(a) No person shall engage in retail sales of tobacco products or alternative nicotine devices within the City without a valid permit issued by the City or on the City's behalf, to sell tobacco products or alternative nicotine devices.
(b) No permittee shall engage in retail sales of tobacco products or alternative nicotine devices in violation of Section 537.20 of the Codified Ordinances, or any substantially equivalent provision of applicable law.
(c) The following items shall be required in applying for a permit, or renewing a permit, under this section:
(1) A valid vendor's permit from the Ohio Department of Taxation;
(2) If the applicant engages in retail sale of cigarettes, a valid Retail Cigarette Dealer's Permit as required by Ohio R.C. Chapter 5743;
(3) The location where the applicant proposes to engage in retail sales of tobacco products or alternative nicotine devices;
(4) A nonrefundable permit administration fee of one hundred dollars ($100.00); and
(d) A permit granted under this section shall be valid from January 1 of the year of application to December 31 of the same year.
(e) Permit administration fees, reinstatement fees, and civil penalties collected in administering Sections 1179.01 through 1179.08 may be collected by the City or the City's licensing agent and shall be credited to the City's General Fund to defray the costs of administration and enforcement of these sections; alternatively, the City and its licensing agent may agree that the licensing agent will retain all or a portion of the fees as compensation for its services as licensing agent.
(f) For purposes of this section, “valid permit” means a permit issued under this section that has not expired, that is not within a period of suspension or failure-to-reinstate status and that has not been revoked by the Codified Ordinances or any substantially equivalent provision of applicable law.
(g) A separate permit shall be required for each retail sales location regardless of whether or not a person or entity owns or operates more than one facility within the City.
(h) A penalty equal to twenty-five percent of the applicable permit fee shall be assessed and collected by the City or its licensing agent for permit fee renewal payments that are not received or postmarked by the first of January.
(Ord. 109-2018. Passed 8-20-18; Ord. 3-2019. Passed 1-7-19.)