Committee deadlocks on repeal of 11 p.m. food‑truck restriction after mixed data and business concerns

Chair Scotty Johnson opened the Public Safety and Governance Committee and heard a staff presentation on recent restrictions limiting mobile food vending hours downtown.

Dr. Jillian Desmond, a senior analyst, told the committee that the office relied heavily on officer observations and CAD logs rather than a long time series of automated measures. She said officers identified three hotspot zones — Northern Over‑the‑Rhine/Findlay Market, Lower OTR/Main Street, and West Fourth Street in the CBD — and that the available data cover a short period after the restriction went into effect. Desmond said the late‑night period in the analysis is 11:00 p.m. to 4:59 a.m., and that, so far, staff see at best a modest change in calls for service (on the order of six to seven calls) and could not confidently link the restriction to broader crime trends.

Captain Schofield described officers’ field observations and reported that officers perceived a decrease in visible disorder near food trucks after the restriction, saying crowds were dispersing rather than concentrating in front of trucks when bars let out.

Amy Flodemich, president of the Cincinnati Food Truck Association, testified that the association represents nearly 100 trucks and said members were not consulted before the curfew. She told the committee that the 11:00 p.m. restriction harms small businesses and cited association estimates that individual vendors could lose roughly $3,000 to $9,000 per week depending on contracts. Flodemich also raised concerns about added administrative burdens — permits, written consents from brick‑and‑mortar businesses, insurance and park rental fees — and offered to work with the city on solutions used in other cities, including a booking app model used in Columbus.

Council members pressed staff for more months of data (including October and a full year comparison) to account for seasonal variation and asked whether the ordinance’s written‑consent requirements near restaurants have been proactively enforced. Staff said the written‑consent clause is enforced on complaint, not via proactive audits, and that the city does not currently track whether the same truck occupies the same location week‑to‑week.

Council member Anna Albee moved to ask the administration to repeal the 11:00 p.m. mobile‑food‑vending restriction and to reassess restrictions; Mark Jeffries seconded. After legal clarification about whether the contested ordinance language has been implemented, the committee took a roll‑call vote recorded in the transcript as two yes and two no votes and the motion failed.

The chair and administration committed to schedule a meeting with the Food Truck Association within one to two weeks to discuss fees, parking and operational concerns and to return to the committee with additional data and proposals.

The committee did not adopt a final ordinance change during this meeting; members asked staff for a fuller time‑series analysis and broader enforcement metrics before making a legislative change.