Detailing the Commissary Operations

These are the two other items referenced in the cover letter to the city manager and included in the package.


Commissary operations observed

12:00 midnight – yard lights come on. MFPU is opened and powered up. Refrigerators in icemaker area are accessed. MFPU is cleaned, sanitized, and restocked with dry, refrigerated, and frozen inventory.

3:00 a.m. Monday’s – Crystal Dairy refrigerated commercial truck arrives for deliveries, 10-15 minutes.

3:00 a.m. to 4:00 a.m. Mon-Fri – Ice shuttled from icemaker to truck in successive rounds. Ice is scooped into 5-gallon plastic buckets and transported to the catering vehicle with a wheelbarrow. (1st time of the day.)

4:00 to 4:10 a.m. – MFPU starts up and idles until departure for Tracy with two attendants - one driving, one slicing and dicing.

6:00 a.m. – One day each week, Hostess Cakes commercial truck arrives for deliveries.

6:00 a.m. Mon-Fri – Scotsman/Follett icemaker manually started up, if not already running from the nighttime, after which the third resident departs for work in Stockton.

Depending on daytime temperatures, icemaker may run all day.

12:00 noon – One day each week, Oroweat commercial truck arrives for unattended deliveries. Driver accesses property through locked gates.

1:00 p.m. – MFPU returns from Tracy.

1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Mon-Fri – Ice shuttled from icemaker to truck in successive rounds with 5-gallon plastic buckets and a wheelbarrow. (2nd time of the day.)

(Unobserved, but likely, during the afternoon: solid waste offloaded and stored; liquid waste tanks emptied and waste stored in barrels; water tanks drained and readied for refilling.)

Owners routinely buy and store dry goods in on-site inventories. A portable structure was brought on-site to serve as the commissary, but storage occurs in other places, such as the refrigerators in the same area as the icemaker.

Before early bedtime - Ice shuttled from icemaker to truck in successive rounds with 5-gallon plastic buckets and a wheelbarrow. (3rd time of the day.)

Depending on nighttime temperatures, icemaker may run all night.

As needed, a septage pumper truck arrives to collect stored liquid wastes. (Once observed at 10:30 p.m. to 11:30 p.m.)

A special note on utilities: Solid waste disposal and electrical usage appear to be commingled with household uses.

As needed, an old pickup truck hauls stored solid wastes to transfer station. Business wastes are commingled with household waste and property’s yard waste. Residents do not set out Manteca Solid Waste Division Toters for Friday morning pickup, as do neighbors on both north and south sides.

The solar panel arrays are wired to an unknown central location, and the location of the solar power storage batteries is undetermined.

Electricity used by the business:

The MFPU’s are electrically powered while parked and/or being serviced each morning and afternoon.
Long strings of yard lights are turned on every morning from 12:00 midnight to 4:15 a.m.
Floodlights in icemaker/refrigerator area turned on and off frequently each morning as the area is utilized.

Other electrical business appliances specifically mentioned in EHD inspection reports:

Scotsman/Follett icemaker,
Walk-in freezer (0°),
Vering refrigerator (40°),
Pepsi refrigerator (35°), and
Hot water source for the commissary bathroom (unknown if electric or gas heater.)

The secondhand Scotsman/Follett icemaker was acquired and improperly installed, so as to create a noise nuisance. Very minor household usage is noticed; nevertheless, almost all of the ice goes into the catering truck. (Note: A sound recording in .mp3 stereo format is available. It was recorded [in sound activation mode] on Monday, August 11, 2008, covering midnight to 6:30 a.m. While the focus of the recording is the icemaker and its usage, a few other sounds from the yard were picked up. The 5½ -hour file is indexed for the major event sounds.)



I have lived and breathed this violation ever since moving in. Of course I have suggestions for getting rid of it!


Abatement options and special conditions

There is no intention, nor ever has been, to put TLC Catering out of business. That is a choice entirely up to the owners. These options are strictly suggestions to bring about compliance (or, legal, nonconforming status) with zoning codes. All options exclude the parking of the “grandfathered” allowable number of MFPU’s on the property.

1. Attain lawful status. Obtain proper permits by full and rapid compliance with current home occupation requirements in Manteca's Municipal Code. (Probably not possible, which means everything has to be removed or shut down.)

2. Timely removal of commissary business. Relocate all business assets, operations, and uses to a suitable commercial district. (Perhaps they could become a commissary business for other caterers.)

3. Sell the commissary business and assets. Buyers to relocate all business assets, operations, and uses to a suitable commercial district.

4. Immediate closure. Cease all commissary business uses of the property. All commissary assets and operations are to be discontinued, disabled, abandoned or disposed.


Special conditions:


The icemaker (condenser, compressor, and bin) must be completely disabled or removed under any option or action.

(Meant for the commingled electrical system and fence line appliances, but applies generally.) Conversion of any business assets to personal use, and remaining on the property, must be approved by an abatement officer on an item-by-item basis to prevent circumvention of abatement orders. All conversions remaining on the property shall be re-evaluated in light of current regulations before approval.

Because of the owners' record of ignoring and evading lawful regulation, special probationary inspections of the property should be conducted for a period of time to ensure compliance with the abatement orders.


I gave the city manager and minions about five weeks to revew the whole package and get back to me.

Did anyone respond? No.

Patty Letawsky called it perfectly - the whole of the city machinery is ABSOLUTELY DISMISSIVE.