2002 - PUD agreement and transient merch. lic.

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-- Differentiate between "licensing" and "registering". Licensing is a formal process involving an application , a fee, and the right of the council to grant or refuse the license. A background check is also common before a license is granted. Registration is the simple process of recording a person's name and any other pertinent information the council believes necessary to ensure the good faith of the registering party. No fees are involved with registrations and the whole process should only take a few minutes instead of several days. -- Only require licenses of peddlers and transient merchants. Even though the statutes authorize the licensing of solicitors, caselaw dictates that they not be licensed. The courts' concern is the impact of local regulations on interstate commerce. Because peddlers and transient merchants have their goods in the State before they are sold, the chain of interstate commerce has ended and licensing has no impact on it. Solicitors, however, make their sales before obtaining their goods. If the goods are subsequently shipped from another state, the chain of interstate commerce remains unbroken. The courts have held that formal licensing procedures and fees for solicitors involved in inter-state commerce amount to an undue burden on interstate commerce and therefore violate the Federal Constitution. Solicitors of purely Minnesota made products would appear eligible for licensing as they would not be involved in inter-state commerce. Other cases, however, indicate that to require different requirements for different persons conducting essentially the same business for the purpose of controlling the nuisance created by that business amounts to arbitrary, and thus unenforceable, regulations. -- Provide Due Process. Licenses must be issued as quickly as possible and anyone denied a license should be informed of the reason for denial and of his or her right to appeal the decision by whatever appeals process the city has and ultimately in district court. These provisions should be clearly spelled out in the city's ordinance. -- Exempt certain peddlers and transient merchants from licensing. The Minnesota State Constitution prohibits the licensing of farmers selling the products of their own farms. The caselaw discussed above about imposing different requirements on different people conducting essentially the same busMess, has made it clear that a city also can not license anyone who re-sells any product purchased from an exempt farmer. In addition, anyone who is going place to place for the primary purpose of exercising his or her general State or Federal Constitutional rights should not be licensed because, as with the commerce clause, licensing imposes undue burdens on these constitutional rights. Most of the existing caselaw involves people who were exercising First Amendment rights by distributing religious or political information and pamphlets. The fact that a small fee or contribution may be requested for the pamphlets has not been enough to remove these people's Constitutional protection. The courts have indicated that these groups could lose their exemption for the sale of books or other goods sold only for revenue raising purposes, or if professional fund raisers were used. It has been a common practice for cities to also exempt all non-profit organizations,