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The town of Lansing hasn't updated its Peddling and Solicitation law since 1966.  The law defines peddling and solicitation, requiring a license for any 'person who goes from place to place, or house to house, or who stands in the street or public place taking or offering to take orders for goods, wares, or merchandise, or for services performed in the future, or for making manufacturing, or repairing any article or thing whatsoever for future delivery.'  This month town officials decided it is time to bring the law into the 21st century.

"These laws relate back to when there was something called soliciting and something called peddling," explained Lansing Attorney Guy Krogh.  "Where I grew up a knife sharpener would roll down the road once every week.  The initial impetus for these types of laws in the '60s and '70s was a police oriented, wanting to know who was in the neighborhood, who has access to houses, who might have seen something, etc.  Then the idea came, rightly or wrongly, that it could also be used as a means of regulating commerce -- what type of business should and should not be allowed in your town."

Krogh noted that law enforcement is a key reason to have solicitation laws on the books.  By requiring a license or background check, police know who is wandering around neighborhoods.  Councilwoman Katrina Binkewicz noted there have been reports of people pedaling suspect wares and cleaning supplies in Enfield.  She also expressed a concern that a new law not prohibit girl scouts from selling cookies.

"There are the reports that have surfaced, more-so last year than this, about people supposedly pedaling, but what they're really doing is trying to figure out what are the times of day that nobody is in this house.," Krogh noted.  "In Dryden you have to get a license to pedal or solicit from the Dryden Police.  You can send to the Tompkins County Sheriff for a background check just to register who you are, what you are doing, whether you are selling a good that is lawful to sell in commerce."


Krogh said that conflicting laws make solicitation laws tricky to craft, and that exceptions to such laws can be numerous.  For example a municipality can't allow the selling of encyclopedias but prohibit the sale of comic books because governments can not discriminate based on content.  He also noted that an individual landowner's rights to exclude others from property is different from a government's rights to exclude others from private property.

"(A government) can't for instance, stop someone from going to a house and attempting to sell a bible, because there's a right of association and a freedom of speech issue there," he said.  "It's sort of the same story that you can't kick certain religious denominations off your front porch, because your front porch is an invitation for someone to visit your home."

"I have two concerns," said Lansing Supervisor Ed LaVigne.  "One is the one who goes door to door.  A lot of times they call you to sell you gutters and shingles and whatever, and they may not be on the up and up.  The other one has to do with anything done on town property, whether it be the guy who sells ice cream down at the town park, or the person who sells hot dogs in the ball fields.  You want to have continuity where these people are licensed somehow or you acknowledge that they are doing something that is a bona fide business."

Krogh said that the Town already has the right to franchise sales activities in the parks. 

"We're not allowed to lease, but we can license the use of space in the parks to provide park-like services," he said.  "So we couldn't license someone to sell cleaning supplies in the parks, but ice cream, hot dogs, sun screen, recreational tools and toys, fishing, hunting... things that are typical in a park... that you are allowed to franchise."

LaVigne said the plan is for board members to review sample laws, and craft a new law quickly.  Krogh noted Town Clerk Debbie Munson had already collected local samples of solicitation laws, and he wants to look at additional samples from larger communities.  He proposed the Board look at the samples and pull the parts they like for use in a new law.

"If you want to have a pedaling and solicitation law to register this type of activity in the Town, I think it is in need of an update, and you really need to understand how to balance the public safety issue with the 'don't interfere with lawful commerce' issue, or the right of speech or assembly, or the right of a politician who is canvassing for signatures to knock on doors."

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