Street vendors sue Fontana, claim illegal seizure of property

Fontana has been illegally throwing away street vendors’ property, a lawsuit filed Aug. 11 by the Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice claims.

The suit charges Fontana with intentionally making it burdensome to get a food vendor license—and then unconstitutionally seizing and throwing away unlicensed vendors’ carts and food.

Fontana Spokesperson Monique Carter declined to comment on the suit or policy. At the Oct. 10, 2023 hearing in which the policies were adopted, Fontana Deputy City Manager Phillip Burum said the city’s concerns were about health.

“What we are trying to address is a conglomerate of small businesses that are operating illegally in the city of Fontana. This is not about trying to hurt the mom and pop operations, or the people that are trying to get started in business. We have paths to that through the city, and the city is implementing programs to help small businesses. What we are trying to do the last few years is combat the illegal, unlicensed, unpermitted sale of dangerous food,” Burum said.

The city’s policy is at odds with both the United States Constitutional right to due process, and California law, the lawsuit claims.

The property is seized for the stated intention of preserving evidence against the vendors, but the suit claims that Fontana’s employees throw the carts away without giving the vendors a chance to reclaim it, and without bringing a case.

The Inland Coalition for Immigrant Justice (ICIJ) filed the case with representation from Public Counsel. Street vendor Antonio Pintado, a member of the ICIJ, spoke at an Aug. 12 press conference outside Fontana city hall announcing the lawsuit. Brian Sanchez of ICIJ translated.

“I have not been able to sell in Fontana because they treat us very badly. They have thrown away my stuff, my food, and I would just like to say that, we’d like to have the chance to get permits. We want to sell here. We need help. We need support so that we can be permitted. We need support from the city. We want to sell here. We sell good food, we sell sanitary food. We don’t see that it is fair that we can’t sell here in the city. I’ve seen that they’ve thrown away the food of many vendors, and that’s why we are asking that we need permits, we need support,” Sanchez translated.

Ritu Mahajan, the lead counsel representing the vendors, said that Fontana’s requirements for food vendors to have million dollar insurance policies, go through annual background checks, and agree to indemnify the city against any damages violates state law.

“Very few vendors have actually been able to obtain vending licenses in the city due to its onerous and unlawful permitting restrictions,” Mahajan said.

Senate Bill 946, chaptered in 2018, prohibits cities from regulating street vendors unless the restriction is about health: “A local authority shall not restrict the overall number of sidewalk vendors permitted to operate within the jurisdiction of the local authority, unless the restriction is directly related to objective health, safety, or welfare concerns.”

The bill also established the maximum punishment for vending without a permit at $1,000.

Senate Bill 972, chaptered in 2022, established that a street vendor who violated the Retail Food Code can only be punished with an administrative fine. 

“Rather than address health concerns, the City has, through 4LEAF, indiscriminately seized the property of any unpermitted vendors, regardless of whether a vendor is selling food or goods entirely unrelated to food. These facts leave little doubt that the purported objective of the City’s campaign against sidewalk vendors is only pretextual,” the complaint says.

Fontana contracts with 4LEAF, an engineering, inspections, and construction management company, to seize street vendors’ property. 

Marcus Johnson, 4LEAF’s director of southern California operations, said he could not comment on the company’s practices, and that the contract with Fontana explicitly requires him to defer media questions to the city.

The suit cites minutes from a July 27, 2023, official Fontana community meeting. “We are throwing away their items, but they keep coming back,” the notes say.

A June 27, 2024 KVCR article reported that Fontana officials said they impounded equipment 43 times between June and December.

ICIJ Deputy Director Lizbeth Abeln said 4LEAF does not identify themselves when they confiscate goods.

“They claim to represent the city, but they wore no badges, no name tags, and they offered no transparency to the community. They confiscated vendors' goods, they issued threats to the community, and they left families without due process or explanation, a clear violation of our Fourth Amendment Right,” Abeln said.

The plaintiff asks for an injunction against the city’s policies.