Chapter 5.04
BUSINESS LICENSES
Sections:
5.04.055 Threshold for fee-free license/registration.
5.04.060 Termination and renewal.
5.04.070 Building and premises.
5.04.090 Suspension or revocation.
5.04.110 Clean-up requirements.
5.04.120 Business license fees.
5.04.005 Definitions.
As used in this chapter, “business” means all vocations, occupations, professions, and activities which are conducted for private profit, directly or indirectly, and, for the purpose of this chapter, the leasing or renting of any residential unit (apartment, house, or other dwelling) shall be considered to be a business.
Engaging in Business.
A. The term “engaging in business” means commencing, conducting, or continuing in business, and also the exercise of corporate or franchise powers, as well as liquidating a business when the liquidators thereof hold themselves out to the public as conducting such business.
B. This section sets forth examples of activities that constitute engaging in business in the city, and establishes safe harbors for certain of those activities so that a person who meets the criteria may engage in de minimis (lacking in significance or importance) business activities in the city without having to pay a business license fee. The activities listed in this section are illustrative only and are not intended to narrow the definition of “engaging in business” in subsection A of this definition. If an activity is not listed, whether it constitutes engaging in business in the city shall be determined by considering all the facts and circumstances and applicable law.
C. Without being all inclusive, any one of the following activities conducted within the city by a person, or its employee, agent, representative, independent contractor, broker or another acting on its behalf, constitutes engaging in business and requires a person to register and obtain a business license:
1. Owning, renting, leasing, maintaining, or having the right to use, or using, tangible personal property, intangible personal property, or real property permanently or temporarily located in the city.
2. Owning, renting, leasing, using, or maintaining an office, place of business, or other establishment in the incorporated city limits.
3. Soliciting sales.
4. Making repairs or providing maintenance or service to real or tangible personal property, including warranty work and property maintenance.
5. Providing technical assistance or service, including quality control, product inspections, warranty work, or similar services, on or in connection with tangible personal property sold by the person or on its behalf.
6. Installing, constructing, or supervising installation or construction of real or tangible personal property.
7. Soliciting, negotiating, or approving franchise, license, or other similar agreements.
8. Collecting current or delinquent accounts.
9. Picking up and transporting tangible personal property, solid waste, construction debris, or excavated materials.
10. Providing disinfecting and pest control services, employment and labor pool services, home nursing care, janitorial services, appraising, landscape architectural services, security system services, surveying, and real estate services including the listing of homes and managing real property.
11. Rendering professional services such as those provided by accountants, architects, attorneys, auctioneers, consultants, engineers, professional athletes, barbers, baseball clubs and other sports organizations, chemists, psychologists, court reporters, dentists, doctors, detectives, laboratory operators, teachers, and veterinarians.
12. Meeting with customers or potential customers, even when no sales or orders are solicited at the meetings.
13. Training or recruiting agents, representatives, independent contractors, brokers or others, domiciled or operating on a job in the city, acting on its behalf, or for customers or potential customers.
14. Investigating, resolving, or otherwise assisting in resolving customer complaints.
15. In-store stocking or manipulating products or goods, sold to and owned by a customer, regardless of where sale and delivery of the goods took place.
16. Delivering goods in vehicles owned, rented, leased, used, or maintained by the person or another acting on its behalf.
D. If a person, or its employee, agent, representative, independent contractor, broker or another acting on the person’s behalf, engages in no other activities in or with the city but the following, it need not register and obtain a business license:
1. Meeting with suppliers of goods and services as a customer.
2. Meeting with government representatives in their official capacity, other than those performing contracting or purchasing functions.
3. Attending meetings, such as board meetings, retreats, seminars, and conferences, or other meetings wherein the person does not provide training in connection with tangible personal property sold by the person or on its behalf. This provision does not apply to any board of directors member or attendee engaging in business such as a member of a board of directors who attends a board meeting.
4. Renting tangible or intangible property as a customer when the property is not used in the incorporated city limits.
5. Attending but not participating in a “trade show” or “multiple vendor event.” Persons participating at a trade show shall review the city’s trade show or multiple vendor event ordinances if relevant.
6. Conducting advertising through the mail.
7. Soliciting sales by phone from a location outside the incorporated city limits.
E. A seller located outside the city merely delivering goods into the city by means of common carrier is not required to register and obtain a business license; provided, that it engages in no other business activities in the incorporated city limits. Such activities do not include those in subsection D of this definition.
The city expressly intends that engaging in business include any activity sufficient to establish nexus for purposes of applying the license fee under the law and the constitutions of the United States and the state of Washington. Nexus is presumed to continue as long as the taxpayer benefits from the activity that constituted the original nexus generating contact or subsequent contacts. (Ord. 1491 §1(part), 2018; Ord. 1421 §2(part), 2012)
5.04.010 License required.
All businesses are required to be licensed. No person shall operate a business within the city without a license from the city clerk. (Ord. 1421 §2(part), 2012)
5.04.020 Applications.
Applications for all licenses shall be submitted to the city clerk on the form provided. (Ord. 1421 §2(part), 2012)
5.04.025 Issuance of license.
The city clerk shall issue said license within ten business days after the submittal of the application, or shall notify the applicant in writing why a license may not be issued. (Ord. 1421 §2(part), 2012)
5.04.030 Forms.
Forms for all licenses and applications therefor shall be prepared and kept on file by the city clerk. (Ord. 1421 §2(part), 2012)
5.04.040 Signatures.
Each approved license shall bear the signature of the city clerk. (Ord. 1421 §2(part), 2012)
5.04.050 Investigations.
Within forty-eight hours of the time of the receipt of an application for a license where ordinances of the city necessitate an inspection or investigation before the issuance of such license, the city clerk shall refer such application to the proper city department(s) for making such investigation. The person charged with the duty of making the investigation shall make a report thereon, favorable or otherwise, within seven business days after receiving the application or a copy thereof. (Ord. 1421 §2(part), 2012)
5.04.055 Threshold for fee-free license/registration.
Threshold with Fee-Free License/Registration-Only Option. For purposes of the license by this chapter, any person or business whose annual value of products, gross proceeds of sales, or gross income of the business in the incorporated city is equal to or less than two thousand dollars and who does not maintain a place of business within the city shall submit a business license registration to the clerk-treasurer through the city’s business license application process. The threshold does not apply to regulatory license requirements or activities that require a specialized permit. (Ord. 1491 §1(part), 2018)
5.04.060 Termination and renewal.
All annual licenses shall terminate on the thirty-first day of December of each year and be renewed on the first day of January of each year, except that licenses for residential rental units shall be required commencing March 1st and shall terminate on the last day of February of each year and be renewed on the first day of March of each year.
The city clerk shall mail to licensees of the city a notice of expiration of the license held by the licensee at least thirty days prior to the date of such expiration; provided, that a failure to send out such notice, or the failure of the licensee to receive it, shall not excuse the licensee from a failure to obtain a new license, or a renewal thereof, nor shall it be a defense in an action for operation without a license. (Ord. 1421 §2(part), 2012)
5.04.070 Building and premises.
Before a license may be issued, the applicant must certify that to the best of their knowledge and belief the premises and building where the business is to be conducted are in substantial compliance with the requirements of the city ordinances, including but not limited to the zoning ordinance, fire code, building code, plumbing code, electrical code, and other applicable ordinances or regulations. (Ord. 1421 §2(part), 2012)
5.04.080 Inspections.
Whenever inspections of the premises used for or in connection with the operation of a licensed business are provided for or required by ordinance, or are reasonably necessary to secure compliance with any ordinance provision or to detect violations thereof, it shall be the duty of the licensee, or the person in charge of the premises to be inspected, to admit thereto, for the purpose of making the inspection, any officer or employee of the city who is authorized or directed to make such inspection at any reasonable time that admission is requested. (Ord. 1421 §2(part), 2012)
5.04.090 Suspension or revocation.
A. Suspension or Revocation. Any license may be suspended or revoked at any time during the term of such license for any violation by the licensee of any of the provisions of the Goldendale Municipal Code related to the license, the subject matter of the license, or to the premises occupied; such suspension or revocation may be in addition to any fine imposed. Reasons for suspension or revocation include, but are not limited to, any one or more of the following reasons, when determined to exist after investigation by city staff.
B. Reasons for Suspension. Any business license may be suspended when, after investigation by city staff, any one or more of the following reasons are determined to exist:
1. Failure to comply with any of the terms and conditions on which a license or permit is issued;
2. The licensee or any of its employees, officers or agents, while acting within the scope of their employment, violates or fails to comply with any federal, state, or local law or regulation, including but not limited to any provision of the Goldendale Municipal Code, and including but not limited to the commission or acquiescence or permitting of any unlawful activity on the business premises. Conviction or plea of guilty in the Goldendale municipal court or any court of record shall be deemed conclusive as to whether such a violation or failure to comply has occurred;
3. When reasonably necessary in the interest of protection of the public health, safety, peace or welfare, to include, but not be limited to, when a license holder is conducting business in a facility without public utilities such as water service, sewer service or refuse collection service;
4. When a business becomes an instrument of or a cover for public disorder, crime, or other danger to public safety, morals or health;
5. The licensee has caused or permitted a public nuisance to exist;
6. The licensee’s continued conduct of the business for which the license was issued has or will result in a danger to the public health, safety or welfare;
7. The place of business does not conform to city ordinance;
8. The license is being used for a purpose different from that for which it was issued.
C. Suspension Not to Exceed Sixty Days. If a determination is made that licensee has violated any of the provisions of this title or any of the provisions of the Goldendale Municipal Code, such licensee shall be subject to a suspension not to exceed five days for the first offense, thirty days for the second offense, or sixty days for the third offense, as the case may be, as determined by the clerk.
D. Reasons for Revocation. Any business license shall be revoked when, after investigation by city staff, any one or more of the following reasons are determined to exist:
1. Illegal issuance of the permit;
2. Issuance of the permit without authority or power;
3. Issuance under an unauthorized ordinance or under an ordinance illegally adopted;
4. Issuance in violation of an ordinance;
5. When the business license was procured by fraud or false representation of facts;
6. When issued through mistake or inadvertence;
7. When a license application contains false or misleading statements, evasions or suppressions of material facts.
E. Reasons for Immediate Revocation. Any business license shall be revoked when, after investigation by city staff, any one of the following reasons is determined to exist:
1. A fourth violation of any reason for suspension stated in subsection B of this section, within five years of the first suspension of the license;
2. Loss of any insurance required by this title;
3. Anything which causes a threat to safety or persons or property.
F. Notice. The clerk shall mail written notice of such determination to the licensee at the address stated on the license application.
G. Appeal of Suspension or Revocation. The licensee may obtain an appeal of such suspension or revocation by appealing in writing to the city council within ten days of the date of mailing of such notice. Such appeal must state the grounds upon which the licensee is appealing.
H. Hearing by City Council. The city council shall hold a hearing to gather facts upon which to make a decision.
I. Notice of Hearing. The city council shall mail written notice of this decision to the licensee at the address stated on the license application.
J. City Council Decision--Appeal. The decision of the city council shall be final, but appealable to the appropriate courts only upon grounds of being arbitrary or capricious. Such notice of appeal shall be given within ten days of the date of the decision of the city council. (Ord. 1421 §2(part), 2012)
5.04.100 Posting license.
It shall be the duty of any person conducting a licensed business in the city to keep his license posted in a prominent place on the premises used for such business at all times, except that peddlers, hawkers and transients shall carry their license on their persons at all times when conducting their business and shall display it upon request. (Ord. 1421 §2(part), 2012)
5.04.110 Clean-up requirements.
Each business shall keep the exterior premises and public sidewalk adjacent to the business reasonably clean of all litter and trash. Such litter or trash shall be deposited in garbage containers as required by Title 8. (Ord. 1421 §2(part), 2012)
5.04.120 Business license fees.
A. All businesses shall pay a fee of sixty dollars.
B. Except as noted, the fee shall be for one year and shall be prorated to the next renewal date; provided, however, that the prorated fee shall be not less than thirty dollars.
C. A late payment penalty of ten percent shall be added to any annual license fee not paid within sixty days after the date the license fee is due; and an additional penalty of ten percent for each succeeding month of delinquency. Failure to pay the license fee and penalty within an additional ninety days after the date the license fee is due thereafter shall constitute a civil infraction, punishable as set forth in Chapter 1.20, Civil Infractions. Businesses that operate on a seasonal basis such as ice cream vendors and out-of-town vendors that wait to renew until they perform work within the city limits shall be exempt from the late penalty fee. (Ord. 1421 §2(part), 2012)
5.04.130 Master license.
Community Events on City Parks, Streets or Property. Any organization sponsoring a community event may obtain a master business license. Business or fundraising activities which are conducted at a community event shall not be required to obtain a business license if registered with and operating under the master license of the sponsoring community organization. A community organization shall not be required to obtain a license if the event is conducted only by its members and other for-profit vendors are not included in the event. Businesses not registered with the sponsoring organization shall be licensed in accordance with Section 5.04.120. For purposes of this section, a “community event” shall mean any event sponsored by a community organization. Such master license shall be valid only for community events which are conducted on city property with the prior approval of the city administrator. The fee for the master license shall be sixty dollars per event or two hundred dollars per year. (Ord. 1421 §2(part), 2012)