I sat in on part of the Northeast Lakewood Associated Neighborhoods meeting tonight to hear Jerry Reagan, director of the city's Fiscal Control Department, address questions about the city license peddlers are supposed to have, and there was some pretty interesting input.

Let me start off by noting the good turnout: There were about 45 people there, including both Ward 4 aldermen (Charlie Hight, who is facing re-election, and Murry Witcher), Ward 3 Alderman Cary Gaines, Ward 1 Alderman Debi Ross, Ward 3 alderman candidate Steve Baxter, Mayor Pat Hays and mayoral challenger Bubba Lloyd. That's some pretty heavy firepower. (When asked by me, Lloyd did say he plans to come to a Boosters meeting soon, as well. I didn't make it around to the other officials before I left.)

When Reagan took the podium, he gave a brief talk before opening the floor to questions. And he opened with this piece of advice: If someone comes to your door offering something you don't want, the simplest and most immediate solution is don't let them in and tell them to go away. That's his policy at his house, he added.

That said, the city does license peddlers (door-to-door salespeople) in order to give some legitimacy to those who follow the rules. And Reagan did acknowledge that the current licensing procedure has some shortcomings, which he thought could be addressed.

Click "Read More" for the full article.

For starters, a definition: A peddler is anyone who goes door-to-door trying to sell something. This includes representatives of nonprofit agencies.

Under city ordinance, any business wanting to pursue door-to-door sales must have a city business license (cost varies depending upon the type of business); they must pay for a peddler's license ($75 fee plus $6 to print the ID card) for each person doing the door-to-door sales; and they must provide a criminal record report from the Arkansas State Police for each door-to-door salesperson. Door-to-door solicitation may only take place between 9 a.m. and 8 p.m. License holders may not request any payment unless they are delivering the goods or services at that time, and they must leave the property if asked.

Nonprofit agencies (churches, Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, police and fire organizations, etc.) are required to have a business license (which they are not charged for) and their representatives are not required to have a peddler's license, said Reagan. People taking political petitions around for signatures are likewise not required to have any city license, he said.

The last large group of licenses issued by the city was for 27 representatives of Apex Security of Utah, and Reagan said they paid all the necessary fees and supplied the Arkansas State Police criminal background checks. ("Of course," he added, "they were from Utah so their Arkansas records were clean.")

Reagan admitted up front that the city peddler's ID would not be hard to duplicate, as was pointed out (rather vigorously) on this blog after it was reproduced here.

"It's actually a Word document with a photo attached," he said. "There's steps that could be taken to make it harder [to duplicate] but I doubt the steps are worth taking. They" -- criminals, presumably -- "counterfeit money, they counterfeit food stamps."

Once the floor was opened for questions, several people hit upon the ease of duplication of the licenses, and the difficulty in verifying their legitimacy if someone comes to the door with one. It was noted -- as had also been raised here in the earlier discussion -- that having a license number and a telephone number for the Fiscal Control Department (which, by the way, is 975-8833) would make it possible for someone to call in and check the validity. Reagan said that could be done.

However, another resident pointed out that having such information only helps during working hours, and the solicitors she'd encountered came after 5 p.m. "Is there a database available online so we can see who's valid?" she asked.

"No," said Reagan, "but I'll look into it."

Another resident wanted to know if the city, or the neighborhood association, could simply declare a street or an entire neighborhood off-limits to door-to-door solicitation.

"Why do they have a constitutional right to come into our yard?" the resident asked forcefully.

That resulted in some initial uncertainty from Reagan and the elected officials present. Charlie Hight suggested that the city attorney might need to be contacted later to answer that question, which didn't seem to satisfy anyone in the room, and then the mayor stepped in. While he felt it would probably be unconstitutional to ban soliciting in an entire neighborhood, Hays said, each resident has the right to post a "no soliciting" sign at their house.

"As I understand it, you have to have notice you don't want the person coming onto your property," he said.

The same woman then asked if residents can't just have a vote and ban solicitation in the neighborhood or on a street if the majority approved it. But Hays noted that even if just one resident wanted to permit solicitors to come to their own house, the group couldn't deny that resident's right.

"If they have the constitutional right to solicit," she then asked, "why issue permits?"

"We're trying to give our neighborhoods as much protection as possible," responded Hays. "We're responding to neighborhoods and property owners, while at the same time trying not to overstep the constitutional protections and ending up in court" where it could cost the city (and thus tax-paying residents) a lot of money.

The city officials encouraged residents who felt they had an unlicensed or unscrupulous solicitor in their area to call the police.

Reagan also pointed out that one thing that helps perpetuate certain types of door-to-door solicitation -- services like tree trimming or lawn maintenance -- is the fact that people will hire those folks because it's normally a lot cheaper than going with a licensed business. For example, he said, if someone offers to cut down a dead tree in your yard for $75, you may take them up on it because you know a licensed tree service will charge $450. But, he added, the down side is if this guy drops the tree onto your house, he's just going to get into his truck and drive away, whereas the licensed service will likely have a bond and insurance.

"People need to use common sense," Reagan said. "If it sounds too good to believe, tell 'em to take a walk."

P.S. -- Just before I left, the Lakewood folks took up a discussion of the city's plan to establish rules for neighborhood parking controls. You know, so other 'hoods can forbid people from parking on their front yards, just like we do here (supposedly). Well, Charlie Hight got up and explained that each neighborhood will be able to set up its own rules and parking districts, which can be as small as one block, as long as 67% of the residents in the district vote in favor of the rules.

Which makes me wonder: If you can ban front-yard parking on an entire street with just a two-thirds vote, why can't you ban solicitation on an entire street via a two-thirds vote? Kind of takes the wind out of that "constitutaional right of the resident" argument that Hays made.

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