High fees and restaurant inspections suspended after pushback

The city of Albuquerque has suspended all restaurant inspections and the collecting of a larger inspection fee after getting pushback from business owners — particularly mobile food truck vendors.

The pause comes after the city proposed increasing the annual restaurant inspection fee to a maximum of $900, up from $700 for brick and mortar. The maximum fee for food trucks was going up to $900 from $120, a 600% increase.

Mark DiMenna, the deputy director for city's Environmental Health Department, said the larger fees were proposed as part of larger updates the city made to its food ordinances.

"We're hearing people loud and clear: 'This is just more than we can handle.' And we want to respect that," DiMenna said. "We want to try to make an adjustment that everybody can can live with."

He said restaurant inspections are also temporarily suspended because the city is training new workers on the updates to its food ordinances. The city is also updating the language and software for the weekly food inspection report the city publishes.

Jae Stulock is the owner of Umami Moto food truck. He brought his truck to Albuquerque in 2019. He said his business was just recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic when the new health inspection fees were announced.

“It’s a struggle to stay on top of information with it coming out in dribs and drabs,” Stulock said.

DiMenna said its possible food inspections could resume within a week.

"If there's a complaint or a problem or an outbreak of foodborne illnesses, we would obviously still go out and deal with that," he said.

People will notice changes once the inspections resume. For example, the city will now give some green tags a yellow banner for marginal cases where restaurants have to make changes but don't have to shut down or be downgraded.

"It will look different and be more informative when it comes out," he said of the future inspection reports.

DiMenna said mobile food truck fees had been at $120 annually for many years.

"That $120 comes from an era where when you were talking about a mobile food unit you were talking about a hot dog cart," he said.

He said most food trucks are much closer to a brick and mortar restaurant in terms of food preparation.

"The risk has gone up substantially," he said.

DiMenna said there will be opportunities for restaurants to lower their inspection fee based on the risk of the food they serve.

"If you're looking at $900 fee for a food truck, that's going to be someplace that's actually cooking meat or cutting meat, or cutting or preparing vegetables, or anything else where handling hazards are introduced," he said. "If your just selling snow cones or something like, that's not a high risk operation. They're actually looking at a much lower permit fee, probably $200 or $300."

Stulock handles raw fish, likely putting him in the higher risk category, which would have given him a $900 annual fee.

“It’s a clear money grab under the guise of public safety,” Stulock said.

In contrast, KCAL News Los Angeles reported in June 2024 that the L.A. City Council reduced annual street vending permit prices. The city found fewer permits being issued annually than the number of operating food trucks. The price was brought down from $541 to $27.51.

Stulock said there is “cadre of food trucks without licenses."

“The people affected most are the ones who follow the rules," Stulock said.

City Councilor Dan Lewis voted against increasing food inspection fees because the city wasn't going to be providing additionally services for the fee increase.

"The mayor regrets implementing it now because he realizes this was a mistake," Lewis said. "It's a stupid way of budgeting."