(1) County license required. No person shall conduct business as a peddler, solicitor or transient merchant within the city limits without first having obtained the appropriate license from the county as required by M.S. Ch. 329, as it may be amended from time to time, if the county issues a license for the activity.
(2) City license required. Except as otherwise provided for by this chapter, no person shall conduct business as either a peddler, solicitor or transient merchant without first having obtained a license from the city. The license period will be no longer than six months from the date of issuance. A single license may be issued to a company covering its employees or agents as long as an application, as described herein, is completed, for each individual person operating in the city.
(3) Application. Application for a city license to conduct business as a peddler, transient merchant or solicitor shall be made at least ten regular business days before the applicant desires to begin conducting business on an application form available from the office of the City Clerk. All applications shall be signed by the applicant and shall include the following information:
(a) Applicant's full legal name, name of business and applicant's current position;
(b) All other names under which the applicant conducts business or to which applicant officially answers;
(c) Applicant's permanent home and business address as well as a local address for correspondence;
(d) Any and all business related telephone numbers, including a number where the applicant can be reached while conducting business in the city;
(e) A brief written description of the nature of the business, the goods to be sold and the applicant's method of operation;
(f) A brief statement of the nature, character and content of the advertising done or proposed to be done in order to attract customers (samples may be requested);
(g) Full legal name of any and all business operations owned, managed or operated by applicant, or for which the applicant is an employee or agent;
(h) The length of time which the applicant intends to do business in the city with the approximate dates;
(i) A statement as to whether or not the applicant or the person managing the business activities has been convicted within the last five years of any felony, gross misdemeanor or misdemeanor for violation of any state or federal statute or any local ordinance, other than traffic offenses;
(j) The applicant's driver's license number or other acceptable form of identification.
(k) If a vehicle is to be used, a description of the same together with license number or other means of identification;
(l) A photograph of the applicant, taken within 60 days immediately prior to the date of filing of the application, which picture shall be two inches by two inches showing the head and shoulders of the applicant in a clear and distinguishing manner;
(m) A list of the three most recent locations where the applicant has conducted business as a peddler, solicitor or transient merchant; and
(n) Transient merchants shall include the addresses of all places where the business is to be located along with written consent of the owners or occupants.
(Prior Code, § 612.06) (Ord. 01-89, passed 2-13-1989)
(4) Fee. All applications for a license under this chapter shall be accompanied by the fee established by ordinance annually in the city fee schedule, as it may be amended from time to time.
(5) Procedure. Upon receipt of the completed application and payment of the license fee, the City Clerk must determine if the application is complete. An application is determined to be complete only if all required information is provided. If the City Clerk determines that the application is incomplete, the City Clerk must inform the applicant of the required or necessary information that is missing. If the application is complete, the City Clerk must order any investigation, including background checks, necessary to verify the information provided with the application. The City Clerk will present the license request to the Council as soon as possible. If there exists grounds for denying the license under § 613.05, the Clerk will present that information to the City Council. If the Council denies the license, the applicant must be notified in writing of the decision, the reason for denial and of the applicant's right to appeal the denial by requesting, within 20 days of receiving notice of rejection, a public hearing before the City Council. The City Council shall hear the appeal within 20 days of the date of the request.
(6) License exemptions.
(a) No license shall be required of any person going from house-to-house, door-to-door, business-to-business, street-to-street or other type of place-to-place when the activity is for the purpose of exercising that person's state or federal constitutional rights such as the freedom of speech, press, religion and the like, except that this exemption may be lost if the person's exercise of constitutional rights is merely incidental to a commercial activity.
(b) Professional fundraisers working on behalf of an otherwise exempt person or group shall not be exempt from the licensing requirements of this chapter.