VISTA -- In response to complaints from restaurant owners, the City Council on Tuesday agreed that it was time to get tough on food-catering trucks that roll out rugs, put up neon signs and park their vehicles for hours in one spot.

"I drive through North Santa Fe (Avenue) and I see Christmas tree lights and neon lights on the trucks," said Councilwoman Judy Ritter, adding that she believes the mobile food vendors detract from the image of the neighborhood that main thoroughfare serves.

Citing complaints and expressing a desire to keep the city's image clean, council members unanimously agreed to limit the operations' hours to 30 minutes at a time, and to allow the food trucks to operate from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., instead of any time, day or night.

The council also agreed to ban signs and colorful lights from the vehicles, allowing only business logos on such trucks. Operations must also be self-contained, and no portable chairs and tables can be set up near the vehicle.

Special permits will be available for street fairs and special events, however.

Mayor Morris Vance said the ordinance changes, which will go into effect in August, are not designed to crack down on legitimate catering truck operations but to hinder "those flagrantly operating mobile restaurants."

"Catering trucks are for a purpose," Vance said. "They're not to be set up as a business, as a restaurant, and take business (from nearby restaurants) that have to go through stringent regulations."

The council's decision may be a relief to some residents and business owners in the neighborhood of Townsite, which surrounds much of North Santa Fe Avenue. Many of the catering trucks with bright lights and tables and chairs have been setting up there for business. Vance said Townsite business owners have been calling for changes to the city's catering truck ordinance.

"It is ruining the image of Townsite," said resident Vera Chino as she addressed the council before its decision. She described scenes where men near the trucks would urinate and drink beer. Chino was one of a handful of people who asked the council to adopt more stringent regulations for food vending vehicles.

No catering truck operators addressed the board.

City Manager Rita Geldert said that to enforce the new rules, the city will have to rely on complaints to the code compliance office and will need to work with the San Diego County Sheriff's Department. Vista contracts with the department for law enforcement services.

In other business, the council voted 4-0 to approve a five-year agreement with the Vista Firefighters Association, the employee group that represents city firefighters and paramedics.

The contract calls for the employees to receive a 4 percent salary increase for each of the next three years and a 5 percent increase in the fourth and fifth year of the deal -- a 22 percent increase during the term of the contract. That increase is offset, however, by another clause of the agreement that calls for employees to pay 8 percent of their salary into the state's Public Employees Retirement System.

Both city officials and firefighters said the deal, reached after months of negotiations, should help the city's Fire Department recruit and retain employees through salary and retirement package increases, putting Vista on par with other fire departments in the county.

Contact staff writer Jennifer Kabbany at (760) 631-6622 or jkabbany@nctimes.com.