Blue Lake Municipal Code Ch. 5.04 Business Licenses Generally

For purposes of this chapter, unless it is plainly evident from the context that a different meaning is intended, the words and phrases used herein shall have meanings as hereinafter set forth:

"Business"

includes professions, trades, and occupations and all and every kind of calling carried on for profit or livelihood.

"Employee"

means all persons engaged in the operation or conduct of any business, whether as owner, any member of owner, any member of the owner's family, partner, agent, manager, solicitor, broker, salesperson and any and all other persons employed or working in said business; provided, however, that volunteers and other unpaid workers are not considered employees.

"Fixed place of business"

means the premises occupied in the City of Blue Lake for the particular purpose of conducting a business thereat and regularly kept open for that purpose with a competent person in attendance for the purpose of attending to said business.

"Person"

includes all domestic and foreign corporations; associations; syndicates; joint stock corporation; partnerships of every kind; clubs, business, or common law trusts; societies; and individuals transacting and carrying on any business in the City of Blue Lake, other than as an employee.

"Vehicle"

means every device in, upon, or by which any person or property is or may be transported or drawn upon a public street or highway, except devices moved by human power or used exclusively upon stationary rails or tracks.

A. This chapter is enacted solely to raise revenue for municipal purposes, and is not intended for regulation.

B. In case of undue hardship arising from the enactment or enforcement and operation of the provisions hereinafter contained, such as occasional employment, small part-time employment, or any other unforeseen causes, a licensee may apply to the City Council of the City of Blue Lake for such relief or adjustment as the Council may see fit to grant. Such application shall follow the procedure of Section 5.04.070.

Any person required to pay a license tax for transaction and carrying on any business under this chapter shall not be relieved from the payment of any license tax for the privilege of doing such business which has been required under any other ordinance of the City of Blue Lake, and shall remain subject to the regulatory provisions of such other ordinance.

A. There are hereby imposed upon the businesses, trades, professions, callings and occupations specified in this chapter license taxes in the amounts hereinafter prescribed, and it is unlawful for any person to transact and carry on any business, trade, profession, calling or occupation in the City of Blue Lake without having first procured a license from the City so to do or without complying with any and all applicable provisions of this chapter.

B. The issuance of a license under this chapter shall not entitle the licensee to engage in any business which for any reason is in violation of any law or ordinance and shall not entitle the holder thereof to carry on any business unless he or she has complied with all the requirements under other ordinances of the City of Blue Lake and all other applicable laws, nor shall it entitle the licensee to carry on any business in any building or on any premises designated in such license in the event that such business or premises are situated in a zone or locality in which the conduct of such business is in violation of any law.

A. The provisions of this chapter shall not be deemed or construed to require the payment of a license fee to conduct, manage, or carry on the following businesses or occupations:

1. Any charitable institution, organization, or association organized and conducted for charitable purposes only, where the receipts, if any are derived therefrom, are to be used solely for charitable or benevolent purposes and not for the private gain of any person in whole or in part.

2. Any corporation or organization qualifying as a nonprofit corporation or organization under state and federal law, where the receipts, if any are derived therefrom, are to be used solely for nonprofit purposes and not for the private gain of any person in whole or in part.

3. Any person engaged in interstate commerce when a license fee casts a burden upon such interstate commerce to the extent that the City may not tax under the provisions of the State constitution.

4. Any public utility which makes payments to the City under a franchise or similar agreement.

5. Insurers (as that term is defined in Article XIII, Section 28(a) of the California Constitution) to the extent that the City may not levy a license tax or fee upon such insurers under the provisions of Article XIII, Section 28 of the California Constitution.

6. Any person under age 16 conducting business within the City if the juvenile is and remains the sole proprietor of the business. A business license shall be required once the juvenile reaches the age of 17.

7. Any person conducting no more than one yard sale per quarter of the City's fiscal year. For purposes of this exemption, a "yard sale" is defined to mean the sale of personal or household items by the owner or occupant of residential property on the owner's or occupant's residential property. A "yard sale" does not include the sale of personal, household, or other items on commercial, industrial, or other nonresidential property.

8. Any person who rents residential space to a family member where the family member actually resides in the rented unit and the expense of maintaining the rental unit is not listed as an expense on the person's personal income taxes. For purposes of this exemption, a "family member" means a person's mother, father, brother, sister, son, daughter, whether biological or by law.

B. Any person desiring to claim an exemption from the payment of a license fee and to have a free license issued to him or her shall make an application therefor to the City Clerk and shall furnish such information and make such affidavits as may be required. Upon the determination being made by the City Clerk that the applicant is entitled to an exemption from the payment of license fees for any reason set forth in this chapter, the City Clerk upon the applicant complying with the provisions of this chapter or any other law of the City which may require a permit for the doing of the particular act proposed to be done, shall issue a free license to such person which shall show upon its face that the license fee is exempt.

C. The City Clerk may revoke any exempt license granted pursuant to the provisions of this chapter upon information that the licensee is not entitled to the exemption as provided therein. In the event of such revocation, a licensee may appeal to the City Council of the City of Blue Lake as provided in Section 5.04.150.

(Ord. 533 § 1, 2019)

A separate license must be procured for each branch establishment or location of the business transacted and carried on and for each separate type of business at the same location and each license shall authorize the licensee to transact and carry on only the business licensed hereby at the location or in the manner designated in such license; provided the warehouses and distributing plants used in connection with and incidental to a business licensed under the provisions of this chapter shall not be deemed to be separate places of business or branch establishment; and provided further that multiple small businesses operated by the same owner or the same owner's family at the same location can conduct business under the same license.

Every person required to have a license under the provisions of this chapter shall make application for the same to the City Clerk of the City of Blue Lake and, upon payment of the prescribed tax the City Clerk shall issue to such person a license which shall contain the following:

A. The name of the person to whom the license is issued.

B. The business licensed.

C. The place where such business is to be transacted and carried on.

D. The date of the expiration of the license.

E. Such other information as may be necessary for the enforcement of the provisions of this chapter.

Unless otherwise specifically provided, all annual license taxes under the provisions of this chapter shall be due and payable, in advance, on the first day of January of each year; provided that license taxes covering new operations commenced after the first day of January may be prorated for the balance of the license period. Except as otherwise herein provided license taxes other than annual shall be due and payable as follows:

A. Semi-annual license fees or taxes on the first day of January and the first day of July of each year.

B. Quarterly license taxes on the first day of January, April, July and October of each year.

C. Monthly license taxes on the first day of each and every month.

D. Weekly license taxes on Monday of each week.

E. Daily license taxes each day in advance.

For failure to pay a license tax when due, the City Clerk shall add a penalty of 15% of the license tax on the first day of each month after the due date thereof, provided that the amount of such penalty to be added shall in no event exceed 100% of the amount of the license tax due.

The City Clerk, and acting through his or her deputies, shall examine or cause to be examined all places of business in the City to ascertain whether the provisions of this chapter have been complied with. It shall be the duty of the City Clerk and each of his or her assistants to cause a complaint to be filed against any and all persons found to be violating any of said provisions.

(Ord. 533 § 2, 2019)

The amount of any license tax and penalty imposed by the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed a debt to the City of Blue Lake and any person carrying on any business without first having procured a license from the City so to do shall be liable to an action in the name of the City in any court of jurisdiction, for the amount of license tax and penalties imposed on such business.

Any person violating any of the provisions of this chapter or knowingly or intentionally misrepresenting to any officer or employee of the City any material fact in procuring the license or permit herein provided for shall be deemed guilty of an infraction, and, upon conviction of said infraction, shall be punished in accordance with the penalties for infractions as provided for by the State of California in the Penal Code.

The rates of license for the businesses, trades, professions, exhibitions, and occupations within the City of Blue Lake as set forth in Chapter 5.08 of this Code may be amended by separate resolution of the City of Blue Lake, heretofore or hereafter adopted. The business license fee charged hereunder shall be a regulatory fee which shall not exceed the reasonable cost to the City of regulating such business within the City.

(Ord. 533 § 4, 2019)

A. Any person aggrieved by any decision of an administrative officer or agency with respect to the issuance or refusal to issue a license, or the amount of a license tax may appeal to the City Council by filing a notice of appeal with the City Clerk within 15 days of such decision. The City Council shall fix a time and place for hearing such appeal and the City Clerk shall give notice in writing to such person of the time and place of hearing by serving it personally or by depositing it in the U.S. Post Office in Blue Lake, California, postage prepaid, addressed to such person at the address appearing on his or her last license or application. The findings of the City Council shall be served upon the applicant in the manner prescribed above for service of notice of hearing.

B. The amount of any license tax finally determined as provided in this section or this chapter shall be due and payable as of the date the original license fee was due and payable, together with any penalties that may be due thereon; provided, however, if the amount of such license tax shall be fixed in accordance with the original statement of the applicant, then no penalty shall attach by reason of any delinquency.

It is the intention of this chapter, and the City Council finds, that this chapter is a restatement and modification of the administrative, procedural, and other provisions of Ordinance 396, the Business License Ordinance, and that this chapter does not impose, extend, or increase any tax, assessment, fee, or charge.

If any section, subsection, sentence, phrase, portion, or part of this chapter is for any reason held to be invalid or unconstitutional by any court of competent jurisdiction, such decision shall not affect the validity of the remaining portions of this chapter. The City Council hereby declares that it would have adopted the ordinance codified in this chapter and each section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase, part or portion thereof, irrespective of the fact that any one or more sections, subsections, clauses, phrases, parts or portions be declared invalid or unconstitutional.