A conviction for misdemeanor welfare fraud may keep Aja Lynn Smith from getting a city permit required to legally sell ice cream from a vending truck on Manteca’s streets.

Police Chief Nick Obligacion rejected Smith’s request under language of a municipal ordinance that gives him the authority not to recommend the city clerk issue a vendor’s license if the person seeking it has been convicted of violating any law that involves moral turpitude. Smith is exercising an option in the ordinance that allows her to directly appeal the police chief’s decision to the City Council. She’ll be doing that Tuesday at 7 p.m. when the council meets at the Civic Center, 1001 W. Center St.

Obligacion is recommending elected leaders uphold his rejection of the permit request at least until the applicant has expunged the conviction from her record.

The 33-year-old was convicted on March 10, 2008 in Santa Clara County for overpayment of welfare in the amount of $1,853 over 12 months spread over three years and over issuance of food stamps in the amount of $161 from August 1997. She repaid $853 in August of 2004 and $1,000 in March of 2008.

The over issuance of food stamps was paid back by Smith with $40 she paid directly and $121 for Santa Clara County’s interception of taxes.

In April of this year she applied to the Santa Clara County Superior Court to have her record cleared of the conviction.

Smith, who lists her occupation for the past five years as a “domestic engineer”, indicated her proposed route would stretch from Pillsbury Road in south Manteca to Brunswick Road in the north.

The name of her vending company is “Bring it Back Ice Cream.”