Martinez Municipal Code Ch. 5.40 Auctions and Auctioneers

Every person, who at public outcry, offers for sale as principal or agent, to the highest bidder on the spot, any article of merchandise or property shall be deemed an auctioneer.

(Prior code § 6300)

It is unlawful for any person to sell, dispose of, or offer for sale in the City at public auction, or to cause or permit to be sold, disposed of, or offered for sale in the City at public auction, goods, wares, merchandise, commodities or personal property, whether the same shall be their own property or whether they shall sell the same as agents or employees of others.

(Prior code § 6301)

The provisions of Section 5.40.020 shall not apply to judicial sales by executors or administrators, nor to sales by or on behalf of licensed pawnbrokers of unredeemed pledges in manner provided by the law, nor to the sale at public auction of the stock on hand of any person, or persons, or corporation that shall, for the period of 1 year next preceding such sale, have been continuously in business in the City as a retail or wholesale merchant of goods, wares, merchandise, commodities or personal property.

(Prior code § 6302)

Such sales at public auction of the stock on hand of such merchant shall be held on successive days, Sundays and legal holidays excepted, and shall not continue for more than 30 days in all from commencement of the sale and shall be permitted only where such merchant is bona fide disposing of his stock for the purpose of retiring from business.

(Prior code § 6303)

Not less than 15 nor more than 30 days previous to conducting any such sale as provided in Section 5.40.030 of this Chapter, the merchant must make a sworn written application to the City Council for a permit to do so, specifying under oath the name and address of the applicant, the location and purpose of the sale and its expected duration, and itemizing in detail the quality, quantity, kind or grade of each item of the goods, wares and other articles to be sold, the wholesale market value thereof, and the name of the auctioneer who shall conduct the sale.

(Prior code § 6304)

Before granting or denying a permit, the application must be furnished to the Chief of Police who shall investigate and report to the City Council his findings as to the character of the applicant and his auctioneer, the bona fide nature of the proposed sale, and as to whether the place where it is proposed to carry on the sale is a proper place. The City Council must also be furnished satisfactory evidence that the goods, wares, merchandise, commodities or personal property proposed to be sold is a bona fide part of the merchant's stock in trade and not secured, purchased or brought into the place of business for or in anticipation of the sale. The City Council in considering the application and the attending facts shall exercise a reasonable and sound discretion in granting or denying the permit applied for.

(Prior code § 6305)

In no event shall any auction sale of goods as herein specified by conducted at public auction between the hours of 6 p.m. and 8 a.m.

(Prior code § 6306)