Hot Diggity Dog. What’s Hanging Up Hang’s Hot Dog Bill?
The hot dog cart exploded on the street. The video is alarming. One Council member took action.
Councilmember Danny Hang brought forward the “Hot Dog” bill then he yanked it. In WEHOonline’s coverage, Hang Yanks Hot Dog Bill, the conversation is laid out in plain view. It was a no-brainer public safety issue, from food safety to public safety to worker safety and to protect tourists from swarms of illegal vendors on our streets.
But what seemed like a no-brainer never made it to a vote. That night, Councilmember Meister left for a medical issue, and Councilmember Hang pulled the item after pushback from Councilmember Erickson. And while City Manager, David Wilson, stated at the time that this item would come back on the November 17 city council agenda, it has not come back, and several meetings have since passed.
This past week, videos surfaced of one of these hot dog carts exploding. And now we learn the video of the cart exploding was from before the item was placed on the agenda. That timeline, and the lack of council action despite known hazards, is a big problem. The risks are clear, the inaction also clear.
As stated in his opening remarks at the Nov. 3 City Council meeting Councilmember Danny Hang said: “Colleagues, this item is about something pretty simple, but deeply important, keeping our community safe, protecting public health, and ensuring fairness for everyone who does business in West Hollywood.”
The counter-argument from Councilmember and State Senate candidate John Erickson is void of solutions. Sorry John my friend. This is your position? “Are most of them English-speaking? Is there a communication barrier? How many complaints are there? I don’t believe the argument that businesses on the strip are losing millions of dollars to hot dog vendors. If you are, then we have to talk about a lot of other stuff. – This is not a solution.
Mayor Byers lined up behind Erickson: “The County has suspended its enforcement of public health in light of the immigration raids, because it feels like an unnecessary expenditure of resources at a time when the predominant operators, who are among the immigrant community, are already under extreme circumstances.”
Vice Mayor Heilman was clear: “I wanted to thank Councilmember Hang for bringing this forward, I fully support it.”
Hang rebuffed the pushback before he folded his beef: “I believe the intent of this item was to direct Staff to explore options to come back. Nothing is being decided tonight.” He continued: “As a child of immigrants, as a child of refugee immigrants, I completely understand, but this isn’t about immigration at all. This is about public health and public safety.
Then Councilmember Erickson chimed in, conceding the motivation for his position: “However, working for a Latino immigration organization I cannot in good conscience vote for this in its current form.”
Excuse me – Councilmember, my friend – – you work for whom? We have a public safety problem on this street and you are not listening or addressing this problem. I thought you worked for the people of West Hollywood. Do we not arrest people because we assume they are immigrants? If you have a personal vested interest, or financial interest in the outcome of this vote you should recuse yourself.
When is this item coming back for a full vote of the council?
City Council members should not confuse this public safety hazard and mix it into a war over immigration. We have a problem that needs to be addressed. That fire could have killed people. We need common sense Hot Dog reform. What is Hanging This Up?
Erickson is a joke.
In any city that has a clear and enforceable ethics program Erickson would have been obligated to recuse himself after that completely stupid comment. WeHo has no ethics. Erickson has no moral compass other than his lust for higher office.
truth!
It’s long been obvious. Someone is getting paid off by the cartel.
Groupthink at its worst.