Chowchilla Municipal Code Ch. 5.04 General Licensing Provisions

For the purposes of this chapter and Chapter 5.08, the following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them by this section:

A. "Business" means and includes professions, trades, occupations and every kind of calling carried on for profit or livelihood.

B. "Collector" means the city tax and license collector, or such other officer of the city as may be charged with the collection of license fees and the issuance of licenses.

C. "Fixed place of business" means the premises occupied for the particular purpose of conducting the business thereat and regularly kept open for that purpose with a competent person in attendance for the purpose of attending to such business.

D. "Hawker" or "peddler" means and includes any person who shall travel from house to house, apartment to apartment, office to office, place to place or from person to person upon the streets for the purpose of selling, offering for sale or soliciting orders for goods, ware or merchandise by sample or otherwise.

E. "Quarter" means "quarter-annually." Each quarter shall be deemed to be a period of three months. The quarters begin on the first day of July, October, January and April of each year. The quarter shall include fractions thereof.

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

G. "Wholesale" means and includes selling goods in gross to retail dealers and not by small quantity or parcel to consumers thereof.

H. "Swap meet," "flea market," or "open-air market" means an event, held more than four times in any 12-month period, at which two or more persons offer merchandise for sale or exchange, usually in the open air selling antiques, food, used household goods and curios, and that meets one of the following conditions:

1. A fee is charged for the privilege of offering or displaying merchandise for sale or exchange.

2. A fee is charged to prospective buyers for parking or for admission to the area where merchandise is offered or displayed for sale or exchange.

I. "Operator," means any person, partnership, organization or corporation that controls, manages, conducts or otherwise administers a swap meet, flea market or open-air market.

J. "Vendor" means any person, partnership, organization or corporation who exchanges, sells, or offers for sale or exchange any merchandise at a swap meet, flea market or open-air market.

(Prior code § 11-1)

(Ord. No. 469-14, § 1, 9-9-2014)

It is unlawful for any person, as principal, either for himself or for any other person or partnership or as an officer of any corporation, to commence or carry on any business, trade, calling, profession or occupation specified in this chapter or specified in Chapter 5.08 in the city, without first having registered or procured a license from the city to do so or without complying with all regulations of such trade, calling, profession or occupation contained in this chapter and Chapter 5.08.

(Ord. 372-90 § 1, 1990: prior code § 11-2)

A. In all cases where the amount of a license fee is based upon the amount of receipt or sales affected or business transacted, the person liable for the payment of such fee shall make a statement to the license collector, which shall indicate the amount of business transacted in the month next preceding the commencement of the quarter for which the license is asked. The classification of such business shall be established in accordance with such statement.

B. No statement required by this section shall be conclusive upon the city or the collector whenever it shall appear, to the satisfaction of the collector, that such statement does not set forth the true facts of the business for which a license is required. The collector may thereupon withhold the issuance of a license until the applicant shall have furnished satisfactory evidence of the truth of such statement. If such evidence is not furnished to the collector within a reasonable time or, if it shall at any time appear to the collector that, by reason of error, misrepresentation, fraud or any other cause whatsoever the license fee has not been properly fixed for any license issued, he shall give not less than five days' written notice to the licensee to show cause, at the time and place fixed in such notice, why a fee to be determined by the collector and specified in such notice shall not be fixed for such a license. At such hearing, the licensee shall appear and offer evidence why such specified fee should not be fixed as a license fee. After such hearing, the collector shall determine the proper fee to be charged and forthwith give notice to the licensee of such determination and the amount of the fee.

C. The licensee may appeal in writing to the city council ten days after notice of such determination. The city council shall forthwith set such matter for hearing and cause notice thereof to be given to the licensee not less than five days prior to such hearing. At such hearing, the licensee shall show cause why the fee fixed by the collector should not be approved. The findings of the city council thereon shall be final and conclusive in the matter. Any fee finally determined 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, that if such fee shall be fixed in accordance with the original statement of the licensee, than no penalties shall attach to such fee by reason of any delinquency.

D. Any notice required by this section shall be deemed to have been served when the same is posted in the United States Mail, enclosed in a sealed envelope, postage prepaid, addressed to such person at his place of business as the address of the same appears on the records in the office of the collector.

E. The statements filed pursuant to this section shall be confidential in character and shall not be subject to public inspection, and shall be kept so that the contents thereof shall not become known except to the persons charged with the administration of this and Chapter 5.08.

F. Any officer, deputy officer or employee of the city who shall in any manner reveal the contents or any portion of the contents of any such statements shall be punishable as provided in Chapter 1.16, and may also, if an appointive officer, deputy or employee, upon hearing by the city council in such manner as it may prescribe to determine the facts, be dismissed.

(Prior code § 11-5)

A. Every person holding a license issued pursuant to this chapter and Chapter 5.08, and carrying on a trade, calling, profession or occupation at a fixed place of business shall keep such license posted and exhibited, while the same is in force, in some conspicuous part of such place of business. Every person having such a license and not having a fixed place of business, shall carry such license with him at all times while carrying on the trade, calling, profession or occupation for which the same was granted.

B. Every person holding a license issued pursuant to this chapter and Chapter 5.08 shall produce and exhibit the same when applying for a renewal thereof and whenever requested to do so by any police officer or by any officer authorized to issue, inspect or collect licenses.

(Prior code § 11-7)

No city license shall be in any manner assignable or authorize any person other than the person therein mentioned or named to transact or carry on such business or authorize any other business than is therein mentioned or named to be continued or transacted thereunder, or at any place other than therein mentioned or named.

(Prior code § 11-6)

The collector may appoint such license inspectors as may be authorized by the city council. Police officers may be appointed inspectors of licenses, and, in addition to their several duties as police officers, when so appointed, shall examine all places of business and persons in their respective beats liable to pay a license, and see that such license is taken out. They shall:

A. Make arrests for the violation of any of the provisions of this chapter and Chapter 5.08;

B. Enter, free of charge, at any time, any place of business for which a license is required by this chapter and Chapter 5.08 and demand the exhibition of such license for the current term by any person engaged or employed in the transaction of such business, and, if such person fails to exhibit such license, such person shall be guilty of a violation of this code.

(Prior code § 11-8)

The collector shall deposit, daily, with the city treasurer, all money collected by him for licenses issued, and shall report the amount thereof to the city council each month at a regular meeting. (Prior code § 11-9)

A. The amount of any license fee imposed by this chapter and Chapter 5.08 shall be deemed a debt to the city. Any person carrying on any trade, calling, profession or occupation mentioned in this chapter and Chapter 5.08 without having a license from the city to do so shall be liable to an action in the name of the city in any court of competent jurisdiction for the amount of license imposed by this chapter and Chapter 5.08 on such trade, calling, profession or occupation.

B. A suit may be brought against any person for any license fee specified in this chapter and Chapter 5.08 due and unpaid, in the name of the city, in any court of competent jurisdiction. The city attorney is authorized to bring such action when, in his judgment, there is reason to believe the amount can be collected. An attachment may also be issued.

(Prior code § 11-3)

The conviction and punishment of any person for transacting any trade, calling, profession, or occupation without a license shall not excuse or exempt such person from payment of any license due or unpaid at the time of such conviction. Nothing in this chapter or Chapter 5.08 shall prevent a criminal prosecution for any violation of the provisions of this chapter and Chapter 5.08.

(Prior code § 11-4)

A. The collector shall, at the hour of five p.m. of the sixtieth day after licenses are payable, add to all licenses remaining unpaid a penalty of twenty-five percent of the amount of such delinquent license. No license shall be issued to such delinquent until both the license and penalty shall have been paid.

B. Such penalty shall be in addition to any penalty imposed pursuant to Chapter 1.16 of this code.

(Prior code § 11-10)