Streetsboro City Council’s safety committee on May 11 considered tweaks to local law affecting door-to-door salespeople and solicitors.
Streetsboro’s current code is silent as to such people attempting to enter residents’ homes, but the new code would prohibit salespeople and solicitors from attempting to enter dwellings without an adult occupant’s permission. Salespeople and solicitors would also be prohibited from selling or soliciting anything other than what is specified on a registration application they are required to file with the city.
Salespeople and solicitors would have to prominently display their city-issued ID badges. They would be given a list of local residents who have signed up for Streetsboro’s Solicitor Opt-Out registry and would be prohibited from approaching those addresses.
To obtain a permit, salespeople and solicitors would have to indicate if they have any pending or open criminal charges or if they are involved in court-ordered programs in lieu of jail. Those who record such information would not receive permits. Also, anyone entering false information or fraudulent misstatements on their permit applications would face legal action for falsification.
Council member Anthony Lombardo told The Portager after the meeting that current law exempting people engaged in “charitable soliciting or personal soliciting” from needing permits “unless the activity is conducted on a door-to-door basis” needs to be clarified. Delivery people are also exempted, as are people distributing campaign literature — “unless selling or soliciting is an integral part of the activity.”
People who are authorized to conduct itinerant sales by an event sponsor during a city-authorized festival or other event held on public property are likewise exempted, as long as such activities are confined to the event premises.
Council members noted that out-of-town or out-of-state organizations sometimes drop off solicitors to go door-to-door in Streetsboro, and some do not have permits or respect off-limits areas.
Council members debated how the current and proposed changes would affect local youth-centered organizations such as scouting groups, nonprofits that send youths to canvass homes, school band members and kids’ sports teams, all of which sometimes circulate neighborhoods for fundraising purposes.
Council will also consider Lombardo’s suggestion that such organizations should obtain permits and heed the Solicitor Opt-Out registry, and whether the adult who would pull such a permit would have to accompany each youth as they make their rounds.
The idea is to enhance safety and responsibility, not to impede the organizations’ attempts to raise money, Lombardo said after the meeting.
Absent further changes, anyone violating the new rules would face a fourth-degree misdemeanor charge on first offense and a second-degree misdemeanor charge on subsequent offenses.
Council will consider the matter again on May 18.
Wendy DiAlesandro
Wendy DiAlesandro is a former Record Publishing Co. reporter and contributing writer for The Portager.