Liberal Forum

Vegas » 02 Dec 2022, 11:16 pm » wrote: ↑

02 Dec 2022, 11:16 pm

There is a raging debate going on in my beloved county. We are trying to decide if this is a conflict of interest. 

One of our commissioners is adamant about banning food trucks on the basis of health code violations. However, he is also the president of a non-profit restaurant association that is mostly funded, or maybe even fully funded, by a network of the high-end restaurants on the strip (MGM, Wynn, Etc...). 

A lot of food trucks tend to park within walking distance just off the strip. They do great business. 

So, the commissioner wants these food trucks banned, but also is the president of a highly influential restaurant association that is funded by high-end restaurants on the strip, which just happens to be where quite a few food trucks park themselves. 

Is that a conflict of interest?

It is a clear conflict - there isn't any question.

Whether the idea is good or bad, justified or unjustified, is another matter - and one on which I take no position, not having studied it, not having the requisite knowledge to weigh in. I CERTAINLY support vigorous heath code enforcement. It separates us from uncivilized countries where dining out is a game of Rwandan Roulette.  

That said, if a ban on food trucks is justified, Vegas has the bureaucratic infrastructure and competence to manage it without involving interested parties. I mean, this is an overr-developed bowl city sitting on caliche that DOESN'T have midwest-style mass drownings from flash-floods, notwithstanding far, far greater challenges. Vegas is a model of bureaucratic prodigiousness, if you dig in to their water management and such. For that matter, the whole "sheriff's card" schtick to get the mob out was elegant and ingenious. I'm not saying the establishment isn't corrupt as **** - they are. But they're pretty **** competent - DEFINITELY up to managing the Great Food Truck Dilemma without involving Shmucko McBricknMorter.