Broken Arrow City Council
Meeting of: 09-06-2016
To: Mayor and City Council
From: Office of the City Attorney
Title:
title
Consideration, discussion, and possible preview of an ordinance amending Chapter 7, Business Regulations and Licenses, Article V. Pawnbrokers, Section 7-89. - Pawnbroker defined; Section 7.90. - State license required; Section 7-91. - Regulatory fee; Section 7-92. - Reserved; Section 7-95. - Required information; material; Section 7-89. - Place of business; Reserving Section 7-103. - Records required; amending Sec. 7-105. - Reports to police; Section 7-106. - Inspections; Section 7-112. - Penalties; adding regulations for Precious Metals and Gems, Section 7-152. - Definitions; Section 7-153. - State license; Section 7-154. - Records to be maintained; Section 7-155. - Certain goods to be kept by Dealer: Time and Procedure; Section 7-156. - Reports of Theft of Precious Metal; and Section 7-157. - Penalty; repealing all ordinances to the contrary and declaring an emergency
End
Background:
City staff has recently reviewed the State Statutes Regulating Pawn Brokers and Precious Metals and Gems Brokers and City Ordinances regulating the same. After reviewing Section 7-89 of the Broken Arrow Code of Ordinances, staff recommends that the definitions as used in Chapter 7 should be clarified, specifically, the term Pawn Broker and Pawn Transaction. Additionally, pursuant to State Law, Section 7-92 should be amended to add eligibility requirements to obtain a pawnshop license and Section 7-95 should be amended to require applicants to register a State License with the City. Section 7-106, which regulates inspections by the police department, should also be amended to adopt State Law requirements for inspections of pawnbroker transactions. Section 7-112 is being requested to amended to become in compliance with State Law regarding the penalties that can be imposed for violations of these sections.
Additionally, City Ordinances do not currently regulate Precious Metals and Gems Brokers. Staff is recommending that Section 152 through 157 be adopted to regulate these types of businesses and to be in compliance with State Law.
Furthermore, State Law requires all pawnbrokers to report within 3 days to the chief of police any buy transaction or pawn transaction. Currently, many pawnbroker businesses are not reporting such transactions within the required period and thus, detectives are going to each pawnbroker business in order to get these transaction receipts. In order to streamline this process, the Police Department recently purchased a website reporting system in which pawnbrokers would be able to report to the chief of police within three days of any buy transaction or pawn transaction through an online system. The online system is available to every pawnbroker business at no charge. Section 7-105 is being requested to be amended to require pawnbrokers to report transactions through the website reporting system.
Cost: None
Prepared By: Beth Anne Wilkening, City Attorney
Reviewed By: Assistant City Manager - Administration
Police Department
Approved By: Michael L. Spurgeon, City Manager
Attachments: Preview Ordinance
Recommendation:
Preview Ordinance and set for adoption.