A committee in Lewes takes the first step towards rewriting an antiquated city ordinance covering door-to-door soliciting and street peddling.
The idea to reexamine the code started with city staff who wanted more clarity on what city law does and doesn’t allow. Greg Cirillo, a member of the city’s Ordinance Review Ad Hoc Committee, took a look at the code and told the committee changes are definitely in order.
“What we have on the books, I don't think it does what it's even intended to do,” he said.”
Cirillo said the current ordinance is full of antiquated language that needs to be cleaned up.
“One unique point is it actually, within the same code provision, refers to a website and a horse-drawn carriage, which gives you an idea of the range and the time gap,” he said.
The code also has provisions that seem to make little sense in 21st Century America, like exemptions for people selling fish, oysters, milk, or cream. There are also changes needed in punishments for violating the ordinance.
“It's got people going to prison for peddling. We have to take that stuff out,” he said. “You might want to look at simplifying the fines.”
But, Cirillo warned, this would likely be a more complicated matter than just striking some sections and changing a few words. He suggested what he characterized as a “clean-sheet rewrite” of the code section. That could take the form of a permit requirement for peddling and door-to-door sales, with some exemptions for things like political canvassing and other protected First Amendment activities, as well as an exemption for minors, like Girl Scouts and school groups raising money.
If that were to happen, committee member Barbara Curtis said she wanted to see a stricter set of regulations concerning door-to-door sales.
“From my standpoint, I think only the First Amendment protected activity and the scouts and other minors should be allowed without permit,” Curtis said.
Cirillo suggested that the process should start by answering questions about permitting.
“I think it starts with the question of, do we want to make everything subject to a permit and leave it to the permitting authorities to decide what the conditions are? Or do we want to make some things automatically permitted or some things automatically prohibited?” he said.
Some members of the committee noted that times have changed, and the days of door-to-door vacuum cleaner and encyclopedia salesmen have gone by the wayside. But Curtis said that she still gets unwelcome visitors.
“The Glo Fiber people knocking on my door, and also I have tradesmen, craftsmen like roofers and people who work on siding, they'll knock on the door,” she said. “And I'd really prefer that they not do it without a permit, because they can be kind of pushy.”
Glo Fiber has a contract with the city to install fiber optic internet, but city building official Jon Ward said that, while the company is allowed to hang door hangers to let people know they were installing cable nearby, it shouldn’t be knocking on doors.
Cirillo proposed moving ahead and starting to gather data to support a potential rewrite.
“My thought was we would do research with the police,” he suggested. “I'd also like to talk to whoever in the city issues permits and see how they do it, and then just start coming up with drafts that we can throw around.”
The committee agreed to move forward with a more in-depth examination of the peddling ordinance, as well as a long-term look at the code for more outdated language and provisions.
