EVERETT — Mobile food vendors facing delays for annual permits in Snohomish County may get help with temporary permit fees, if the Board of Health approves a new policy next month.
For months, a food safety program staffing crisis led owners of local food trucks, carts and stands to fork over thousands for temporary permits. The county Health Department has since beefed up the program and is now back on track for annual permit reviews.
But Jared Mead, a County Council member on the Board of Health, says it’s not enough. He wants a new policy with guardrails to help business owners in case of delays.
“If they’re paying for additional temporary permits, the fees start to add up,” Mead told Board of Health members Tuesday. “We (should) apply those fees and prorate them to the annual fee they’re waiting for.”
Online, the food safety program says annual permit application reviews take 12 weeks. But after two of three permit reviewers quit last year, a backlog of more than 80 food truck and restaurant owners waited up to 20 weeks.
Melinda Grenier, of Hay Girl Coffee based in Arlington, submitted her $855 annual permit application in April. While waiting, she and other vendors have drowned in temporary permit fees — ranging from $90 to $235 per day — trying to work events and get their businesses off the ground.
Grenier paid $90 per day to work public events. If she applied for a temporary permit within two weeks of an event, the department tacked on a $65 late fee.
Overall, Grenier spent more than $1,000 on these fees.
She emailed the Health Department about fee reimbursements, but didn’t hear back for weeks. The department then denied her request.
“I’ve only been taking private jobs because I cannot afford the permits anymore,” Grenier said Wednesday. “It’s insane.”
Health Department staff have defended their work, citing burnout and turnover as part of the food safety program’s “long systemic challenges.”
By the end of July, wait times had dropped back down to 12 weeks — still “too long” for businesses to wait, Health Director Dennis Worsham said at the time. The department’s goal is to complete permit reviews in four to six weeks.
Mead has since worked with Worsham to develop a policy to hold the program accountable for its wait times. Creating a formal standard of 12 weeks and offering prorated temporary permits when the wait passes that threshold would be more fair to business owners, Mead said.
“It’s not always the owner’s fault when a small business fails,” Mead said in a phone call last month. “We, as government, should be willing to admit that, and fix it. There’s been too much gaslighting.”
When Mead floated the idea Tuesday, some board members were skeptical. County Council member Megan Dunn said other county permiting programs don’t have set time limits, so she’s not sure this one should, either.
“I understand we need to work with small businesses,” she said Tuesday. “For me, a permit is going to take as long as it takes … Setting that time limit is at odds with public health.”
Mead disagreed, arguing the policy wouldn’t rush plan reviews. And, he said, the policy is what affected business owners have asked for.
“We’re a growing county, so we need business to want to start and operate within our county,” he said.
Mead plans to bring an official policy to the Board of Health on Oct. 8 for a vote. He also plans to allocate money in the county budget for additional staffing at the health department, he said.
In August, after five months of waiting, Grenier learned the health department denied her annual permit. It’s confusing and frustrating, she said, as she’s passed many inspections for temporary permits “with flying colors.”
Grenier made some adjustments and is now waiting for another review. For her, Mead’s solution might be too little, too late.
“Nice to know someone’s trying to fix it,” Grenier said. “But I will be lawyering up — this is madness and they need to be held responsible for these delays.”
Sydney Jackson: 425-339-3430; sydney.jackson@heraldnet.com; X: @_sydneyajackson.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
