(The Center Square) – Pasco is launching a six-month enforcement effort to tackle illegal street vendor activity under a roughly $70,000 plan approved by the city council on Monday to hire two new officers.
Tri-Cities has seen an uptick in unpermitted street vendors in recent years, with complaints up 89% in 2025 compared to 2024 and 119% compared to 2023. The Benton-Franklin Health District and several law enforcement agencies have even convened a task force with the Office of the Governor engaged.
While that regional team has some collaborative enforcement planned for this year, Pasco became the first jurisdiction in the Tri-Cities on Monday to take concrete action against illegal vendors on its own.
“We need to send a statement that we don’t want these unpermitted food vendors,” Councilmember Leo Perales said Monday, referencing an 800-case Code Enforcement backlog when considering other types of violations, “people believe right now that we don’t care because we’re not doing anything.”
Under the ordinance approved by the council, Pasco will hire two temporary code enforcement officers for six months, focused on addressing illegal vendors seven days a week. The emphasis is expected to cost $70,720, for about 2,080 hours of work across both officers, with estimates peaking at $90,000.
General fund reserves, which are expected to fall to roughly $18 million by 2027, will cover the hires.
Community & Economic Development Director Haylie Matson said Pasco conducted a limited emphasis last year, but the city can only do so much with two code enforcement officers.
Monday’s approval will temporarily fund two more, as the council considers making them permanent in the next biennial budget.
Some of the council initially just wanted to hire one more Code Enforcement officer to save money and avoid discouraging legal vendors from setting up shop. However, they ultimately voted unanimously to fund two additional officers after amending the ordinance to address the general backlog as well.
“It’s not just the taco trucks, it’s not just the people that are selling oranges, it’s the whole city,” said Mayor Charles Grimm. “They’re so understaffed; so another taco truck is maybe front and center at the moment, but it’s kind of the bigger picture for the whole [of] how Pasco looks to clean up the cases.”
City staff clarified that Monday’s ordinance will not affect people who feed local homeless individuals.
Hiring two more officers will allow them to work different schedules, as city staff says the unpermitted activity is most active in the evening and on weekends and that vendors frequently move their stands.
According to a BFHD presentation, recent reports of illegal activity have resulted in the closure of one unpermitted taco vendor and six fruit vendors across Pasco, Kennewick and Richland so far this year.
Councilmember Abel Campos said many residents have been reaching out to them, “scared” about the direction their neighborhoods are heading. He said these two temporary Code Enforcement officers will act as a good “trial run” before the council considers making them permanent positions later this year.
Pasco plans to wind down enforcement as the weather gets colder if the illegal activity declines.
“I think the six months dovetails into the budget discussions,” Perales said, referencing a survey that he conducted with 75 community responses, “overwhelmingly in support of more Code Enforcement.”
