Batavia council snuffs proposal to raise vendor license fee from $25 to $200

A proposal by the city clerk to raise the solicitor and vendor license fee from $25 to $200 failed to fly with city council members Monday night.

While some increase is appropriate, council members said, and other fee hikes met no opposition, the solicitor increase might discourage some street sellers.

"My first reaction was a very strong concern that local vendors are part of our community and probably something like this could present difficulties to some of those vendors," Councilman John Canale said.

Councilman Brooks Hawley called the increase excessive. He said he could support an increase to $100.

So did Councilman Pierluigi Cipollone.

"It's a huge jump," Cipollone said. "Driving in here tonight I was thinking about the hot dog vendor who was here this summer. He makes maybe 10 percent or 20 percent on a sale, so he would have to sell 250 hot dogs and a Coke to recoup (the fee)."

A fee half of that proposed might be more manageable for such a vendor, Cipollone said.

Under city ordinances, any solicitor or vendor who wants to hawk wares or food on the sidewalk or go door-to-door must apply and pay for a license.

Batavia has the lowest fee of any small city in Western New York, said City Clerk Heidi Parker (inset photo), at least among the dozen or so she surveyed. Typically, the fee is at least $300 and one municipality charges $500 while another charges $25 per day.

Raising the rate would help address some problems with door-to-door solicitors, Parker said.

"We're hoping that by increasing the fee, vendors will take their actions more seriously," Parker said. "At $25, if you lose your license it's not a big deal, but at $200, we hope vendors will be more respectful of the people they're visiting."

Councilwoman Rose Mary Christian said she is very concerned about the conduct of some solicitors, but is also concerned about the people who seem to go door-to-door posing as solicitors but might have more nefarious activities in mind.

She recalled calling the police on one suspicious character in her neighborhood over the summer, but when police arrived within minutes of her call, he couldn't be found.

Her request: That solicitors be required to wear and display a conspicuous ID badge.

"I want it pinned right on them," Christian said.

In the past year, Parker said, 27 vendors and solicitors paid for licenses and total revenue was $675. At $200, she said, only four would need to pay for a license for the city to maintain close to the same level of revenue on the licenses.

No decision was made at Monday's conference meeting. Parker will bring back a revised proposal at a future meeting.

The council expressed no opposition to raising the tax search fee -- for real estate transactions to find delinquent taxes and utility bills -- from $5 to $10, or the bounce check fee from $15 to $20.

On the tax search fee, Parker said, "It's not a charge to taxpayers. It's a fee for service."

The tax search fee hasn't been raised in 15 years and Batavia has, and will still have, the lowest rate among the municipalities Parker surveyed. Total revenue will rise about $1,500.

On bounced checks, the raise in revenue will be minimal since the city receives very few overdraft notices each year.