Emmaus officials are moving to better protect residents from door-to-door salesmen who may not be legitimate.
A new law that will be up for final approval in early April also will create a “don’t knock here” list for residents who don’t want to be bothered by any salesmen coming to their doors.
The proposed ordinance got unanimous first-reading approval from six council members Monday night.
Council president Lee Ann Gilbert, the seventh member, did not vote because she was sitting in for borough Mayor Winfield Iobst, who was absent.
The ordinance will be up for final approval on April 6.
Also during the meeting, borough manager Shane Pepe announced a proposed graffiti ordinance is being changed to give property owners who are victims of graffiti more time to remove it from their properties.
That graffiti ordinance will be up for final approval by borough council on March 16.
The proposed ordinance “regulating the activities of transient merchants” will not ban door-to-door sales, just more closely regulate them.
“The idea is to protect the citizens,” said Pepe.
The ordinance also will more closely regulate other businesses that temporarily set up shop in Emmaus.
The ordinance authorizes the borough manager to create a do-not-solicit list. Residents who don’t want sales people coming to their door can ask to be put on that list.
“A lot of people in town are saying ‘I don’t want people to knock on my door,'” said Pepe.
He said all the details have not yet been worked out, but stressed that list will contain only addresses of places where solicitation should not be done — not names of the people living there.
“If a person violates that list, we can actually revoke their license,” said the manager.
Council member Brent Labenberg suggested residents also be provided with “do not solicit” stickers they can put on their doors.
Pepe said the borough has made no commitment to provide such stickers, but added: “We could. It’s a minimal cost.”
Atty. Thomas Dinkelacker, the borough solicitor, said the ordinance makes it a violation to attempt to solicit any property identified on the list. He added stickers will not have to be on a house for a violation to occur.
Pepe said the new ordinance has been nearly a year in the making.
It is being created because of an increasing number of complaints from residents, borough staff and the police department about door-to-door sales — “people knocking on your door wanting to sell you a new driveway.”
He said the borough learned one company doing door-to-door sales “had been kicked out of a bunch of states for fraud.”
In another case, a salesman had a fake driver’s license.
“We found another guy who had a warrant out for his arrest in Florida, Ohio and some other states,” said Pepe.
“It’s scary if you realize someone knocking on the door is wanted in two or three different states.”
Perhaps even more serious, two men dressed in public works department attire tried to get into an Emmaus home by saying they were from the water department and wanted to go inside to check the water meter.
But those men were wearing clothing that was not the same color as the clothes worn by Emmaus public works personnel.
Pepe said that homeowner “quickly dialed 911 and they scattered. I’m not sure if they made it out of town or not, but the police responded immediately.”
“These are guys knocking on your door,” said the borough manager. “And there’s really no regulatory program to try to address this.”
Council member Roy Anders said energy companies went door-to-door in his neighborhood last year but did not have any approval from the borough.
Pepe told council that when salesmen knock on the door of resident Kathy Yaindl, she immediately asks if they have a permit. “They say ‘of course, it’s out in the car’,” said Pepe. “She says ‘no, it’s not’.” He explained Yaindl knows because she works for him and is in charge of handing out permits in borough hall.
“She could name five or six different times just in the past year where she had that kind of thing happen.”
The proposed ordinance states that door-to-door solicitations may encourage “fraud, misrepresentation, deception and the like,” which could result in unwanted intrusions, invasions of privacy, even the possibility of bodily harm and property damage.
The ordinance will have teeth: fines ranging from $100 to $1,000 for each violation, plus court costs and attorney fees. Not paying could mean up to 30 days in jail for each violation.
Anyone wanting to do door-to-door sales in Emmaus is supposed to apply for a license.
When applying under the new ordinance, they will be required to provide a lawful driver’s license or other official form of identification with a photograph, as well phone numbers and business, home and temporary addresses.
They also will be required to provide criminal history background checks and a description of each conviction involving a non-summary offense, including when and where it occurred.
They also will be required to provide detailed information about the companies they represent.
The borough will have up to 10 business days from the time an application is submitted until it acts on a license request.
During those 10 days, the borough may investigate the applicant, his employer and the business he represents.
Pepe stressed the proposed ordinance will not infringe on any First Amendment rights, meaning religious groups and those involved in political activities “will still have the right to knock on your door. This is strictly for sales.”
The ordinance proposes a two-tiered permitting system — one for transient merchants who go door-to-door and another for those who operate “on the streets, sidewalks, rights-of-way and other public areas of the borough.”
Pepe explained license fees are not increasing for door-to-door salesmen. They will be $30 per individual.
But the ordinance will require a more expensive license for “the guy that wants to have the ice cream truck or set up a fireworks stand in town.”
Those transient businesses will pay $150 per person.
Pepe explained that is the same amount as the business privilege tax annually paid by Emmaus businesses.
Council member Wesley Barrett called the new ordinance “a good move forward,” explaining its standards will create more equitability and fairness for permanent businesses in town that could find themselves in competition with transient businesses.
Licenses will not be required for persons selling on private property with the consent of the owner, said borough solicitor Thomas Dinkelacker.
He said an example of that would be Girl Scouts selling cookies outside the CVS or Weis, with the store’s permission.
“There’s no intrusion,” said the solicitor. “It’s not causing anybody any harm.”
The proposed ordinance allows several other exemptions:
• Farmers selling their own produce
• Selling personal property if the proceeds are for a charitable or philanthropic purpose
• Manufacturers or producers of bread or bread products, meat or meat products, milk or milk products — but not ice cream or other frozen desserts
• Insurance companies and their agents or brokers
People in those categories will not be required to notify borough officials that they are going door-to-door and the do-not solicit list would not apply to them, according to Pepe.
Graffiti ordinance
Borough council gave the proposed graffiti ordinance first reading approval at its Feb. 17 meeting.
As that new law originally was proposed, the borough would have given property owners only 10 days to remove graffiti, then a second warning and another 10 days before Emmaus would pay to have the graffiti removed and bill those property owners.
Pepe said there was concern about that time period, so the proposed ordinance is being changed to give 30 days for each notice, rather than just 10, when it is advertised for final passage March 16.
Giving someone a total of 60 days is much more reasonable, said council member Brian Holtzhafer.
Resident John Donches told council it is “harsh” to require Emmaus property owners — especially homeowners —-who are victims of vandalism to make them pay to remove it.
Donches suggested the borough should pay to remove it.
But Pepe said: “If someone throws a brick through my window, who has to pay for that window if we don’t catch the guy who throw the brick? I still have to fix the window.
“It’s the same concept with somebody painting a picture of a large penis on the side of my house,” said Pepe, adding that’s exactly what has been depicted in much of the Emmaus graffiti.
“So you’re seeing five-year-old kids walk by your house, asking mommy what that picture is. Or everybody walking by the house shouldn’t be exposed to: ‘Mommy, what’s that four-letter word that starts with an f?’
“We’re seeing that. We have a couple of properties in town where that graffiti’s been on there for well over a year. It’s not a widespread problem, but it is an issue.”
When the ordinance was being developed, said Pepe, there was discussion about the fact that the clean-up burden will be put on property owners.
“The idea isn’t to try to punish anybody,” sad the borough manager. “The idea isn’t to assess a fee. The idea is to get it removed.”
Labenberg suggested the borough look into having juvenile delinquents or other “offenders of the law” remove the vandalism as community service.
Pepe said that is a great idea.
Rodale purchase a done deal
On Jan. 15, council voted 6-1 to purchase the former headquarters of Rodale, Inc., at 33 E. Minor St. for $2.95 million.
It plans to consolidate borough offices as well as its police, fire and ambulance stations in that one location on the northeast side of town.
On Monday night, borough resident Lynn Faust told council many residents have been discussing the purchase of the Rodale building “and the main question I have been hearing is: ‘Is this a done deal?’”
“No,” said Pepe. “It hasn’t been completed.”
“So it’s still being discussed?” asked Faust.
“Council voted to sign an agreement and move forward,” said Pepe.
“So basically it is a done deal,” said Faust.
“It’s not,” said Pepe.
“We have to agree to the terms of what we’re going to sign,” added Barrett.
“There’s nothing else that can be done to stop it?” asked Faust. “You’re moving forward; that would be the answer.”
“The inspections haven’t been done yet, so we don’t have all the information yet,” said Holtzhafer. “The intent of council is to move forward. Once inspections are done, we will move forward.”
“So it’s a done deal,” said Faust.
“That’s very accurate,” said Barrett. “There are still the ‘what-ifs’. But I don’t perceive that changing.”
Added Labenberg: “The only thing that would change it is if we would find something major in the inspection and we would say: ‘No, we don’t want to buy it now’.”