Council approves food-recovery MOU with county, requires council review if county later charges businesses

The Escalon City Council voted to approve a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the county to implement a new California law requiring food-recovery compliance for grocery stores and similar food-producing businesses, but added a condition that the county must seek council review before charging local businesses any fees.

At the meeting a resident asked whether the MOU would cover local food-recovery nonprofits such as CARE and Escalon Strong; staff and the county representative clarified the MOU covers grocery stores and food-producing businesses and does not place county enforcement duties on local nonprofit food-recovery groups.

City staff said the county agreed to take on compliance and inspection work because the city lacks the staffing and expertise to administer the program. Staff also told council the county had indicated it did not plan to charge fees initially but had left itself the option to do so in the future.

Council members expressed concern about the potential burden on small local businesses operating on narrow margins if the county were to impose fees later. One council member moved and the council adopted an amendment to the approval requiring that any fee structure the county decides to implement be brought back to the City Council for review and approval.

The council approved the amended motion by voice vote with no nays and no abstentions. Staff indicated the MOU is structured to renew automatically year to year under its current terms unless the council requests otherwise.