[Amended 9-24-2007 by Ord. No. 519; 3-10-2014 by Ord. No. 615]
No direct seller shall engage in direct sales within the Village without obtaining a permit for that purpose as provided herein.
As used in this article, the following terms shall have the meanings indicated:
CHARITABLE ORGANIZATION Any benevolent, philanthropic, patriotic or eleemosynary person, partnership, association or corporation for whom or which there is provided proof of tax-exempt status pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) or (4) of the United States Internal Revenue Code.
CLERK The Clerk of the Village of Waterford.
DIRECT SELLER Any person who, individually or for a partnership, association, corporation or other entity, sells goods or services or takes sales orders for later delivery of goods or services at any location other than the permanent business place or residence of the individual, partnership, association, corporation or other entity. The sale of goods and services includes donations requested or required by the direct seller for the retention of goods or services by a donor or prospective customer. Solicitors and transient merchants, as defined herein, are direct sellers.
GOODS AND/OR SERVICES Includes personal property of any kind, merchandise, materials, services of any nature, goods provided incidental to services offered or sold, products, insurance, and anything else offered for sale by a direct seller. The sale of goods includes donations required by the seller for the retention of goods or services by a donor or prospective customer.
PERIOD OF HEAVY TRAFFIC CONGESTION The periods of time between 6:00 a.m. and 9:00 a.m. and between 3:00 p.m. and 6:00 p.m. have been determined by the Village to be periods of heavy traffic congestion in the downtown area through Village observation and through the traffic studies conducted by Strand Associates, Inc., and set forth in the "Report for Wisconsin Department of Transportation, WIS 20 Alternate Route Analysis" dated August 2010.
PERMANENT MERCHANT A direct seller or one representing a direct seller who, for at least six months prior to the submission of an application pursuant to this chapter, has continuously operated an established place of business in this Village or has continuously resided in this Village and now does business from his/her residence.
SOLICITOR Any individual who, for him-/herself or any other person, organization, society, association or corporation, personally solicits money, property or financial assistance of any kind from persons other than members of such organization, society, association or corporation.
SPECIAL EVENT VENDOR A vendor, solicitor, transient merchant or direct
seller doing business at a special event under the supervision of a person or entity that holds a special event
permit issued under Chapter
188 of this Municipal Code. The special event vendor must be sponsored by the holder of the special event
permit and must receive written authorization to operate at the special event.
TRANSIENT MERCHANT Any individual who engages in the retail sale of goods at any place in this state temporarily and who does not intend to become and does not become a permanent merchant of such place. For purposes of this chapter, sale of merchandise includes a sale in which the personal services rendered upon or in connection with the merchandise constitutes the greatest part of value for the price received, but does not include a farm auction sale of personal property used on the farm or the sale of produce or other perishable products at retail or wholesale by a resident of this state.
The following shall be exempt from all provisions of this article:
A. Any person delivering newspapers, fuel, dairy products or bakery goods to regular customers on established routes.
B. Any person selling goods at wholesale to dealers in such goods.
C. Any person selling agricultural products which such person has grown.
D. Any permanent merchant or employee thereof who takes orders away from the established place of business for goods regularly offered for sale by such merchant within this county and who delivers such goods in their regular course of business.
E. Any person who has an established place of business where the goods being sold are offered for sale on a regular basis, and in which the buyer has initiated contact with, and specifically requested a home visit by such person.
F. Any person who has had, or one who represents a company which has had, a prior business transaction such as a prior sale or credit arrangement, with the prospective customer.
G. Any person offering a direct sale only to businesses. If a building contains both a business and a dwelling, the direct seller may not call on the dwelling without a permit.
H. Any person holding a sale required by statute or by order of any court and any person conducting a bona fide auction sale pursuant to law.
I. Any employee, officer or agent of a charitable organization who engages in direct sales for or on behalf of such organization, provided that there is submitted to the Clerk proof that such charitable organization is registered under § 440.42, Wis. Stats. Any charitable organization not registered under § 440.42, Wis. Stats. or which is exempt from that statute's registration requirements, unless the organization is exempt from said requirements and has a permanent location within the Village limits, shall be required to obtain a permit under this article.
J. Any person who claims to be a permanent merchant, but against whom complaint has been made to the Clerk that such person is a transient merchant; provided that there is submitted to the Clerk proof that such person has leased for at least one year or purchased the premises from which he/she is conducting business, or proof that such person has conducted such business in this Village for at least one year prior to the date complaint was made.
K. Special event vendors. Special event vendors, as defined in §
182-2, are exempt from the provisions of this article, except:
(1) Special event vendors who do not have a place of business in the Village of Waterford and prepare food on site or sell food that is not prepackaged. (Vendors selling raw produce grown in Wisconsin are exempt.)
(2) Special event vendors who are not legal residents of the State of Wisconsin or who do not have a permanent place of business in the State of Wisconsin.
L. A person engaged in activity involving the exercise of the person's rights protected under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution or Article I of the Constitution of the State of Wisconsin, or both, such as freedom of speech, the distribution or sales of printed material, or the right of assembly.
M. A person who has a current statewide peddler's license for ex-soldiers as provided in § 440.51, Wis. Stats.
Any person refused a permit may appeal the same through the appeal procedure provided by ordinance or resolution of the Village Board or, if none has been adopted, under the provisions of Wis. Stats. Chapter 68.
The Village Police Department shall report to the Clerk all convictions for violation of this article, and the Clerk shall note any such violation on the record of the direct seller convicted.
Any person convicted of violating any provision of this article shall forfeit $100 for each violation plus costs of prosecution. Each violation shall constitute a separate offense.