City and County of San Francisco: merchandising sales.

Document header changed from Senate Bill format with passage dates to authenticated electronic legal material format with Chapter 406 designation.

Governor's approval and filing date (October 6, 2025) was inserted in the chaptered version.

Page headers and footers changed from 'SB 276' pagination to 'Ch. 406' pagination throughout the document.

The penalty escalation provision in Section 53076.5(e)(1)(C) was changed from 'subsequent violations after two prior convictions' to 'subsequent violations after three prior violations.' This means a vendor must now accumulate three prior violations (not two) before facing potential misdemeanor charges with up to six months in county jail, making it harder to reach the most severe penalty tier.

New required finding that multiple non-law-enforcement measures were attempted before adopting the ordinance, including opening marketplaces, reducing permit fees, partnering with nonprofits, offering wraparound support services, trainings on entrepreneurship, workforce development, and support to open brick-and-mortar businesses.

The standard for written findings was raised from simply 'written findings' to 'findings supported by substantial evidence in the record.'

Permitting agency is prohibited from inquiring into or collecting information about an individual's immigration or citizenship status, place of birth, or criminal history, and may not require fingerprints, LiveScan, or a background check for a sidewalk vending permit.

At least 60 calendar days before enactment, the city must hold one or more workshops to solicit feedback from the vendor community on the proposed ordinance, including how vendors currently acquire goods and feasible record-keeping methods.

Public information campaign now requires materials in English, Spanish, Mandarin, Cantonese, Tagalog, and Vietnamese, and must include trainings, workshops, street-level outreach, and informational flyers describing the program, permit process, and how to demonstrate lawful acquisition of merchandise.

Annual renewal of the ordinance now requires approval of the written findings by resolution of the Board of Supervisors and filing of the annual report.

Punishment structure changed from a flat infraction for first offense to a graduated system: first violation results in a written warning, second violation is an infraction, and subsequent violations after two prior convictions are infractions or misdemeanors punishable by up to six months in county jail or both imprisonment and a fine. Violations are also now eligible for dismissal under Penal Code 1203.4a or 1203.425.

Permitting agency must accept a California driver's license or ID number, individual taxpayer identification number, or municipal identification number in lieu of a Social Security number, and the collected number must be kept confidential.

City may charge a permit fee not to exceed reasonable regulatory costs, but the fee is capped at $25 for applicants earning less than 200 percent of area median income or who are current recipients of CalWORKs, CalFresh, general assistance, Medi-Cal, SSI, State Supplementary Payment, WIC, CARE, or FERA.

The legislative report requirement changed from a single report by January 1, 2033 to an annual report due January 1 of each year, now submitted to both the Board of Supervisors and the relevant legislative committees.

Urgency clause added (new Section 4) declaring the bill takes effect immediately, citing rampant retail theft and reselling of stolen goods leading to chaos and violence in San Francisco.

Vote requirement changed from majority to two-thirds due to the addition of Open Government Act findings (new Section 3) related to the confidentiality limitation on collected identification numbers.

The bill's fundamental purpose was reversed: it now authorizes San Francisco to require a permit for selling specified merchandise on public property, rather than prohibiting such permit requirements.

A new subdivision defines exclusions from 'merchandise': food items prepared for sale onsite, and prepackaged food items (e.g., bags of chips or nonalcoholic beverages) sold alongside an onsite-prepared food item.

Penalty escalation changed: second AND third violations are now punishable as infractions (previously only the second violation was an infraction), meaning vendors get two strikes before facing potential misdemeanor charges after two prior convictions.

The annual report's demographic data requirement changed from 'perceived race or ethnicity' to simply 'race or ethnicity,' removing the qualifier that identification was based solely on the issuing authority's observation.

Annual reporting responsibility shifted from the City and County of San Francisco to the permitting agency, and reports must now go to both the Board of Supervisors and the Legislature (previously just the Legislature).

Annual renewal of the ordinance now requires explicit approval by resolution of the Board of Supervisors, rather than a general 'renewal of written findings.'

The sunset date was changed from January 1, 2034 to January 1, 2031, shortening the period during which San Francisco may operate the permit program by three years.

An 18-month lookback window was added: second and third violations must occur within 18 months of the first violation to count as infractions, and subsequent violations must also occur within that 18-month window to be eligible for misdemeanor charges.

The threshold for escalating from infraction to misdemeanor was raised from 'after 2 prior convictions' to 'after 3 prior violations,' meaning a vendor now needs three prior violations before facing potential jail time of up to six months.

The bill's expiration date was shortened from January 1, 2034 to January 1, 2031, meaning San Francisco would have only three years (instead of six) to operate the sidewalk vending permit program before the authorization sunsets.

The penalty provision was clarified so that both second and third violations are punishable as infractions. The prior version only explicitly stated that a 'second violation' would be an infraction, leaving the treatment of a third violation ambiguous until the subsequent-violations clause applied.

A cross-reference to the annual report requirement was corrected from subdivision (h) to subdivision (i), fixing an incorrect internal citation.