Changes to 'Junk Dealer' Law Delayed

It looks like even more changes could be coming to Kent's Second Hand Dealers law, otherwise known as the "," that was originally approved by Kent City Council in November 2011.

Council was scheduled to vote on amendments to during their meeting Wednesday night, but at the start of the meeting several business owners voiced concerns about the regulations.

The vocal opposition, both at the meeting and around town in recent months, to the amendments was enough for council to withdraw its vote on the amendments to the second hand law.

"We, I think maybe prematurely, started this whole thing with good intentions of course," Councilman John Kuhar said. "Right now we’ve got a lot of things that seem to be problems with this ordinance. We have a lot of people that are being inconvenienced."

Kuhar suggested delaying the issue so that city administrators can further review the regulations and bring them back to council at a later meeting date for more discussion. The date for that future discussion is unclear at this point.

The original law, passed in November, was meant largely for stores that deal mostly in used goods and jewelry such as , or .

Aside from the yearly $200 license fee, the law requires businesses hold goods they buy from someone for 30 days before reselling them. The new regulations also require businesses to keep records of all their transactions in second-hand articles, and those records must then be filed weekly with the .

But those rules didn't seem to sit well with business owners, who have been meeting with city administrators the past few months about possible changes to the law.

The amendment council was set to vote on Wednesday would have eliminated the $200 yearly license fee, but it also would have required antique stores and book stores — exemptions under the original law — to adhere to the regulations.

John Spindler, who runs a furniture shop at 501 Franklin Avenue, said he was told by customers that some people would no longer sell items to him if they had to fill out personal contact information — a requirement under the second hand dealers law.

"I’ve talked to people, they will not give their names," Spindler said. "They will not sell to me."

Dean Kline, the owner of on South Lincoln Street, said the inclusion of book stores would add a tremendous amount of paper work when students re-sell their textbooks at the end of a semester if the store had to file information on every used book it bought.

"Thousands of students resell their books to us each year," Kline said.

Gretchen Trout, owner of Einstein's Attic, said they already follow state guidelines for the resale of furniture, clothing and other items. Having to follow the city's second hand dealers law created unnecessary duplication, she said.

"It’s quite confusing as to what the reasoning is behind it," she said.

The reasoning behind the law was, in part, to give police a chance to track down stolen goods that may have been sold to a local business for resale, city officials have said.

Because the amendments to the law were withdrawn, the original law as passed in November remains in effect, Kent Law Director Jim Silver said.

Editor's note: A copy of the original second hand dealers ordinance passed by council in November is attached to this article.