For the purpose of this chapter, certain words and phrases are defined and certain provisions shall be construed as set forth in this chapter unless it is apparent from the context that a different meaning is intended.
(Prior code § 6200)
"Advertising vehicle"
is the business of operating upon the streets, or from any public or private parking lot any wheeled vehicle equipped with music or musical device, loudspeaker, flood lights, or other device for attracting attention, or operating upon the streets any wheeled vehicles for advertising purposes, and to which wheeled vehicles there are attached signs, placards, billboards, or other advertising matter.
(Prior code § 6200.1)
"Business by vehicle"
is the business of running, driving, or operating any automobile, automobile truck, automobile tank wagon or any vehicle used for transportation, selling, collection or delivery of goods or other personal property of any kind from a vehicle, either as a principal business, or in connection with any other business; of soliciting for work, labor, or services to be performed upon the public street, in or from a vehicle, or to be performed on goods or other personal property.
The term applies to the delivery of goods purchased by retail merchants in the city at wholesale prices and delivered to said merchants in said city for resale by them for use or consumption by the public, and applies to the delivery of services to the businesses and professions listed in this chapter, but shall not apply to persons operating such vehicles together with, and in conjunction with, a fixed place of business within the city, for which such business a license fee is paid under the other provisions of this title.
The provisions of this title are not to be construed as imposing a tax upon vehicles, but as a method of classification of businesses and distinguishing between those maintaining a fixed place of business in the conduct of which vehicles are used and those maintaining a business in the conduct of which vehicles are used but who do not have a fixed place of business in the city.
(Prior code § 6200.2; Ord. 2159 § 4, 2019)
"Commercial dump"
is the business of operating an open-air place, not enclosed by walls and roof, for the receiving or gathering of trash, waste, garbage or rubbish for burning, burial, deposit or other disposition.
(Prior code § 6200.3)
"Commercial rental business"
is the business or renting, leasing or making available for renting or leasing one or more commercial rental units.
(Ord. 1596 § 4, 1983)
"Commercial rental unit"
is any room, group of rooms, building, structure or vacant land designed to be rented or leased to a tenant for commercial, industrial or any other nonresidential use.
(Ord. 1596 § 4, 1983)
"Itinerant vendor"
is any person who engages in a temporary or transient business in the city, selling goods or any other things of value, with the intention of conducting such business in said city for a period of not more than sixty days, and who, for the purpose of carrying on such business, hires, leases or occupies any room, doorway, vacant lot, building or other place for the exhibition or sale of goods or other things of value. If the place in which a business is conducted is rented or leased one hundred twenty days or less, such fact shall be presumptive evidence that the business carried on therein is a transient business.
(Prior code § 6200.4; Ord. 2067 § 4, 2009)
"Laundromat"
is a coin-operated laundry service.
(Ord. 1887 § 1, 1995)
"Peddling"
is the act of going from house to house, place to place, or in or along the streets, within the city, selling and making immediate delivery, any goods, or anything of value, in possession of the peddler, to persons other than manufacturers, wholesalers, jobbers or retailers in such commodities. "Peddling" does not include business by vehicle as defined in this chapter.
(Prior code § 6200.5)
"Residential rental business"
is the business of renting, leasing or making available for renting or leasing more than a total of three residential rental units at one or more locations within the city.
(Ord. 1596 § 4, 1983)
"Residential rental unit"
is any room, group of rooms, building, structure or vacant land designed to be rented or leased to a tenant for residential purposes. Such units shall include hotel and motel rooms, apartments, single-family homes, motor and mobile home spaces and any other individual space used for dwelling purposes; provided, however, that an owner-occupied unit shall not be a residential rental unit. It is presumed that every unit owned but not occupied by the owner is a residential rental unit.
(Ord. 1596 § 4, 1983)
"Soliciting"
is the act of going from house to house, place to place, or in or along the streets, within the city, selling or taking orders for goods, or other things of value for future delivery, or for services to be performed in the future, except that solicitations to manufacturers, wholesalers, jobbers and retailers shall be excluded herefrom.
(Prior code § 6200.6)
Except as defined in Sections 5.12.010 through 5.12.080, the words and phrases used in this chapter shall have the usual and customary meaning thereof ascribed to them.
(Prior code § 6200.8)
All persons engaged in or carrying on any profession, trade, calling, occupation or business in or into the city are classified into nine groups as follows in Sections 5.12.110 through 5.12.190.
(Prior code § 6202; Ord. 1470 § 3, 1978)
The professional classification shall include: Accountants;
Adjusters;
Appraisers;
Architects;
Assayers;
Attorneys;
Biologists;
Chemists;
Chiropodists;
Chiropractors;
Consultants-professional advice/services;
Dentists;
Doctors of medicine;
Engineers;
Geologists;
Income tax preparers;
Landscape architects;
Optometrists;
Osteopathic physicians;
Pharmacists;
Physicians and surgeons;
Physiotherapists;
Psychiatrists;
Psychologists;
Real estate brokers;
Surveyors;
Therapists, physical and emotional;
Veterinarians.
(Prior code § 6202.1; Ord. 1779 § 4, 1989)
The retailers classification shall include:
Appliance store;
Automobile sales (new and used);
Automobile supplies;
Bakery (store and shops);
Bars;
Candy store;
Clothing store;
Concrete products;
Drug store;
Eating establishments (20 or fewer seats);
Felt cut outs;
Firearms;
Florist;
Frozen food lockers;
Furniture (new, used and patio);
Garden supplies;
General merchandise (dry goods);
Gift shop;
Glass shop (mirrors, etc.);
Groceries;
Hardware;
Ice;
Ice cream store;
Jewelry store;
Knit shop;
Law enforcement equipment;
Liquor stores;
Locksmith;
Lumber yard;
Mail order;
Meat jobbing plant;
Meat retail (license separate from market);
Music shop;
Newspapers;
Nursery supplies;
Office supplies;
Paint and paper store;
Pet store;
Photo supply;
Poultry equipment;
Poultry store;
Printing-Lithographing;
Produce;
Retail (license separate from market);
Public utilities;
Secondhand store;
Service stations;
Sewing machine stores;
Shoe store;
Sporting goods;
Tire dealer;
Toy store;
Trailer sales;
Upholstery store;
Vacuum cleaner store;
Variety store;
Venetian blinds;
Any other retailer.
(Prior code § 6202.2; Ord. 1195 § 1, 1967; Ord. 1779 § 4, 1989)
The classification shall include:
Automotive accessories;
Brass fittings;
Brooms;
Candy;
Concrete products;
Electrical instruments;
Electrical motors;
Food;
Gas burners, industrial;
Machinery;
Meat;
Novelties and notions;
Nurseries;
Nuts and bolts;
Refrigeration;
Restaurant equipment;
Rock and gravel; See 6202.4(x)
Tool distributor;
Washing machine parts;
Any other wholesaler.
(Prior code § 6202.3)
The manufacturers classification shall include:
Aircraft parts;
Aluminum finishers;
Blueprint and diazo coating;
Brick and tile company;
Cabinet shop;
Casket company;
Chemical cleaning material;
Chemical company;
Clothing;
Equipment, food processing equipment;
Equipment, industrial instruments;
Food;
Hardware, nuts and bolts;
Hardware, screw products and supplies;
Metal, sheet;
Metal, spinning;
Meters;
Office machines and supplies;
Office supplies, industrial;
Paper salvage;
Pharmaceutical products;
Plating;
Records, phonograph;
Rock and gravel company;
Rug making;
Shoes;
Soft drink;
Wire staples and machines;
Wood working;
Any other manufacturer, processor, fabricator, foundry, canner, or compounder of goods, wares, or merchandise.
(Prior code § 6202.4)
The service classification shall include:
Auto repair;
Barber shop;
Beauty shop;
Bookkeeping;
Car wash;
Cleaning agencies;
Cleaning and dyeing establishment;
Dance studios;
Employment agency;
Gift wrapping;
Hospitals;
House cleaning;
Interior decorator;
Massage establishment;
Massage technician;
Mimeographing;
Mortuary;
Musical instructions;
Nursery school;
Photographer;
Piano tuning and repair;
Radio-television repair;
Research on TV. audiences;
Shoe repair;
Speech-hearing therapy;
Welding;
Any other service business.
(Prior code § 6202.5; Ord. 1779 § 4, 1989; Ord. 1887 § 2, 1995; Ord. 2084 § 3, 2011)
The contractors classification shall include:
Air conditioning;
Burglar alarms, installation of;
Cabinet;
Cement—Concrete;
Door lifts;
Door, overhead;
Electrical;
Excavating and grading;
Exterminator;
Fence installation;
Floor covering and installation of;
General;
Glass-glazier;
Heat installation;
Insulation;
Lathers;
Lawn sprinklers;
Masonry;
Miscellaneous (fixture installers, installation of breakfast nooks, metal door and window);
Painting;
Paving;
Plastering;
Plumbing;
Roofing;
Sewer;
Shade—Blinds;
Sheet metal;
Signs;
Tile;
Water softener installation;
Any other contractor.
(Prior code § 6202.6)
The business by vehicle classification shall include all those included within the definition provided in Section 5.12.030.
(Prior code § 6202.7)
The special business classification shall include those businesses set forth in Section 5.12.230.
(Prior code § 6202.8; Ord. 1596 § 5, 1983)
The not otherwise classified or miscellaneous classification shall include:
(1) 
Office and administration;
(2) 
Any other type of business, not otherwise classified in this chapter, or which may be not reasonably construed to be included within any of the types of business heretofore in this chapter set forth.
(Prior code § 6202.9)
The annual license fee for the classifications set forth in Section 5.12.110 (professional) and other similar callings or persons not listed, but considered to be of a professional nature shall be as follows:
$75.00 annually—for every professional owner, manager or employee; and
$15.00 annually—for each additional employee not included in the professional classification.
The annual license fee for classification set forth in Sections 5.12.120 through 5.12.150 (retailers, wholesalers, manufacturers and service) shall be as follows:
$75.00 annually—for the first employee; and
$15.00 annually—for each additional employee.
(Prior code § 6203; Ord. 1470 § 4, 1978; Ord. 1596 § 5, 1983; Ord. 1779 § 4, 1989)
The license fee for the contractor's classification shall be based upon a flat rate as follows:
(1) 
All contractors contracting in the city will be charged for gross receipts accumulated on a calendar year basis. The license will be calculated based on the following schedule:
Gross Receipts
Fee
$0 to 10,000
$ 75.00
$10,000 to 25,000
$150.00
$25,000 to 50,000
$300.00
Over $50,000
$300.00 plus .50 for each $1,000.00 in excess of $50,000.00 gross receipts
(2) 
Section 5.08.210 of this code as it pertains to the proration of fees shall not be applicable to the contractor classification.
(3) 
Any contractor applying for a business license shall certify to the license collector the appropriate subclassification in which such contractor is to be classified.
(4) 
Every general contractor shall require all subcontractors for the performance of any work on each project in the city under his or her control or direction, whether the subcontract is written or oral, to have a business license as herein provided for the year or years in which such subcontractor's work is to be done at the time such subcontract is made and before permitting such subcontractor to begin to perform services on any project of said general contractor. Failure of such general contractor to comply with the foregoing provisions of this subsection shall render such general contractors liable to the city for an additional license fee equal to the amount of such subcontractor's unpaid license fee, plus any penalties for delinquency accruing thereon.
(5) 
Each general contractor shall furnish the building division with a list of all subcontractors who are to do work on any project of such general contractor in the city upon forms furnished by the city.
(Prior code § 6203.1; Ord. 1470 § 5, 1978; Ord. 1596 § 6, 1983; Ord. 1779 § 4, 1989)
The license fee for business by vehicle classification shall be based upon a flat rate as follows:
(1) 
Those vehicular businesses providing retail sales (except hawkers and peddlers)—$75.00 per vehicle, annually;
(2) 
Those vehicular businesses providing wholesale or service businesses (except busses and taxicabs)—$75.00 per vehicle, annually;
(3) 
School busses (without regard to number)—$75.00 flat fee annually;
(4) 
Taxicabs—$75.00 per vehicle, annually; and
(A) 
Full city franchise—$450.00;
(B) 
Partial city franchise—$300.00.
(Prior code § 6203.2; Ord. 1470 § 5, 1978; Ord. 1596 § 7, 1983; Ord. 1779 § 4, 1989)
The license fee for the special classification is as set forth in this section:
 
 
Fee*
(1)
Advertising, bench ads (permit required; see Section 5.32.020)
$12.00-a
(2)
Advertising, billboards
$150.00-a
(3)
Advertising, vehicle (see Section 5.12.020)
$30.00-m per vehicle
(4)
Auction (permit required)
$75.00-d
(5)
Boarding house, day nursery, home for the aged (permit required; see Section 5.08.090 (7), less than four persons exempt)
$75.00-a
(6)
Circus or carnival when conducted as a primary business (permit required; see Section 5.16.010)
$150.00-d
(A)
Carnival-type rides and attractions:
$30.00-d
(i)
Chutes
$30.00-d
(ii)
Ferris wheel
$30.00-d
(iii)
Galvanic battery
$30.00-d
(iv)
Kinetoscope, showing, letting or renting use of
$30.00-d
(v)
Lung tester, showing, letting or renting use of
$30.00-d
(vi)
Merry-go-round
$30.00-d
(vii)
Miniature railway
$30.00-d
(viii)
Muscle tester, showing, letting or renting use of
$30.00-d
(ix)
Shooting gallery
$30.00-d
(x)
Telescope, showing, letting or renting use of
$30.00-d
(xi)
Weight guessing instrument, showing, letting or renting use of (permit required)
$30.00-d
(B)
Exhibition or place of amusement charging paid admission (permit required)
$150.00-d
(C)
Kiddie rides, live animal rides, small exhibitions, when conducted as sales promotion for or incidental to another licensed business in the city. Restricted to minimum numbers of rides or exhibitions not generally considered a carnival or circus (permit required)
$30.00-d
(D)
Sideshow where separate admission fee is charged (permit required)
$150.00-d
(7)
Club selling watches, jewelry or clothing
$300.00-a
 
Selling or disposing of any other kind of merchandise upon a club basis
$300.00-a
(8)
Coin-operated washers and dryers
 
(A)
$75.00-a base fee; plus
 
(B)
$1.00-a for each machine
 
(9)
Commercial dump (permit required; see Sections 5.12.040 and 5.12.250)
3% monthly of gross receipts
(10)
Dancehall (permit required; see Section 9.21.010)
See Section 5.44.030
(11)
Dismantling (permit required; see Section 5.16.010)
$300.00-a
(12)
Flags, banners, balloons, canes, horns, trumpets, musical or noisemaking instruments of any kind, toys, badges, buttons, shoestrings, hairpins, lead pencils, combs or souvenirs of any kind, or like articles, peddling of (permit required)
$3.00-d
(13)
Hauling garbage, trash, waste or rubbish (This section shall not apply to any vehicle which performs no business or service within the city other than the hauling of trash or rubbish to a municipal dump operating under a permit from the city council)
$75.00-a per vehicle
(14)
Housing moving (permit required)
$75.00-a
(15)
Itinerant vendor (permit required; see Sections 5.12.060 and 5.16.010)
$150.00-a
(16)
Machines and games
 
(A)
Renting and leasing of coin-operated vending, game, amusement and service machines where business is limited exclusively to renting and leasing such machines
1½% annually of gross receipts
(B)
Business limited exclusively to operation of coin-operated vending, game, amusement and service machines
1½% annually of gross receipts
(i)
Mechanical rides for children
$75.00-a each machine
(ii)
Music machines (jukebox, juke-TV)
$36.00-a each machine
(iii)
Games of skill and science
$75.00-a each game
(iv)
Other machines
$36.00-a each machine
(17)
Oil exploration
See (26) of this section
(18)
Patent medicine, where music or other device for attracting attention is used (permit required)
$300.00-d
 
Patent medicines where such music or device is not used (permit required)
$30.00-d
(19)
Pawnbrokers, secondhand dealers, or collecting, purchasing, selling, or dealing in junk (permit required; see Section 5.64.010)
$108.00-a
(20)
Pool, billiards and snooker parlor (permit required; See Chapter 5.20)
$72.00-a plus $18.00-a per table over one
(21)
Rental business, commercial. $35.00 per commercial rental unit for the first 2,000 square feet plus 1 cent per square foot in excess of 2,000 square feet, provided that the maximum fee for each commercial rental unit is $1,200.00
 
(22)
Rental business, residential. $35.00 per residential rental units anywhere in the city. For example, if owner has two parcels, each containing four residential rental units, the fee shall be $175.00 (8 units minus 3 units equals 5 units; 5 times $35.00 equals $175.00)
 
(23)
Skating rink (permit required)
$30.00-d
(A)
$750.00 annually for new issuance,
 
(B)
$300.00 annually for renewal by licensee,
 
(C)
Change of ownership shall require new issuance.
 
(24)
Solicitors, peddlers, hawkers (permit required)
$75.00-a per individual
 
Interchangeable fleet license (representing one company; see Sections 5.12.050, 5.12.070, 5.12.080 and 5.16.010)
$300.00-a
(25)
Theater, conventional walk-in and drive-in
$150.00-a
(26)
Drilling or exploring for the production of oil; gas, other than gas extracted from landfills; or hydrocarbon substances per each well:
 
(A)
$600.00 for the first year, and
 
(B)
$120.00 for each year thereafter; plus the sum of
 
(C)
$75.00-d for each day of actual drilling or other work upon the well until the well is placed on production and thereafter. Fifteen cents per barrel paid monthly of oil produced from such well, said latter sums to be computed and paid monthly within fifteen days after the close of each calendar month.
$0.15-m per barrel.
(27)
Recovery, processing, or sale of gas extracted from landfills; 2.5 cents for each one thousand cubic feet of gas delivered from the plant plus three percent of the gross receipts from all by-products, said sums to be computed and paid every three months within fifteen days after the close of each threemonth period.
 
(28)
Eating establishments and bars (seating capacity over 20)
 
(A)
Establishments without an ABC License—$75.00 plus $5.00 for
every seat available for restaurant services up to 650 seats and $2.00 for seats over 650; and
(B)
Establishments with an ABC License—$75.00 plus $7.00 for every seat available for restaurant or bar service up to 650 seats and $4.00 for seats over 650.
 
*a—annually; d—daily; m—monthly.
(Prior code § 6203.4; Ord. 1470 § 5, 1978; Ord. 1482 § 1, 1978; Ord. 1501 §§ 1, 2, 1979; Ord. 1596 §§ 8—13, 1983; Ord. 1610 § 1, 1984; Ord. 1645 § 3, 1985; Ord. 1779 § 5, 1989; Ord. 1887 § 3, 1995; Ord. 2203 § 2, 2021)
The fees of the not otherwise classified classification rates shall be in accordance with Section 5.12.200.
(Prior code § 6203.4; Ord. 1470 § 5, 1978)
The license fee for commercial dumps shall be three percent of gross receipts computed monthly for each calendar month, and shall be payable on or before the last day of the next succeeding calendar month, together with an accounting of the gross receipts on which payment is based, and subject to an annual audit by the city within six days after the end of each calendar year.
(Prior code § 6203.5; Ord. 1470 § 5, 1978; Ord. 1482 § 1, 1978)
The gross receipts license tax payable for coin-operated vending, weighing or service machines shall be paid by January 31st of each year, except that in the year 1974 the tax shall be paid within thirty days after the effective date of the ordinance codified herein, based on the licensee's reasonable estimate of anticipated revenues, but in no case less than the actual gross receipt of the previous year. The tax shall be adjusted within thirty days after the conclusion of the year to reflect actual gross receipts.
No license fee shall be charged if at least fifteen percent of the licensee's gross receipts are for a charitable purpose. Charitable means patriotic, philanthropic, social service, welfare, benevolent, educational or civic.
(Ord. 1370 § 2, 1974; Ord. 1470 § 8, 1978; Ord. 1887 § 4, 1995)
In any case or application where the license collector is in doubt as to the proper classification or rate to apply to a particular business activity, or whenever a decision or determination by the license collector of the application of any classification or rate herein with regard to an application is disputed by a particular applicant, the license collector or the applicant involved, as the case may be, shall request a decision thereon by the city council, whereupon the city council, after listening to the evidence and points of view involved shall make a determination on the particular application, and the city council's decision shall be final.
(Prior code § 6205; Ord. 1470 § 8, 1978)
Every person claiming to be entitled to exemption from payment of any license fee provided for in this title upon the grounds that the imposition of such fee casts an unlawful burden upon his or her right to engage in commerce with foreign nations or among the several states or conflicts with the regulation of interstate commerce by the United States, shall file a verified statement with the officer or employee of the city having charge of the collection of licenses, disclosing the interstate or other character of his or her business entitling such exemption. Such statement shall state the name and location of the person for which the orders are to be solicited or secured, the name of the nearest local or state manager, if any, and his or her address, the kind of goods, or services to be delivered or performed, the place from which the same are to be shipped or forwarded or the services performed, the method of solicitation or taking orders, the location of any warehouse, factory, or plant within the state, the method of delivery, the name and location of the residence of the applicant, and any other facts necessary to establish such claim of exemption. A copy of the order blank, contract form, or other papers used by such person in taking orders shall be attached to the affidavit. If it appears that the applicant is entitled to such exemption, such applicant shall forthwith be issued a free license.
(Prior code § 6206; Ord. 1470 § 8, 1978)