's meeting on Monday evening when it turned into a shouting match resulting in one local business owner exiting the meeting.
Holey Rollers Donut food truck owner Jeremy Pasztor and village officials have been clashing over the village's decision to terminate his outdoor food vendor permit to set up his food truck outside of Hometown Roots Salon on Oct. 2.
Pasztor told council that on Oct. 2, a police officer issued him a $100 citation for operating without a permit.
Pasztor said he paid the village’s outdoor food vendor fee on Sept. 29. The next day, he said clerk of courts Betty Snyder called him saying he would be required to park his food truck on private property since the village doesn't allow any food truck to operate on village property.
Pasztor claims he received nine calls from Snyder telling him the same information, which confused him.
"So I called Betty and was like, “Hey Betty, why are we getting nine phone calls telling us to park on private property? It got to the point where Betty interrupted me, and I said, ‘Hey Betty, you’re interrupting me, and I would like to finish,’ and then she started getting frantic, raised her voice at me, and I said, ‘You’re a city official, why are you raising your voice at me?’ And that pretty much went on until the end of the phone call," Pasztor said. "I didn’t raise my voice; it went to the point where I was like, OK, you have a good day, too."
During the meeting, Snyder denied calling Pasztor nine times and said she did not raise her voice at him.
Pasztor said on Sep. 30, Mayor Mike Meintel called him informing him council would be updating the rules on food trucks during the next meeting to where outdoor food vendor permits would need to be applied for two to three days ahead of time.
Despite Meintel telling Pasztor council would vote to update the ordinance, no action was taken at Monday evening’s meeting.
Pasztor continued during the phone call with Meintel, he asked him what the reasoning for the phone call was. Meintel said he just wanted to inform Pasztor about the rule change, according to Pasztor.
Pasztor said he asked Meintel why the village had called him 10 times about selling donuts in the village for three hours.
"I started to explain how many times Betty had called me and how many times I had been contacted through emails. To which he said, ‘You’re not coming to my town. That’s not how this stuff works,’ and pulled my permit," Pasztor said. "I’ve looked over the village's ordinance, and I can not find it anywhere where it says that the mayor can pull my permit for his feelings being hurt."
Meintel replied that he believes that Pasztor is not telling the full story.
"This guy portrays himself with half truths. He’s not telling the whole story and people know it. There’s female witnesses sitting in here, OK. I’m sorry but as long as I’m mayor here in this town, it’s to protect the residents, protect my employees. and I will not allow anybody to talk to my employees in a degrading way, or curse at them, or anything like that, especially when they’re women. OK? So I don’t care what you do, dude," Meintel said.
Pasztor asked Meintel why he was addressing him in such a manner.
"Why are you talking to me like this in front of the whole village? You’re not acting like a mayor, this is crazy," Pasztor said.
Meintel then confirmed he did contact Pasztor to inform him council was likely to update the village's ordinance regarding food trucks.
"I was just making pleasantries, then you started going off on me," Meintel said.
Council member Robert Dorris asked Pasztor what he was looking to achieve by coming to the council meeting.
Pasztor replied stating he was asking council to withdraw the citation issued Oct. 2. Pasztor then asked council to adopt a written vendor permit procedure which includes a written notice and a chance to respond before any revocation occurs and for it to not be announced by a phone call.
Meintel replied that the matter is going to Mayor's Court, but due to the conflict of interest, he will be asking Belmont County Eastern Division Court to handle the matter.
Pasztor snapped back, saying it’s fine because if he loses the hearing he would only have to pay a $100 fine, but if he wins, it will vindicate Pasztor and will inform everyone Meintel was in the wrong. He added he believes Meintel is wrong but refuses to admit it.
At this point, Meintel almost had enough.
"Donnie (police chief Don Collette), I’m giving him one more chance then I'm going to have you remove Donut Boy from this room," Meintel said.
Pasztor then said name calling was uncalled for and stormed out of the meeting.
Dorris then said he understands although the village doesn't dislike food trucks, it has a firm stance on putting the village's brick-and-mortar businesses first.
"We love our brick-and-mortar businesses more than we love a food truck," Dorris said. "I read all through the Facebook comments that this guy made, and I'm sure he’s going to take to Facebook probably as we speak, but that’s fine. He has supporters who are going to jump on his bandwagon. But we are looking at updating the ordinance, and we’re going to change it because we do protect all of our businesses, not just eateries."
He added that he doesn't want a portable hair salon coming into the village and parking in front of one of its hair salons and providing hair cuts cheaper than what they can get at a brick-and-mortar business.
"I don’t want that. I don’t think anybody wants that. It’s not going to be limited to a food truck ordinance. It’s going to be a mobile business ordinance, and it’s going to be very strict," Dorris said.
He added the brick-and-mortar businesses in the village donate to the school on a monthly basis.
Dorris said the local businesses donate to dance studios, youth sports teams and a plethora of various community activities. He added the village does not want to hinder the brick-and-mortar businesses who support the village on a daily basis.
"These food trucks roll in, grab the cash, and then roll out," Dorris said. "If we have a business or a food establishment or anybody that will compete with that particular food truck, we have to take it very seriously."