Modoc County Municipal Code Ch. 5.20 Sound Trucks and Sound Amplifying Equipment

As used in this chapter:

A. "Person" means and includes the singular and the plural, and shall also mean and include any person, firm, corporation, association, club, partnership, society, or any other form of association or organization.

B. "Soundamplifying equipment" means any machine or device for the amplification of the human voice, music, or any other sound. "Sound amplifying equipment" shall not be construed as including standard automobile radios when used and heard only by occupants of the vehicle in which installed, or warning devices on authorized emergency vehicles, or horns or other warning devices on other vehicles used only for trafficsafety purposes.

C. "Sound truck" means any motor vehicle, or horsedrawn vehicle, having mounted thereon, or attached thereto, any soundamplifying equipment.

(Ord. 170 §, 1960)

A. Registration Statement. No person shall use, or cause to be used, a sound truck with its soundamplifying equipment in operation for noncommercial purposes in the unincorporated area of the county before filing a registration statement with the county clerk in writing, or before the receipt of the copy of such registration statement as provided in subsection C of this section. This registration statement shall be filed in duplicate, and shall state the following:

1. Name and home address of the applicant;

2. Address of place of business of applicant;

3. License number and motor number of the sound truck to be used by applicant;

4. Name and address of person who owns the sound truck;

5. Name and address of person having direct charge of the sound truck;

6. Names and addresses of all persons who will use or operate the sound truck;

7. The purpose for which the sound truck will be used;

8. A general statement as to the section or sections of the county in which the sound truck will be used;

9. The proposed hours of operation of the sound truck;

10. The number of days of proposed operation of the sound truck;

11. A general description of the soundamplifying equipment which is to be used;

12. The maximum soundproducing power of the sound amplifying equipment to be used in or on the sound truck; state the following:

a. The wattage to be used,

b. The volume in decibels of the sound which will be produced,

c. The approximate maximum distance for which sound will be thrown from the sound truck.

B. Registration Statement Amendment. All persons using or causing to be used, sound trucks for noncommercial purposes shall amend any registration statement filed pursuant to subsection A of this section within fortyeight hours after any change in information therein furnished.

C. Registration and Identification. The county clerk shall, upon approval by the board of supervisors, return to each applicant under subsection A of this section, one copy of the registration statement duly certified by the county clerk as a correct copy of the application. Such certified copy of the application shall be in the possession of any person operating the sound truck at all times while the sound truck's soundamplifying equipment is in operation, and the copy shall be promptly displayed and shown to any law officer of the county or the state upon request.

(Ord. 170 §2(a)- (c), 1960)

Noncommercial use of sound trucks in the unincorporated area of the county with soundamplifying equipment in operation shall be subject to the following regulations:

A. The only sounds permitted are music or human speech.

B. Operations are permitted for four hours each day, except on Sundays and legal holidays, when no operations shall be authorized. The permitted four hours of operation shall be between the hours of eleventhirty a.m. and one thirty p.m., and between the hours of fourthirty p.m. and sixthirty p.m.

C. Soundamplifying equipment shall not be operated unless the sound truck upon which such equipment is mounted is operated at a speed of at least ten miles per hour, except when the truck is stopped or impeded by traffic. Where stopped by traffic, the soundamplifying equipment shall not be operated for longer than one minute at each such stop.

D. Sound shall not be issued within one hundred yards of hospitals, schools, churches, or courthouses.

E. The human speech and music amplified shall not be profane, lewd, indecent, or slanderous.

F. The volume of sound shall be controlled so that it will not be audible for a distance in excess of one hundred feet from the sound truck, and so that the volume is not unreasonably loud, raucous, jarring, disturbing, or a nuisance to persons within the area of audibility.

G. No soundamplifying equipment shall be operated with an excess of fifteen watts of power in the last stage of amplification.

(Ord. 170 §2(d), 1960)

A. License Required. No person shall operate or cause to be operated any sound truck in the unincorporated area of the county for commercial advertising purposes with sound amplifying equipment in operation unless a license has been obtained from the county clerk. The fee for the license shall be twentyfive dollars.

B. Application for License. Persons applying for the license required under subsection A of this section shall file with the county clerk an application in writing, giving in such application the information required in the registration statement under Section 5.20.020A.

C. Issuance of License. The county clerk shall issue a license under subsection A of this section upon payment of the required license fee, unless the application required in subsection B of this section reveals that the applicant would violate the regulations prescribed in Section 5.20.030 of this chapter, or the provisions of some other ordinance of the county.

D. Possession and Display of License. A licensee shall keep such license in his possession in the sound truck during the time the sound truck's soundamplifying equipment is in operation. The license shall be promptly displayed and shown to any law officer of the county or the state upon request.

(Ord. 170 §3(a)-(d), 1960)

No person shall operate, or cause to be operated, any sound truck for commercial soundadvertising purposes in violation of the regulations set forth in Section 5.20.030 of this chapter.

(Ord. 170 §3(e), 1960)

Any person who violates any provision of this chapter shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof shall be fined not exceeding five hundred dollars, or by imprisonment for not more than six months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

(Ord. 170 §4, 1960)