Shane Parson, the owner of a significant number of downtown properties, lodged a complaint to the Ceres City Council last week about the number of unlicensed street vendors and illegal pop-up sales events.

“I see street vendors everywhere,” said Parson. “I hope that I’m not being discriminated against because I’m a taxpaying citizen of how hard it is to get any business done here. Just tonight there is a pop-up tent selling tacos at Roeding and Mitchell. There’s a mini-van selling tamales on the corner of Central and Service. There’s two bicycles selling snow cones in front of Punjab Plaza. I feel like I’m the low hanging fruit, so I’m discriminated against. Nobody else has to get a license. Put a food truck, sell food, do what you’d like to do and there’s no ramifications.”

Parson went on to ask, “do we need a permit for anything or can we just do what we want to do and never get in trouble for it?”

He said he has worked for months to get the city to allow him to get a food truck when others are selling fruit at Home Depot and Wells Fargo Bank.

Parson also complained about the building inspector provided by Stanislaus County in its contract with the city.

“I will do my last project in Ceres if I have to deal with the building inspector that works for this community,” Parson told the council. “He’s terrible. I’ve seen him make people cry, I’ve seen ladies cry that are trying to build here and that’s ridiculous that anybody should greet other people that way.”

Mayor Javier Lopez told Parson that he has “an issue with that gentleman as well.” He also stated that city code enforcement officers were attempting to get vendors in compliance.

Ceres resident John Warren also approached the council to say he saw a man selling flowers at Hatch and Mitchell in front of A&W. He called and reported the violation to Ceres Police dispatchers. When Warren passed by the location four hours later, the vendor was still on scene.

“On the weekend, code enforcement doesn’t look at the MyCeres app and lately their response to things on the app haven’t been that quick,” said Warren.

He also reported seeing snow cones sales outside of Bank of America on Mitchell Road and outside of Walmart.

“This is something that continues to raise its ugly head.”

He recommended the city cite violators and seize their equipment.

“I know the city doesn’t want to do that but it’s going to come to the point.”