Chapter 5.04 BUSINESS LICENSES

A. For the purpose of this chapter, words used in this chapter in the singular include the plural and the masculine includes the feminine. The word “persons,” whenever used in this chapter, applies to and includes firm, corporation or association of persons, and is also deemed to refer to those who travel about with goods, wares or merchandise which they sell, or who solicit and/or deliver at the same time, or who deliver and distribute goods for others.

B. A “contractor,” within the meaning of this chapter, is defined as a person, firm or corporation who, for a fixed sum or other compensation except wages, undertakes with another for the construction, alteration, repair, addition to, or improvement of any building, structure, project, development or part thereof, other than personal property, and the term “contractor,” as used in this. chapter, includes subcontractor, but does not include any owner constructing a building by day labor for his own use. Any person holding a state license and registered with the Director of the Department of Professional and Vocational Standards of the state shall be considered a “contractor” under the terms of this chapter.

C. For the purpose of this chapter, a “peddler,” is defined to be and include every person not having a regular established place of business in the city, who travels from place to place, or has a stand upon a public street, alley or other public place, doorway or any unoccupied room or building, who sells, or offers for sale, any goods, wares or merchandise in his possession and any such peddler shall pay a license tax of twenty dollars per day. (Ord. 365 §§1, 13, 19, 1959)

5.04.020 License required.

It is unlawful for any person, whether as principal, or agent, or owner, or employee, to commence, engage in, transact or carry on, within the corporate limits of the city, any business, trade, calling, profession or occupation specified in this chapter, without first procuring a license to do so as provided in this chapter. (Ord. 365 §2(part), 1959)

5.04.030 Issuance conditions.

The city council may approve or reject any applications for a license and may revoke any license that may be granted provided that such applicant or licensee is not subject to regulations of the state or the federal government, upon a showing that the business conducted thereunder is being carried on in violation of the Constitution or laws of the state, or any ordinance of the county, or of the city; provided, however, that no license shall be revoked except upon written complaint and after a hearing by the city council at a regular meeting, of which the licensee shall have had two weeks’ notice in writing. (Ord. 365 §2(part), 1959)

5.04.040 Complaint--Notice.

When a complaint has been filed, the city clerk shall prepare a notice of the time and place of the hearing of said complaint and shall personally serve the licensee or cause the licensee to be personally served with the notice and copy of the complaint, and if unable to make personal service, shall mail the same by registered or certified mail addressed to the licensee at the place of business of the licensee as set forth in the license, with return signature card, which card shall serve as evidence that service was made. (Ord. 365 §2(part), 1959)

5.04.050 Scope of license.

No license shall authorize any person, firm or corporation, other than the one named in the license, his agents or employees, acting on behalf of the licensee, to transact or carry on such business or calling, nor shall any business or calling be conducted under any one classification other than the one or more named in such license. (Ord. 365 §9, 1959)

5.04.060 Content of license--Replacement fee.

A. It shall be the duty of the city clerk to prepare and issue a license to every person whose application has been approved by him, and his fee therefor paid, the license to show the fee charged therefor, period of time covered thereby, the name of the person to whom issued, the business, trade, calling, profession or occupation licensed, and the location where same is to be carried on, together with the number of automobiles, trucks, or other delivery vehicles to be used in the business. If the applicant does not have a fixed place of business and carries on his business from an automobile, truck or other vehicle, the license shall state the make of such vehicle, the engine number and license number thereof.

B. In case of every business which vehicles are used, the city clerk shall also issue to the licensee a tag for each vehicle used in the business, which must be displayed in the cab of the vehicle so that any officer may readily see the same.

C. If any license or license tag is lost or misplaced, the licensee may apply for a duplicate to the city clerk, and upon payment of one dollar, the city clerk shall issue a duplicate license or tag. (Ord. 365 §3(part), 1959)

5.04.070 Exhibition of license.

A. Every person having a license under the provisions of this chapter and carrying on a trade, calling, profession or occupation at a fixed place of business shall keep such license posted and exhibited, while in force, in some conspicuous part of said place of business.

B. Every person having such a license and not having a fixed place of business, but who carries on his business from any truck, auto or other vehicle, shall carry such license with him at all times while carrying on the trade, calling, profession or occupation for which the same was granted and shall also place the truck tag in a conspicuous place in the cab of such vehicle so that the traffic officer can readily see the same.

C. Every person having a license under the provisions of this chapter shall produce and exhibit the same whenever requested to do so by any police officer, or by any officer authorized to issue, inspect or collect licenses. (Ord. 365 §7, 1959)

5.04.080 Inspector--License collector.

A. The chief of police is appointed as inspector and ex officio license collector and shall pay over all moneys collected by him to the city clerk. In addition to his several duties, as chief of police, he is required to examine all places of business and persons liable to pay a license, and to see that such licenses are taken out, and shall have and exercise the power:

1. To make arrests for the violation of any provision of this chapter;

2. To enter free of charge at any time, any place of business for which a license is required by this chapter and to 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 then and there fails to exhibit such license, such person shall be liable for the penalty provided for a violation of this chapter.

B. It is made the duty of the chief of police to cause complaints to be filed against all persons violating any of the provisions of this chapter.

C. Such chief of police as such inspector of licenses shall make out once a month a list of persons, firms or corporations carrying on business within the municipality and having no license, with their addresses, and deliver such list to the city clerk and also report to the city clerk the names of all such persons doing business without a license immediately upon the fact coming to his knowledge.

D. Any chief of police failing or neglecting for more than thirty days to report any person, firm or corporation who or which is engaged in carrying on business within the city without first having paid the required license shall be guilty of neglect of duty and be either suspended from duty or dismissed from office, in the discretion of the city council. (Ord. 365 S3(part), 1959)

5.04.090 Violation--Penalty.

A. Any person violating any of the provisions of this chapter shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction thereof, shall be punishable by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars or by imprisonment in the county jail for a period of not more than three months, or by both such fine and imprisonment.

B. Every person shall be deemed guilty of a separate offense for every day during any portion of which any violation of any provision of this chapter is committed, continued or permitted by such person and shall be punishable therefor as provided by this chapter. (Ord. 365 §24, 1959)

ARTICLE II. PAYMENT OF TAXES

5.04.100 Advance annual payments.

Except as provided in this chapter, all license taxes shall be payable annually in advance in lawful money of the United States to the license collector or at the office of the city clerk. (Ord. 365 §3(part), 1959)

5.04.110 Due when--Proration--Refunds.

A. The annual license tax provided for in this chapter shall be due and payable to the city during the month of July of each year, and all such licenses shall expire on the last day of June of succeeding year.

B. All licenses must commence on the. first day of the month of July, except in cases otherwise provided for in this chapter.

C. When any business or occupation or calling requiring a license shall have commenced after the commencement of the license period, then the license fee required shall be reduced for each month which has elapsed since the beginning of the period, and the city clerk shall issue a license for the remaining portion of the license period and shall receive in payment therefor the sum required for such license for the balance of said license period.

D. Each license shall authorize the person obtaining the same to transact the business described in such licenses.

E. A separate license must be obtained for each branch established or separate house or place of business, located in the city; provided, however, that in the event of change of location of such place of business, the license shall apply to such new location.

F. Anything in this chapter notwithstanding, no license shall be issued for less than five dollars whether for the full term of one year or for a lesser period.

G. All businesses operating at the commencement of a license period, that is in July of each year, must pay a license fee for a full year; provided, however, upon proper application therefor, any person terminating a business prior to the end of such year, may obtain a refund, pro rata for the balance of the year; provided, further, that such application be made prior to the end of such year, in no case shall a refund be granted for more than seventy-five percent of the license fee paid upon application for such license. (Ord. 365 §5, 1959)

5.04.120 License taxes designated.

A. A license tax, which shall be paid to the city by every person, firm, association or corporation engaged in, conducting or carrying on any profession, trade, business, calling or occupation within said city, is fixed, established and provided as set forth in this chapter.

B. For the purpose of this chapter, every person carrying on business in the city shall pay a license tax as follows:

One Hundred Fifty Dollars Plus Ten Dollars Per Employee

Chain stores, nonfranchise

Health spa

One Hundred Dollars Plus Ten Dollars Per Employee

Attorney at law

Auditor, accountant, certified and public

Auto sales agencies

Boat sales and rentals

Chiropractors

Dentists

Drugstore

Lumber, building materials, hardware and paint

Optician, optometrist or oculist

Physicians and surgeons

Real estate sales agency

Title insurance

Veterinarian

Eighty Dollars Plus Ten Dollars Per Employee

Auto body repairs

Cleaner and tailor

Cleaning establishments

Electrical goods and appliances and contractors

General contractors

Laundry, self-service or otherwise

Plumbing goods and appliances and contractors

Sand, gravel, cement sales and contractors

Sheet metal goods and appliances

Specialty contractors not specified in this classification

Seventy-Five Dollars Plus Ten Dollars Per Employee

Auto parts

Bars where alcoholic beverages are sold

Distribution or wholesaling of gasoline, lubricating oil, greases or road oil, etc.

Dry goods stores

Furniture stores

Grocery stores, other than chain

Hardware stores

Liquor stores

Meat sales, wholesale or retail

Newspaper

Restaurants with sale of hard liquor

Sporting goods

Undertakers, mortuary

Variety stores

Sixty Dollars Plus Ten Dollars Per Employee

Beauty shops

Engine repairs

Garages

Jewelers, gifts, paper products

Machine shops

Fifty Dollars Plus Ten Dollars Per Employee

Children’s wear

Ladies wear and/or shoes

Menswear and/or shoes

Printing, card writers, mimeographing

Shoe stores

Theaters

Wholesale distributors

Forty Dollars Plus Ten Dollars Per Employee

Bait shop

Locksmith, gunsmith

Restaurant, grill, lunch counter, etc.

Service station

Tobacco

Thirty Dollars Plus Ten Dollars Per Employee

Draying

Fixit shop

Grinder, cutlery, knives and tool sharpening

Hobby shop

Shooting gallery

Twenty Dollars Plus Ten Dollars Per Employee

Auto washing

Convalescent hospitals

Odd jobs, gardening

Parcel delivery or delivery service, trailer rentals

Piano tuning

Roller skating rink

Shoeshine stands

Taxicabs, messenger service

Window cleaners, janitors

Twenty Dollars

Part-time home occupations

One Hundred Fifty Dollars Per Table

Cardrooms

Twenty-Five Dollars Per Table

Pool rooms

Sixty Dollars

Mobile-based occupation

Ten Dollars Per Unit

Apartments

Ten Dollars Per Space

Trailer park, recreational vehicles, permanent rentals

Two Dollars and Fifty Cents Per Space

Campgrounds

One Hundred Dollars Per Event

Boxing, wrestling, miscellaneous entertainment

Fifty Dollars Per Day

Peddlers

One Hundred Dollars Per Day

Automobile races

Carnivals

Circus, etc.

Motorcycle races

Rodeo

Five Dollars Per Machine

Mechanical musical and amusement devices

Vending machines

Forty Dollars Plus Ten Dollars Per Employee

Businesses not specified in this subsection

Ten Dollars

One-time permit

C. A person engaged in two or more businesses at the same location shall not be required to obtain separate licenses for conducting each of such businesses but shall be issued one license for the primary use which license shall also specify on its face all businesses carried out by applicant at the location.

D. Every person engaged in any business not specified in this chapter shall pay an annual license tax of twenty dollars. (Ord. 898 §1, 2015: Ord. 565 §1, 1978; Ord. 365 §11(part), 1959)

5.04.130 Hotels or public roominghouses.

Every person, firm or corporation or association conducting or carrying on a hotel or public roominghouse or lodginghouse or inn shall pay an annual license tax as follows: hotels/motels, five dollars per rentable rooms. (Ord. 565 §4, 1978: Ord. 365 §16, 1959)

5.04.140 Apartment houses.

A. Every person conducting or running an apartment house, shall pay an annual license tax as follows:

1. For four apartments, but not more than five, twenty dollars annually;

2. For six apartments, but not more than nine, thirty-five dollars annually;

3. For ten apartments or more, fifty dollars annually.

B. This section shall not apply to any apartment houses of less than four apartments. (Ord. 365 §17, 1959)

5.04.150 Motels, trailer courts or public campgrounds.

Every person conducting or managing, or carrying on a business of a motel, trailer court or public campgrounds or apartments maintained for the traveling public, shall pay an annual license tax as follows:

A. For five units or less, twenty dollars annually;

B. For six units, but not more than ten, thirty dollars annually;

C. Over ten units, forty dollars annually. (Ord. 365 §18, 1959)

5.04.160 Boxing, wrestling and miscellaneous entertainments.

A. Every person conducting the business of a traveling theatrical show shall pay a license tax of twenty-five dollars for the first day and ten dollars per each day thereafter.

B. Every person conducting the business of a circus, wild west show, or trained animal show shall pay a license tax of twenty-five dollars per day.

C. Every person conducting, managing or carrying on a boxing or wrestling contest or connected with a carnival shall pay a license tax of twenty-five dollars per day.

D. Every person carrying on or conducting automobile races in the city shall pay a license tax of ten dollars per day.

E. Every person conducting motorcycle races in the city shall pay a license tax of twenty-five dollars.

F. Every person conducting a rodeo in the city shall pay a license of twenty-five dollars per day.

G. Every person conducting a carnival in the city shall pay a license tax of fifty dollars per day.

H. Any show, exhibition or concession mentioned in this section, before beginning operations, must obtain a permit from the city clerk and such permit shall not be granted unless documentary evidence is shown that such person, firm or corporation carries, for the benefit of its patrons, public liability insurance in an amount of not less than one hundred thousand dollars, protecting such patrons against damage or injury and accidental hazards arising from the business carried on by the applicant.

I. The license tax herein provided for may not be avoided by tie-in with local fraternal or civic organizations or for benefits, charity or other purposes for subterfuge designed to relieve the applicant from the payment of the fee. (Ord. 898 §2, 2015: Ord. 365 §20, 1959)

5.04.170 Signboards and billposting.

A. Every person, firm, association or corporation carrying on the business of posting bills, posters or advertisements, or sign advertisements by means of billboard or advertising signboards, shall pay a license tax of ten dollars per day.

B. Every person, firm, association or corporation posting bills advertising circuses, carnivals or fairs shall pay a license tax of ten dollars per day. (Ord. 365 §21, 1959)

5.04.180 Vending, musical and gaming machines.

Every person owning any machine that is so placed that it can be operated by persons other than the owner thereof shall pay an annual license tax as follows:

A. Vending Machines. For each one-cent machine, two dollars annually; for each five-cent machine or higher money denomination machine, four dollars annually; provided, further that upon payment of such fee the clerk shall issue a sticker license, in a form to be prescribed by the city council, to be attached to each such machine, for which the fee has been paid, and maintained on the machine for inspection.

B. For each mechanical music device, whether operated as a single unit, or through separate depositories or controls in booths, or at counters, the sum of twelve dollars annually; provided, further that upon payment of such fee the clerk shall issue a sticker license in a form to be prescribed by the city council, to be attached to each such machine for which the fee has been paid, and maintained on the machine for inspection.

C. For each mechanical amusement device, game or other mechanical device so operated with coins, the sum of twelve dollars annually; provided, further that upon payment of such fees, the clerk shall issue a sticker license in a form to be prescribed by the city council to be attached to each such machine for which the fee has been paid, and maintained for inspection.

D. The license tax required by this section shall be in addition to any other tax required by this chapter. (Ord. 365 §22, 1959)

5.04.190 Waiver or remission of taxes.

The city council may, upon application, waive or remit the whole or any portion of any license collected for charitable, or for any of the following purposes:

A. For any show, exhibition, entertainment or lecture if it appears to its satisfaction that the same is to be given or was given for exclusive benefit of any church, church society, school, fraternal order, for any charitable purposes or public benefit;

B. For vending, hawking, huckstering or peddling or for soliciting orders for goods, wares, or merchandise and delivering the same without maintaining a fixed place of business in the city, if the person vending, hawking, huckstering, peddling, soliciting or selling the same is proven to the satisfaction of the city council by reason of physical deformity or other like deficiency to be unable to follow or carry on any other means of livelihood, or if the article so desired to be sold or vended is a farm product which is raised, grown or produced directly by the person vending or selling the same. Upon such waiver, the license collector shall issue a certificate of waiver on a form to be prescribed by the city council.

C. Nothing contained in this section shall be construed as making it mandatory upon the city council to remit any license, or any part thereof, as set forth in this chapter, but its judgment therein shall be final and conclusive.

D. No license shall be required for any person engaged in soliciting orders for any goods, wares or merchandise subject to interstate commerce regulations, and further provided that every person so engaged in interstate commerce shall register with the license collector, exhibiting proof of the nature of his business, the firm by whom employed, and address of home office, and shall pay a registration fee of one dollar therefor for each person registered. A separate registration card on a form to be prescribed by the council shall be issued to each agent or employee of each business. Such registration card shall indicate the period for which issued, which shall not exceed one year from date issued.

E. Every honorably discharged member of the armed services of the United States who is physically unable to obtain a livelihood by manual labor shall have the right to hawk, peddle and vend any goods, wares or merchandise without payment of any license tax or fee whatsoever, but such honorably discharged member shall register with the license collector and shall exhibit his honorable discharge and doctor’s certificate, and the license collector shall issue to the discharged member of the armed services, without cost, a license therefor, upon the production of such honorable discharge, together with a doctor’s certificate showing that the applicant is unable to obtain a livelihood by manual labor. (Ord. 365 §8, 1959)

5.04.200 Evasion of payments.

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 the payment of any license, or delinquent penalty, due or unpaid at the time of such conviction, and nothing herein shall prevent a criminal prosecution for any violation of the provisions of this chapter. (Ord. 365 §10, 1959)

5.04.210 Delinquent payments--Action.

A. All license taxes not paid at the hour of five p.m. on the last day of July of each year in which any license may be due, shall be delinquent and the license collector shall add to all such licenses remaining unpaid a penalty of fifty percent of the original license fee on each delinquent license and shall enter the same upon his books and collect the same.

B. It shall be the duty of the city clerk to deliver to the chief of police or other officer designated by the city council, the name of any delinquent licenses, and it shall be the duty of the chief of police, or such other officer, to immediately demand of such licensee payment of license and delinquencies, and if it is not paid forthwith, to charge such delinquent licensee with a misdemeanor, as set forth in Section 5.04.090 of this chapter and to place him under arrest. (Ord. 447 §1, 1969: Ord. 365 §6, 1959)

5.04.220 Deposit of moneys--Reports by clerk.

The city clerk shall immediately deposit with the bank in which the city funds are maintained, all money collected by him for licenses, taking a receipt therefor. The city clerk shall report the amount of money collected, together with an itemized statement of delinquent licenses to the city council at its first meeting in each month. (Ord. 365 S4, 1959)