Ordinance committee combines gold-dealer and pawnbroker licenses, asks police review

The Lawrence Ordinance Committee on Sept. 9 merged two agenda items tied to the same business into a single application for an "old gold and secondhand dealer license" and asked city staff and the police department to complete required public-safety checks before the item goes to the full City Council.

The committee’s chair said the two documents (37625 and 37725) applied to the same applicant and business and should be combined. "Motion has been made. Second. All in favor, say aye," the chair said as members approved combining the files and withdrawing the separate pawnbroker item. The committee then voted to send the consolidated license to the full council for final consideration at the Sept. 18 meeting.

Why it matters: the checklist for the license requires contact with the police department for fingerprints and a public-safety review, and committee members said those steps were not fully documented in the application. The committee approved consolidation and a recommendation to the full council so the police can confirm fingerprinting and criminal-record (CORI) checks, and staff can correct the application paperwork before a council vote.

Most of the conversation focused on whether the police had completed the fingerprinting and CORI steps the application checklist requires. The applicant, who identified himself as Wilkins Dundas, described the business activities as buying and repairing scrap gold and, if necessary, participating in pawnbroker-style transactions. Dundas said he had submitted required documents and told the committee, "So everything they asked me for, I complete everything." The chair and other members pointed out the fingerprinting box on the checklist was not checked and asked police staff to confirm whether the department had performed fingerprinting and a public-safety review.

A police representative told the committee the department previously tracked pawnbrokers and required periodic reports, but that desk responsibilities had shifted and the speaker could not confirm whether an officer still handled the reviews. Committee members agreed to move forward administratively but to keep the item on the Sept. 18 full-council agenda so police confirmation and CORI/fingerprint documentation could be completed first.

The committee also asked clerks to rename the item in the agenda packet to "old gold and secondhand dealer license," withdraw the separate pawnbroker item (37725), and to prepare the cleaned-up packet for the council vote. Committee members repeatedly emphasized they were not taking final action that night and that the police department’s public-safety review and fingerprint/CORI clearance should be in the record before the council votes.

The committee’s motions passed on voice votes with no recorded roll-call tallies shown in the meeting transcript. The consolidated item now appears on the Sept. 18 full City Council agenda.

For readers: applicants for secondhand-dealer and pawnbroker activity should expect the city to request fingerprinting and CORI checks as part of the licensing checklist; the committee specifically asked staff to correct the checklist and obtain the police review before a final vote.