08-07-2017 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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RELEVANT LINKS: League of Minnesota Cities Information Memo: 1/4/2016 Regulating Peddlers, Solicitors and Transient Merchants Page 23 Registration is a process that involves recording a person’s name and all other information necessary to ensure the good faith and conduct of the registrant. With registration, there are no approvals or denials, and no fees or background checks. The process should only take a few minutes, rather than the days involved with licensing. It is likely that a city may also require commercial solicitors to register prior to their door-to-door activities; registration alone should not have any impact on interstate commerce. This authority probably cannot extend to non- commercial operations (circumstances where an individual’s primary or sole purpose for going door-to-door is to further social, political, or religious beliefs) or where commercial profit, if present, is a secondary concern. VI. Suggestions The regulation of these profit and nonprofit activities is subject to ever- evolving legal interpretations. What may be a relatively safe and settled regulation today can change with a single decision from the U.S. or Minnesota Supreme Courts. Unfortunately, these new decisions don’t always clearly uphold or reverse prior decisions, leaving this area of law sometimes even more unsettled. Accordingly, Minnesota cities considering adopting or amending a city ordinance that regulates the activities of peddlers, solicitors and other transient merchants should work with their city attorney to ensure their regulations comply with all current legal requirements. From an intentionally conservative approach, a city should keep these basic ideas in mind when considering regulating peddlers, solicitors (both commercial and non-commercial), or other transient merchant and their activities: • Do nothing. • Adopt a Green River ordinance and prohibit most commercial door-to- door and transient activities. • Adopt a modified Green River ordinance, either alone or as part of a larger city licensing or regulatory ordinance, allowing residents to decide if they want to create a blanket prohibition for door-to-door advocacy on their property. • License peddlers and transient merchants. • Register peddlers, transient merchants, and commercial solicitors. • When activities concern non-commercial social, political, or religious advocates, the city may not be able to license or register.