Agenda Packets - 2003/06/02 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home Browse Search

Pawn Ordinances Report May 12, 2003 Page 3 Ordinance 712: (While this was not advertised as a public hearing, the C ouncil may ask for public comment as if it were.) The Planning Commission reviewed many ordinances and licensing provisions from other communities and requested input and feedback from Mounds View’s Police department, who also did their own research regarding the appropriate licensing provisions and the appropriate fee structure. The ordinances reviewed ranged from being minimally restrictive with few regulations to those being very restrictive. Based on the comments of the Commission, staff drafted the attached ordinance with the assistance of an outside consultant. Neither ordinance reflects the fees being proposed as the Council sets fees on an annual basis by resolution. The Commission did, however, include their recommendation as to fees in their resolution, which is attached for the Council’s review. The ordinance begins with a “purpose” statement, which is as follows: “The City Council of the City of Mounds View finds that pawnbroker regulation is appropriate because such activities provide an opportunity for the commission of crimes and their concealment because such businesses have the ability to receive and transfer stolen property easily and quickly. The City Council also finds that consumer protection regulation of such activities is warranted because customers of such businesses frequently seek their services during times of desperate financial circumstances. To help the City of Mounds View to better regulate current and future pawn businesses, decrease and stabilize costs associated with the regulation of the pawn industry, and increase identification of criminal activities in the pawn industry through the timely collection and sharing of pawn transaction information, this chapter also implements and establishes the required use of the Automated Pawn System (APS).” Following the purpose statement, the ordinance then defines many of the terms used throughout the ordinance. The next section, 516.03, indicates that a license is required to operate a Pawnshop in the City of Mounds View and that, in Section 516.04 and 516.05, the application and investigation processes are articulated. Section 516.06 indicates that the license term is one year, and in Section 516.07 the fees are addressed, but only to the point of mentioning that fees would be adopted annually by resolution of the City Council. Our research revealed that the license fees charged to pawnshops also varied widely, ranging from a low of $50 to as high as $15,000. The average annual license fee was $2,500. A suggestion was made that the annual fee should be as high as the highest adjacent community, which would be the city of Blaine, which charges $15,000 annually. Blaine, however, does not charge or collect a “transaction” fee which is common in most other cities. (Most cities charge $1.50 per billable transaction, of which the City collects 50 cents, the remaining dollar being paid to APS to defray their costs of processing and managing the databases.)