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The council hereby finds that the fulton fish market, the center of New York's wholesale seafood industry located in lower Manhattan, has for decades been corruptly influenced by organized crime; that organized crime's corrupting influence over certain functions in the market, including the unloading and loading functions, has resulted in the commission of numerous crimes and wrongful acts there, including but not limited to physical violence or threats of violence, property damage, and thefts; that organized crime's corrupting influence over the market has fostered and sustained a cartel that has forced seafood suppliers and truckers to use particular unloading crews at fixed prices in an anticompetitive scheme that has been censured by a federal judge; that organized crime's corrupting influence has resulted in retailers parking on city streets and city property nevertheless having to pay high fees to private loading crews whose principal function has been to provide "security" for those vehicles and their contents while retailers have purchased fish in the crime-ridden market area; and that these corrupting influences have further resulted in higher prices for wholesale seafood than would otherwise have to be paid in the absence of this activity. The council further finds that despite the repeated efforts of law enforcement to prosecute crimes there and the presence of a court-appointed administrator for the market, the problem of organized crime corruption in the market has persisted. The council further finds that the market's businesses, including wholesalers, seafood deliverers, unloaders and loaders, have not been effectively regulated by the city in the past under existing laws and regulations governing public markets, even though they often operate on city property, albeit without leases, licenses and registration. The council further finds that, in the absence of an effective regulatory scheme, wholesalers have established a "gray market" in tenancies at rates in excess of those being paid to the city and have thus deprived the public of its rightful return on city property, and further, that unscrupulous businesses have taken advantage of this absence of regulation to engage in fraudulent practices, such as the creation of "phantom wholesalers" whose businesses disappear from the market before payment can be obtained from them for seafood they have received from suppliers, and that such practices have discouraged suppliers from utilizing the market area The council therefore finds and declares that in order to provide for the more efficient and orderly conduct of business in the market area, to ensure that any such activities are lawfully conducted, to promote the economic vitality of the market and to protect the public interest, it is necessary for the commissioner of small business services to have expanded authority to license and/or register businesses in the market area and to regulate the conduct of such businesses. In particular, the council finds that, in order to achieve these objectives, the commissioner of small business services should be authorized to issue requests for licensing proposals to provide unloading and loading services in the market area and, at his or her discretion, issue one or more unloading and loading licenses based on the review and evaluation of responses received pursuant to such requests. In the event that no appropriate responses are received to such requests, the commissioner should be authorized to arrange for the department of small business services itself to perform unloading or loading services or to arrange that they be performed by a contractor or a designee of the department. The council recognizes that complaints have been made about the conduct of seafood distribution activities outside the market area and finds further that the conditions which have given rise to corruption in the market area can exist in other areas where there are wholesale seafood businesses or concentrations of such businesses. The council also recognizes that representatives of such businesses have threatened to move their operations elsewhere and that some may relocate to other parts of the city. The council thus finds and declares that it is also necessary for the commissioner of small business services to have authority to regulate seafood distribution in areas of the city outside the market area in which such seafood businesses may concentrate. Application of this chapter will enhance the city's ability to address organized crime corruption and to protect consumers and the many honest business persons who do business in or with the market or at other seafood distribution areas. It is thus the council's intent to empower the city to have greater regulatory authority over the conduct business in the market and in other seafood distribution areas.
Editor's note: For related unconsolidated provisions, see Appendix A at L.L. 1995/050.
For the purposes of this chapter, the following terms shall have the following meanings:
a. "Applicant" shall mean, if a business entity submitting a response to a request for licensing proposals, an application for a temporary license or a registration application, the entity itself and all the principals thereof; if an individual submitting an application for a photo identification card, such individual.
b. "Business entity" shall mean a sole proprietorship, partnership, corporation, or other entity established under law and authorized to conduct business within the state of New York.
c. "Commissioner" shall mean the commissioner of small business services.
d. "Department" shall mean the New York city department of small business services.
e. "Designee of the department" shall mean the department of citywide administrative services and, with respect to loading services or the direction of traffic within the market area, the department of transportation.
f. "Fulton fish market distribution area" or "market area" shall mean the area beginning at the point where the westerly street line of Water Street intersects the southerly street line of Maiden Lane; thence easterly along the southerly street line of Maiden Lane as extended to the east river U.S. pierhead line; thence northerly along the east river U.S. pierhead line to the northerly street line of Robert Wagner Sr. place as extended; thence westerly along the northerly street line of Robert Wagner Sr. place to the prolongation of the westerly street line of pearl street; thence southerly along the westerly street line of Pearl Street to the southerly street line of Fulton Street; thence easterly along the southerly street line of Fulton Street to the westerly street line of Water Street; thence southerly along the westerly street line of Water Street to the point of beginning.
g. "Loader" shall mean an individual who performs loading services.
h. "Loading business" shall mean any business entity that, for a payment, provides loading services.
i. "Loading services" shall mean services performed by a loader and provided by a loading business for a purchaser of seafood, including parking such purchaser's vehicle, moving such vehicle when necessary for traffic control, loading seafood onto such vehicle, and ensuring the security of such vehicle and the seafood loaded thereon; provided, however, that the term shall not mean the loading of seafood onto the vehicle of a purchaser when such loading is performed by an employee of a wholesaler by delivering seafood from such wholesaler to the vehicle of the purchaser thereof or by an employee of such purchaser.
j. "License" shall mean an unloading business license or a loading business license issued by the commissioner authorizing the conduct of such business in the market area.
k. "Market manager" shall mean a person designated by the commissioner to supervise operations in the market area or a seafood distribution area designated by the commissioner pursuant to section 22-222 of this chapter and to maintain and distribute a list of wholesalers pursuant to subdivision a of such section. Such supervision shall include, without limitation: implementation of rules promulgated pursuant to this chapter and the authority to enforce violations of any provision of this chapter or the rules promulgated thereunder; supervision of department staff employed in the market area; response to complaints relating to the operation of businesses in the market area; examination of documents required to be maintained by a licensee or registrant pursuant to this chapter; referrals, where appropriate, to any law enforcement, investigative or prosecutorial agency of matters occurring within the market area; and such other functions and duties as the commissioner may assign consistent with the provisions of this chapter.
l. "Principal" shall mean, of a sole proprietorship, the proprietor; of a corporation, every officer, director and stockholder holding ten percent or more of the outstanding shares of the corporations; of a partnership, all the partners; if another type of business entity, the chief operating officer or chief executive officer, irrespective of organizational title, and all persons or entities having an ownership interest of ten percent or more; and with respect to all business entities, all other persons participating directly or indirectly in the control of such business entity. Where a partner or stockholder holding ten percent or more of the outstanding shares of a corporation is itself a partnership or a corporation, a "principal" shall also include the partners of such partnership or the officers, directors and stockholders holding ten percent or more of the outstanding shares of such corporation, as is appropriate. For the purposes of this chapter (1) an individual shall be considered to hold stock in a corporation where such stock is owned directly or indirectly by or for (i) such individual; (ii) the spouse or domestic partner of such individual (other than a spouse who is legally separated from such individual pursuant to a judicial decree or an agreement cognizable under the laws of the state in which such individual is domiciled); (iii) the children, grandchildren and parents of such individual; (iv) a partnership in which such individual is a partner in proportion to the partnership interest of such individual; and (v) a corporation in which any of such individual, the spouse, domestic partner, children, grandchildren or parents of such individual in the aggregate own fifty percent or more in value of the stock of such corporation; (2) a partnership shall be considered to hold stock in a corporation where such stock is owned, directly or indirectly, by or for a partner in such partnership; and (3) a corporation shall be considered to hold stock in a corporation that is an applicant as defined in this section where such corporation holds fifty percent or more in value of the stock of a third corporation that holds stock in the applicant corporation.
m. "Seafood" shall mean fish, seafood or consumables derived therefrom.
n. "Seafood delivery business" or "seafood deliverer" shall mean any business entity, that, for payment, delivers seafood from wholesalers in the market area by truck or other vehicle to retail establishments or other wholesalers.
o. "Stand permit" shall mean an occupancy permit granted by the commissioner subject to such conditions as the commissioner shall prescribe authorizing use of city property by a wholesaler for the placement of seafood in an area extending into a city street.
p. "Unloader" shall mean an individual who performs unloading services.
q. "Unloading business" shall mean any business entity that, for a payment, provides unloading services.
r. "Unloading services" shall mean the unloading of seafood from a truck or other vehicle in which such seafood has been transported from suppliers and the delivery thereof to wholesalers or the transfer thereof to other trucks or vehicles for transport to other locations.
s. "Wholesaler" or "wholesale seafood business" shall mean any business entity which sells or offers for sale seafood for resale to the public, whether or not such business entity also sells or offers for sale seafood directly to the public; except that "wholesaler" shall not include any such entity that is primarily engaged in the sale of seafood that has been processed and packaged by another business for sale to consumers in such packaged form.
Editor's note: For related unconsolidated provisions, see Appendix A at L.L. 1995/050, L.L. 1996/059 and L.L. 1998/027.
A market business in the fulton fish market distribution area as such term is defined in section 22-251 of this code shall be subject to the provisions governing market businesses in chapter 1-B of this title.
Editor's note: For related unconsolidated provisions, see Appendix A at L.L. 1997/028.
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