Pomona spent $309,642 in overtime enforcing its sidewalk vending rules over the past two years. The City collected $7,763 from the fines it handed out.
That is one a hell of a gap.
The numbers appear in a new City report scheduled to go before the Pomona City Council on September 21. The report covers the City’s sidewalk vending crackdown from late 2024 through August 2026.
Code Compliance, Public Works and the Pomona Police Department conducted 106 enforcement operations, usually during evenings and weekends. Each operation lasted approximately six hours.
The City issued 419 citations carrying $143,126 in fines. Only about 5.4 percent of that money has been paid.
Pomona also impounded vending equipment 31 times. Vendors returned to retrieve their equipment in four cases. The report does not say what happened to the other 27 impounds.
The City Council originally approved $200,000 in overtime for vending education and enforcement during the 2024 to 2025 fiscal year. The reported overtime expenses have now passed that amount by $109,642.
Code Compliance spent $127,647. Police spent $116,078. Public Works spent $65,917.
There was no money specifically budgeted for sidewalk vending enforcement during the following two fiscal years. The departments are now pulling those expenses from their regular overtime budgets.
All of this was done to enforce rules against a fairly small group of permitted vendors.
Pomona issued 44 sidewalk vending permits during the reporting period. Only 16 are currently active. Eighteen expired and are waiting for renewal. Six businesses closed. Three permits are inactive and one application remains unprocessed.
The permits brought in $7,832. Add that to the $7,763 collected in fines and Pomona received about $15,595 while spending $309,642 in overtime.
The program was not necessarily created to make money. But the numbers raise an obvious question about what Pomona received for what it spent.
Before enforcement began, the City says Code Compliance spent 45 days conducting street outreach. More than 150 verbal warnings and referrals were given to vendors.
Pomona and the Los Angeles County Department of Public Health held a workshop in November 2024 that attracted more than 80 people. Another workshop held in January 2026 drew approximately 50 to 60 people.
The report says vending brochures and workshop flyers were provided to Gente Organizada and the Pomona Economic Opportunity Center to assist with outreach. It does not say either organization supported the ordinance or participated in enforcement.
Gente has published criticism of the City’s approach.
In a February 27 op-ed published by Gente Organizada, Cal Poly Pomona sociology professor Bianca N. Haro-Villa wrote that the ordinance had pushed vendors from Pomona’s streets while imposing requirements many immigrant, low income and renting families could not realistically meet.
Haro-Villa wrote: “Los vendedores ambulantes son empresarios, no criminales” — “Street vendors are entrepreneurs, not criminals.”
She also argued that the options presented at the City’s January workshop, including home food businesses and private markets, did not reflect how many vendors actually live and work.
Still, fewer than two dozen sidewalk vending permits are active.
Street vendors must first receive a permit from the County Department of Public Health. Pomona will not accept their city applications without it. Vendors must also carry liability insurance, which City staff says can cost approximately $30 per month.
The City says insurance protects Pomona, vendors and the public when accidents, foodborne illnesses or property damage occur. Los Angeles city and county do not require sidewalk vendors to carry similar insurance, according to the report.
No claims or lawsuits related to sidewalk vending were filed during the reporting period. The last claim against Pomona involving sidewalk vending was filed in 2022.
The report leaves out quite a bit.
It does not say how many individual vendors received the 419 citations. It does not identify where the 106 enforcement operations happened. It does not say how many fines are being appealed, how many vendors were repeatedly cited or whether cited vendors eventually received permits.
It also does not explain what the City plans to do with the 27 impounded carts and pieces of equipment that were never retrieved.
The council is not being asked to change the vending law Monday. The report sits on the consent calendar, where the council is being asked to receive it and place it on file.
For now, the clearest result is sitting inside the City’s own numbers: $309,642 in overtime, 419 citations and $7,763 collected.
Read the City’s full sidewalk-vending enforcement report here
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