Vending permit debated

The Whitefish City Council gave city planning director David Taylor the OK to renew a temporary vendor permit for Dave Sheeran's Second Street Pizza business. The permit would be good for 60 days.

Sheeran is the first person issued a temporary vending permit since the council approved the ordinance in July last year. He owns a pizza restaurant on Second Street and has been selling pizzas from that location from a mobile cart set up across the street from the Great Northern Bar.

Taylor, as the zoning administrator, has the authority to renew or deny permit renewals, but he opted to take direction from the council because of the public attention give to the issue.

"To our knowledge, Mr. Sheeran has fully adhered to all the (criteria and conditions' with the exception of several complaints received concerning 'removing equipment and cleaning the site at closing time)," Taylor said in his staff report.

Taylor said he didn't know why Sheeran was required to finish closing his business by 2:30 a.m. when other vendors were given one hour to completely close.

He also said he visited the site in early morning hours on two occasions and noted that "on one occasion, customers became verbally abusive that he would not sell pizza after 2 a.m."

Six people addressed the council, including Sheeran and his most vocal opponent, Richard Kramer, owner of Casey's Bar and the Red Caboose diner. Four others who spoke also opposed the permit renewal.

Opponents to the permit renewal claimed Sheeran sold pizzas past closing time, received a C rating from the health department and fought with customers.

Taylor, however, pointed out that he had talked with police chief Bill Dial, "and he said that his officers have had zero problems with Mr. Sheeran's pizza stand since it first went up in July."

When the applicant addressed the council, he jokingly identified himself as "Dave Sheeran, Assault and Battery Pizza."

"I've seen a lot of smear campaigns," he said, "but I've never been the target of one."

He also conceded that he had received a C rating from health inspectors but said he was working on that.

The council's consensus was to let the permit be renewed, but councilors Chris Hyatt (on speaker phone), Turner Askew, Phil Mitchell and Bill Kahle asked that the temporary vendors ordinance be brought back at their Feb. 1 meeting to either be modified or eliminated.

"We passed this to see if it would work," Askew said. "It's not Mr. Sheeran's fault, but it's not working. We need to go back to only allowing temporary vendors at special events."

Taylor noted that modifying or eliminating the ordinance could affect several people who were going through process to get a permit.