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Residents, library workers decry layoffs as small-business owners demand action on street vending
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Summary
Multiple Hayward residents and library workers urged the City Council to stop recent layoffs that they say gutted library services and to take stronger action on unpermitted street vending that business owners say is harming storefronts and public safety.
Dozens of residents and city employees opened Tuesday's Hayward City Council meeting with sharply critical public comments about recent municipal layoffs and unpermitted street vending.
"The city must stop the layoffs," said Veronica Bartavian, identifying herself as a former SEIU Local 1021 member and a laid-off library worker. Bartavian said layoffs removed essential ESL, citizenship and adult-literacy programs and argued that budget choices "demonstrate your values."
Reina Escovedo, a 15-year Hayward Library employee who described herself as "the face of Kirby," said the library's mobile outreach vehicles are "out of service sitting idle instead of serving the community," and that the library lost 10 positions. "Positions are frozen, hours reduced to minimum, and some of us including myself were demoted from full time to part time," she said. Escovedo added a salary comparison: "the library director and deputy director salaries combined exceed a half $1,000,000."
SEIU negotiator Ron Collins told the council the union presented a written proposal on Jan. 8 to avoid layoffs but that "the city has not responded" and asked the council to "bring those laid off workers back to work."
A separate series of public commenters, primarily small-business owners, pressed the council to address a rise in unpermitted street vending. Jorge Flores, Luis Santos and others said vendors have multiplied since 2022, that their on-street competition cut sales sharply (Flores estimated a 45'to'50% decline), and that vendors frequently lack permits, food-safety training, or vehicle registration. "There are children that are 11, 12 years old selling tamales on the corners," Luis Barba said, warning of health and safety risks and asking whether the city will take responsibility if people get sick.
Speakers repeatedly framed the problem as both a county public-health and a state-law enforcement issue, and they urged coordinated action. Council members and staff acknowledged the concerns and announced a staff-led meeting to follow up. The mayor said the city manager is arranging a meeting at City Hall "to further listen to what you're experiencing" and to "share with all of you what we have been doing to respond to the vendors that are out there." The city clerk said staff will call cardholders to schedule the session.
What happened next: The council did not take policy action during public comment but moved later in the agenda to introduce a technical amendment to the rent-stabilization ordinance. The managers and councilmembers said staff and the mayor will convene a separate vendor-focused discussion with business owners and vendors to explore enforcement options and next steps.
Why it matters: Library-service reductions affect residents who use programs for language access, job search and citizenship support; unresolved street-vending enforcement has produced sustained complaints from storefront businesses about lost revenue and public-health risks. The follow-up meeting is the next procedural step the council offered for continued dialogue.
