Resale rule scrapped by city officials

Font Size:

By Tory Brecht | Wednesday, February 21, 2007 1:12 AM CST | () comments

After a parade of small business owners and second-hand store shoppers deluged the Davenport City Council with criticism Tuesday night, aldermen voted to scrap a controversial amendment to the city’s pawnbroker ordinance.

The ordinance would have required owners of stores who generate more than 10 percent of their business from reselling items to fingerprint and photograph their customers and electronically send that and other transaction data to the police department. Each of those transactions would have to be accompanied by a fee, as well.

“I feel like I would be working for the police department if I did all of those things for them, and I’m not getting paid — I’m paying them,” Ritzi Reruns owner Sherry Hopkins said.

The police department and city legal staff drafted the ordinance to improve the database of resold items and sellers, citing the use of second-hand sellers by criminals who use them to “conceal their actions and transfer property quickly and easily.”

But several aldermen said they felt ambushed by the scope of the ordinance. Several of them said they were taken by surprise when language in the ordinance — drafted by the police and legal staffs and placed on the council agenda — went beyond mere electronic filing requirements.

“We feel it’s not a good ordinance at all,” said Alderman Jamie Howard, at-large.

Howard then moved to delete the item — meaning it will not come back before the city council unless it is significantly altered. That request passed unanimously.

Before the vote, the aldermen got an earful from angry constituents.

“You’re asking us to treat our customers like potential criminals, then pay the city to tell you about it,” said Mike Schad, owner of Video Games Etc.

Several business owners who are planning on either buying or building new stores in the city warned that they would pick up and move across the river or to Bettendorf if the council followed through with the proposed ordinance amendment.

“This amendment would put me out of business,” said Diana Glasper, owner of Vintage Baby.

To drive home her point about what she felt was the ridiculousness of the ordinance, she showed aldermen a baby rattle and tiny stuffed animal that would fall under the law’s definition of items that are “reportable transactions” and requiring fingerprinting from sellers.

“If this amendment passes, I will have to build a new building in a different city,” she said. “Davenport would lose my employees and my tax revenue.”

Colt Adams, a district manager of Mr. Money U.S.A. — with 50 stores in 10 states — said Davenport’s proposed ordinance was by far the most “aggressive and unreasonable” pawn and second-hand dealer ordinance he’d ever seen proposed.

“We’re not opposed to electronic reporting, but this will take business out of the city of Davenport,” said Adams, who works out of Des Moines. “The fact this is even being considered seems to suggest we are encouraging the sale of stolen items.”

Davenport police have acknowledged that the vast majority of second-dealers and those selling items to such stores are legitimate. However, creating a detailed database of items and sellers would help the department solve more crimes at a faster rate, police officials said.

After Tuesday’s vote, Police Chief Mike Bladel said the pawn reporting program will have to be reevaluated.

“We felt these stipulations were workable and reasonable, but apparently we have a lot of work to do to find common ground,” he said. “It’s critical we listen to these concerns.”

Bladel said creating a scaled back ordinance amendment, drafted with input from the business community, is still a goal of the department.

Tory Brecht can be contacted at (563) 383-2329 or tbrecht@qctimes.com.