After investing $1.5 million to open a grub hub on Service Road, co-owner Deep Gil claims the city of Ceres has been harassing his operation.
Gil came before the Ceres City Council last week and complained that Economic Development Manager Julian Aguirre has “not stopped harassing us for about six months now and we’ve only been open for six months.”
Gil said every week for the first three months Aguirre showed up to take photos and “harassing the food trucks.” Time had elapsed and Aguirre has started “harassing the food trucks about playing music, when it clearly states in our CUP, uh, we only can’t have live music, nothing against them playing music off the stereo,” he said.
One incident involved five police officers and Code Enforcement officer, Gil said.
“I just don’t understand it at this point,” Gil told the council.
He insinuated that Aguirre may have a personal grudge against his facility because it successfully appealed the Planning Commission’s approval of Ashley Ranuio’s Truck Stop Grub Hub and Outdoor Music Venue at 1379 E. Whitmore Avenue.
“I don’t know him personally, I don’t even know why he’s coming after us like this, and also makes me think either Vito’s paying him or he had personal interest in the project himself. “
Apparently Aguirre was in the court to enforce business license requirements. The operator of the Terracitas Taqueria truck was told he had to change quarterly filing to online and was given a $100 citation, said Gill.
“He filed his quarterly tax payment of $76 and here you write him a $100 ticket?”
Gil said Aguirre “should be helping businesses succeed in your town and grow, not trying to scare them out of the grub hub where they’re located, which they spent $40,000 to $50,000 on food and the food trucks, their life savings, trying to make a few $100 a day the right way.
“He’s already scared one of our trucks off. They went back to Modesto drove up, ‘cause he said, ‘this is crazy, over there, nobody ever shows up (in Modesto).’ This guy’s here every other day bothering us.”
Gil said he owns several businesses in Ceres, one of which is top 10 in tax generating revenue and the other one is in the top 25.
Business partner Andy Sanchez chimed in, saying “Julian has been a little difficult. I have received emails I’ve had, certain things that feel really nitpicky. I’ve tried to comply with what he’s going by (and) last week was a little bit of a straw that broke that broke the camel’s back.”
Sanchez said music was being played from a boom box and that Aguirre told him they couldn’t play it.
When the business included a city of Ceres logo on an advertising billboard the city made them remove it.
“We had a billboard up on 99 and it cost $800 to remove just the Ceres logo from our billboard. Things like that.”
Sanchez said county Environmental Health Specialist Frances Horton told him that the food trucks are not able to connect to water as it may not be potable.
“I don’t know what the difference of city water for a restaurant or one of these taco trucks is,” said Sanchez, “but I guess our water’s gonna be tested now to see if we’re able to use it.”
He also said he is shying away from applying for a sign because of an issue with the address. Apparently the original application contained an erroneous address of 4030 Farm Supply Drive, which is also his property.
“The Grub Hub sits on 4040 through 4070 Farm Supply. When I told him (Aguirre) I was going to try to correct it, he told me that I would have to go back through Planning Commission and City Council to get it approved. It was such a headache in the beginning that I really don’t want to do it again so I haven’t applied for any kind of permits. We don’t want to shake it up anymore.
The Courier reached out to Aguirre by email requesting a call back and did not hear from him. The Courier also contacted the county for a comment about the water situation and did not receive a return call.
