(a) Permit Required. No person, group of persons or organization shall conduct or participate in any parade, procession or assemblage upon any street or highway, or block off any street or highway area, without first obtaining a permit from the Mayor.
(b) Permit Application; Fee. Applications for such permits shall be made on such forms as may be prescribed and shall contain such information as is reasonably necessary to a fair determination of whether a permit should be issued. Applications shall be filed not less than five days before the time intended for such parade, procession or assemblage. A fee of twenty dollars ($20.00) shall accompany the application.
(c) Refusal or Cancellation of Permits. The permit may be refused or canceled if:
(1) The time, place, size or conduct of the parade including the assembly areas and route of march would unreasonably interfere with the public convenience and safe use of the streets and highways.
(2) The parade would require the diversion of so great a number of police officers to properly police the line of movement, assembly area and areas contiguous thereto so as to deny normal police protection to the Municipality.
(3) The parade route of march or assembly areas would unreasonably interfere with the movement of police vehicles, fire-fighting equipment or ambulance service to other areas of the Municipality.
(4) The parade would unreasonably interfere with another parade for which a permit has been issued.
(5) The information contained in the application is found to be false, misleading or incomplete in any material detail.
(6) An emergency such as a fire or storm would prevent the proper conduct of the parade.
(d) Permit Conditions. The permit or any order accompanying it may limit or prescribe reasonable conditions, including the hours, the places of assembly and of dispersal, the route of march or travel and the streets, highways or portions thereof which may be used or occupied.
(e) Authority of Mayor; Bond.
(1) No permit shall be issued authorizing the conduct of a parade or motorcade which the Mayor finds is proposed to be held for the sole purpose of advertising any product, goods, wares, merchandise or event, and is designed to be held purely for private profit.
(2) The Mayor shall act upon the application for a parade permit within thirty days after the filing thereof. If the Mayor disapproves the application, he or she shall mail to the applicant, within ten days after the date upon which the application was filed, a notice of his or her action, stating the reasons for his or her denial of the permit.
(3) Any person aggrieved shall have the right to appeal the denial of a parade permit to Council. The appeal shall be taken within five days after notice of such denial. Council shall act upon the appeal within five days after its receipt.
(4) The Mayor may, at his or her discretion, require the applicant for a parade permit to furnish to the City a bond in an amount not to exceed two hundred fifty thousand dollars ($250,000), secured by a surety company licensed to do business in the State and payable to the City or to any person in the City who or which may suffer any injury or damage from any vehicle, float, device or person participating in the parade.
(f) Responsibility of Permittees.
(1) A permittee under this section shall comply with all permit directions and conditions and with all applicable laws and ordinances.
(2) The parade chairperson or other person heading or leading such activity shall carry the parade permit upon his or her person during the conduct of the parade.
(g) Interference. No person shall unreasonably hamper, obstruct, impede or interfere with any parade or parade assembly or with any person, vehicle or animal participating or used in a parade.
(h) Driving Through Parades. No driver of a vehicle shall drive between the vehicles or persons comprising a parade when such vehicles or persons are in motion and are conspicuously designated as a parade.
(i) Parking on Parade Routes. The Mayor may, when reasonably necessary, prohibit or restrict the parking of vehicles along a highway or part thereof constituting a part of the route of a parade. The Mayor shall post signs to such effect, and no person shall park or leave unattended any vehicle in violation thereof. No person shall be liable for parking on a street that is unposted in violation of this section.
(j) Nonliability of City. The applicant for a parade permit and any other person on whose behalf an application therefor is made, by filing such application, do represent, stipulate, contract and agree that they will jointly and severally indemnify and hold the City harmless against liability for any and all claims for damage to property or for injury to, or the death of, any person arising out of or resulting from the issuance of the permit or the conduct of the parade or its participants.
(k) Injunctive Relief. Nothing in this section providing for the regulation or licensing of parades, nor the penalties set forth for violation of any of the provisions of this section, shall waive the right or otherwise preclude the City or any of its residents from seeking or obtaining injunctive relief in a court of general jurisdiction for the purpose of prohibiting or regulating any proposed or permitted parade.
(Ord. 147-94. Passed 6-16-94.)