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HomeMy WebLinkAbout~Master - Regulating Pawnbrokers and Precious Metals Dealers ORDINANCE NO. 2938 AN ORDINANCE TO AMEND THE MUNICIPAL CODE OF THE CITY OF AMES, IOWA, BY ENACTING A NEW SUBSECTION 17.25 FOR THE PURPOSE OF REGULATING PAWNBROKERS AND THE PUR- CHASE AND SALE OF PRECIOUS METALS AND GEMS AND SEMI- PRECIOUS STONES TO AID IN THE RECOVERY OF STOLEN PROPERTY AND INVESTIGATIONS OF VARIOUS THEFTS AND BURGLARIES; REPEALING ALL ORDINANCES OR PARTS OF ORDINANCES IN CONFLICT HEREWITH TO THE EXTENT OF SUCH CONFLICT, IF ANY; PROVIDING A PENALTY AND ESTABLISHING AN EFFECTIVE DATE. BE IT ORDAINED, by the City Council for the City of Ames, Iowa: Section One. The Municipal Code of the City of Ames, Iowa, shall be and is hereby amended by enacting a new subsection 17.25 to read as follows: "Sec. 17.25. PAWNBROKERS AND DEALERS IN PRECIOUS METALS AND GEMS AND SEMIPRECIOUS STONES. (1) Definitions. The following words and phrases shall have the meanings respectively ascribed to them for the purpose of the regulations in section 17.25. (a) Dealer. Any person, firm, partnership, corporation, or pawnbroker, including an itinerant dealer, and any principal, employee, agent, or servant thereof, regularly engaged in or conducting business for purchase, sale, barter, exchange, or pawn of gold, silver, platinum, including coins, and precious or semiprecious gems or stones for resale as commodities. (b) Engaged in or conducting business. The purchase, sale, barter, pawn or exchange of any item in Sec. 17.25(1)(a), including the advertising therefor, and including such business conducted by an established dealer in a permanent location and any temporary, tran- sient, or itinerant business, and excluding transactions of a hobbyist who acquires objects for the purpose of retention and collection and not for resale as a commodity. (c) Itinerant Dealer. Any dealer as defined herein who engaged in any temporary or transient business con- ducted in a shop, room, hotel room, motel room or other premises rented for any duration less than thirty (30) consecutive days or used on a temporary basis. 2 (d) Pawnbroker. Any person who shall in any manner lend or advance money or other things for profit on the pledge or possession of personal property, or other valuable things, other than securities or written evi- dences of indebtedness, or who deals in the purchasing of personal property or other valuable things on con- dition of selling the same back to the seller at a stipu- lated price. (2) Dealer's Permit. (a) A dealer must apply for and obtain a dealer's annual permit prior to being engaged in or conducting business as a dealer or within thirty (30) days of the effective date of this section. Such permit shall be posted con- spicuously in each place of business named therein. (b) Application. To obtain a dealer's permit a dealer shall file a written, sworn application on a form provided by the city clerk signed by the applicant if an individual, by all partners if a partnership, and by the president if a corporation, with the city clerk showing: (i) The name or names of the principals, agents, and employees of the applicant's business during the time that it is proposed that such business will be carried on in the City of Ames; the local address or addresses of such person or persons while engaged in such business; the permanent address or addresses of such person or persons; the capacity in which such person or persons will act (as proprietor, agent, employee or otherwise); the name and the address of the person, firm or corporation for whose account the business will be carried on, if any; and if a corporation, under the laws of what state it is incorporated; (ii) The place or places in the City of Ames where it is proposed to carry on the applicant's business, and the length of time during which it is proposed that said business shall be conducted; (iii) The place or places, other than the permanent place of business of the applicant, where the appli- cant within the six (6) months next preceding the date of said application conducted an itinerant business, stating the nature thereof and giving the post office and street address of any building or office in which such business was conducted; 3 (iv) A brief statement of the nature and character of the advertising done or proposed to be done in order to attract customers; (v) Credentials from the person, firm or corporation for which the applicant proposed to do business, autho- rizing the applicant to act as such representative. (c) Fee Requirement. Every application for a dealer's an- nual permit shall be accompanied by the application fee. The fee for a dealer's annual permit to conduct business by pawn shall be one hundred dollars ($100.00). The fee for a dealer's annual permit for a dealer not con- ducting business by pawn shall be twenty-five dollars ($25.00). (d) Issuance. Upon receipt of an application for a dealer's permit, the city clerk shall notify the Ames Chief of Police or his designee who shall cause such investigation of the applicant's business responsibility or moral character to be made as deemed necessary for the public good, and may recommend issuance or refusal of a dealer's permit. Within ten (10) days of the filing of an application, the city clerk shall issue a dealer's permit or refuse to do so for reasons including but not limited to the following: (i) conviction of any felony within the five (5) years immediately preceding the date of filing of the application; (ii) conviction of any crime involving moral turpitude within the five (5) years immediately preceding the date of the filing of the application. (iii) fraud, misrepresentation or false statement of material or relevant facts contained in the appli- cation; or (iv) that the applicant has engaged in a fraudulent transaction or enterprise. (e) Appeal. If the city clerk denies an application for a dealer's permit, the city clerk shall mail to the appli- cant, by certified mail, a written statement of the deci- sion with a brief statement of the reasons therefore. An appeal from the decision of the city clerk may be made in writing to the city manager within ten (10) days of the receipt of the decision. The written appeal shall state the specific grounds for the appeal. The city manager shall hold a hearing within a reasonable time from the receipt of the appeal. At the hearing, the 4 applicant or permit holder may be represented by coun- sel, may cross-examine witnesses and may present evi- dence in his or her favor. The city manager may grant or deny the appeal. The decision of the city manager shall be final. (f) Expiration. A dealer's permit shall expire one (1) year after issuance if the dealer's business is conducted regularly and continuously during the one (1) year period. If a dealer's business is discontinued or moved or sold within one (1) year after issuance, the dealer's permit expires and a new permit must be obtained before the dealer's business is recommenced. The dealer's annual permit is a personal privilege and shall not be transferable, nor shall there be a partial refund of the application fee where the permit holder exercised the privilege for less than one (1) year. (g) Revocation. Any dealer's permit may be revoked by the city manager after notice and hearing if the city manager finds that the dealer has knowingly violated any provi- sion of subsection 17.25. The city manager shall mail to the permit holder, by certified mail, a written notice of the hearing twenty (20) days before the hearing date. The notice shall set forth the grounds of the proposed revocation and the time and place of the hearing. At the hearing the permit holder may be represented by counsel, may cross-examine witnesses, and present evidence in his or her favor. The decision of the city manager shall be final. (h) Itinerant dealers must register with the City of Ames Police Department before engaging in or conducting business each time that such dealer is in the City of Ames to conduct business. (3) Records of Transactions and Retention of Purchases. (a) Records. Every dealer shall keep at the dealer's place of business a record book provided by the City of Ames and issued to the dealer by the City of Ames Police De- partment in which shall be legibly recorded with ink at the time of each transaction as a dealer setting forth: (i) the time, date, place of the transaction, and type of transaction; (ii) an accurate description of the goods, articles or things purchased, bartered, exchanged or received; 5 (iii) the signature and printed name, residence and description (consisting of the sex, date of birth, social security number,) of the person selling, bartering or exchanging the goods, articles, or things; (iv) the estimated value of each article; (v) the amount paid, advanced or loaned; and (vi) the date, name, address and phone number of the person when an item is bought or redeemed. (b) Such record book shall be kept for a period of at least ten years from the date of purchase, sale, barter, exchange or pawn. (c) Itinerant dealers. Every itinerant dealer shall provide a deposit of $25.00 for the record book provided by the City of Ames. Such record book shall be returned before the itinerant dealer leaves the City of Ames, at which time the deposit shall be returned. The record book provided by the City of Ames may be kept by the itinerant dealer if the deposit is forfeited and the City of Ames Police Department has been provided with a copy of all transactions recorded in such book. (d) Retention. (i) No dealer shall sell and deliver, melt, change the form of, or dispose of any item subject to Section 17.25 of the Municipal Code within ten (10) days of the acquisition of such item unless permission to do so is granted in writing by the Ames Chief of Police or his designee, except that the person who pawns an item is permitted to redeem the pawned item within the ten (10) day retention period. (ii) The City of Ames Chief of Police or his designee may inspect all items for which he grants a request to dispose of before the end of the ten (10) day retention period. (4) Reports to Chief of Police. Every dealer shall deliver the records required in subsection (3) above to the City of Ames Chief of Police or his designee every business week which deal with the transactions occurring in that period, except that an itinerant dealer shall deliver the records required in subsection (3) above to the City of Ames Chief of Police or his designee every day which deal with the transactions occurring in that period. 6 (5) Inspection of Premises. Every dealer shall admit to its premises during its regular business hours, any police officer to examine its City provided record book on the premises or in its possession, as well as articles purchased or received; and to search for and to take into possession any article known by that officer to have been reported missing or known or believed by the officer to have been stolen. (6) Prohibitions. (a) No dealer shall conceal, secrete or destroy for the purpose of concealing, any item purchased or acquired by him for the purpose of preventing identification thereof by a police officer or any person claiming to own the same. (b) It shall be unlawful for any dealer in the course of the dealer's business or occupation to acquire, by purchase, barter, exchange or pawn, any goods from any person under eighteen (18) years of age. (c) It shall be unlawful for any dealer to acquire, by pur- chase, barter, exchange or pawn, items bearing evidence of a serial number which has been tampered with or scratched or obliterated in any manner unless such person immediately contacts the police department of the city. (d) It shall be unlawful for any dealer to acquire, by pur- chase, barter, exchange or pawn, any items prior to examining a picture identification with a physical de- scription of the person selling, bartering, exchanging or pawning said articles. Section Two. All ordinances or parts of ordinances in conflict herewith shall be repealed to the extent of such conflict if any. Section Three. This ordinance shall be in full force and effect from and after its passage and publication as required by law. Section Four. Violation of the provisions of this ordinance shall con- stitute a simple misdemeanor punishable by a fine not exceeding one hundred dollars ($100) or by imprisonment for a period not to exceed thirty (30) Passed this 3rd day of December 1985. Nanc Gibbo s, City Clerk ;1a Goodland, Mayor