Toned-Down Resale Shop Ordinance Still Would Be Toughest Around

Wauwatosa will have the strictest standards in the area for owners of resale shops to report secondhand goods brought into their stores if a new ordinance is adopted as it's now written.

State law already requires dealers in things like secondhand jewelry, tools and musical instruments to get identification from people who sell them to pawn shops and secondhand stores. But a local ordinance can go further, and Wauwatosa appears willing to take it to the toughest standards anywhere in the area.

The proposed ordinance was approved Tuesday night by a Common Council committee after it was brought back with revisions from an .

The Police Department asked for the new ordinance in an effort to make it easier to track and recover stolen property. The new law would require daily electronic reporting of all goods bought by resellers and would require a longer hold on the merchandise before resale – up to 30 days – than demanded by current state law or any other local ordinances in the metro area.

The Community Development Committee considered the ordinance April 12, but sent it back to city staff after it was learned that a similar ordinance in Greenfield had been rescinded six months after it was adopted because of complaints from business owners that the requirements were costing them too much.

In the first draft, resellers were being asked to report any item or group of items worth more than $20; in the new version, that threshold is $50.

The original version exempted clothing, but included books; the new version exempts books as well, but also returns fur clothing to the mix.

Police asked that the ordinance require buyers to hold all reportable items for 30 days before putting them up for sale. The state now requires a seven-day hold for goods reported electronically and 21 days for goods reported on paper.

Several other municipalities nearby either have adopted their own resale ordinances or are considering them. Most impose 7- to 10-day holds; the revised version of Greenfield's overturned ordinance is the strictest, with a 14-day hold. West Allis requires only seven days.

"We want to give our residents time to sort through what might have been stolen in a burglary and for us to develop leads," said police detective Daniel Collins. "We've mulled it over and 30 days is what we've arrived at... it's a workable number for us to help our citizens recover their goods."

Collins also said that Wauwatosa ought to adopt the strictest standards so that "it never becomes a haven for pawn shops fencing stolen property."

Several aldermen said it would be hard on some resellers having to stock and store the goods for so long, but Collins replied that once the law had been in place for a while, it would create a "rolling inventory" in which goods were coming off hold as fast as new goods were coming in.

"I'm concerned about seasonal items," said Ald. Linda Nikcevich, arguing that people often wait to trade up on things like hunting, sports and recreational equipment until the season is upon them. A 30-day wait to resell those trade-ins might cause shop owners to be stuck with them.

In the end, a compromise was struck that offers more incentive for shop owners to adopt the electronic reporting standard. The committee agreed to reduce the hold period to 21 days for electronically reported property but to keep the ordinance to 30 days for those who continue to report on paper.

While the ordinance "requires" electronic reporting, it has a clause saying that any dealer who is "unable to successfully transfer the required reports electronically" must provide police with printed copies by noon the next day.

The ordinance requires dealers to get identification and a picture of the seller as well as pictures of items being sold.

An attorney for Half-Price Books, which does not have a retail store in Wauwatosa but does have a warehouse in which it stocks items for resale online, persuaded the committee to change language that could have obliged the business to report the same goods twice.

"These are goods that were bought elsewhere, in Brookfield or Greenfield, and reported there," said attorney Brian Randall, questioning a clause that referred to reporting requirements on items "in storage" or for "storage for sale."

As now written, the ordinance would oblige secondhand dealers to report used china; crystal; silverware; precious coins, metals and gems; computers and computer supplies; office equipment; small electrical appliances; electronic equipment; video games and systems; compact discs; DVDs; musical instruments and equipment; recreational and sporting equipment; fur clothing; tools; snow removal and lawn equipment; ammunition; and knives."

The ordinance is still some weeks from being adopted and could be amended further. It next goes to a first reading before the Common Council next week, where it must be referred back to committee for another hearing, then back to the full council for a final vote.