Proposed Amendment to the Vancouver Charter

POLICY REPORT
LICENSING

Date: April 29, 1999

Author/Local: CMK/7513

RTS No. 702
CC File No. 114

P&E: May 6, 1999

TO: Standing Committee on Planning and Environment

FROM: Manager, Co-ordinated Enforcement, City Manager's Office, in consultation with the Director of Legal Services, the City Clerk and Chief License Inspector

SUBJECT: Proposed Amendment to the Vancouver Charter - Business License Hearings.

RECOMMENDATION

A. THAT the City Manager and the Director of Legal Services be instructed to request and pursue passage of an amendment to the Vancouver Charter to permit the delegation of Council authority to grant, refuse, revoke or suspend business licenses and to hear appeals from license suspensions to committees of three Council members whose decision regarding business licenses would be final.

CONSIDERATION

If Council decides not to approve committees of three Council members as set out in Recommendation A, Council may wish to consider the following alternatives:

B. 1 The appointment of three Council members for a term of one year.

OR

B. 2 The appointment of three Council members for a term of three years.

CITY MANAGER'S COMMENTS

The current show cause procedure in which all members of Council participate has been time-consuming and onerous. Many hearings have extended beyond one sitting. Rescheduling can be difficult due to availability of business license holders and Councillors. Many hearings have extended over several weeks, delaying critical decisions. By approving Recommendation A, members of Council can be selected to conduct license hearings on the basis of availability. Therefore the City Manager RECOMMENDS approval of Recommendation A.

COUNCIL POLICY

There is no applicable Council policy.

PURPOSE

The purpose of this report is to propose that Business License Review Committees be established to conduct business license hearings and to seek Council approval of that proposal and of amendments to the Vancouver Charter to facilitate the creation of such committees. The intent of such a legislative amendment would be to facilitate scheduling of business license hearings by providing that three-member committees could conduct business license hearings and appeals.

DISCUSSION

Sections 275, 277 and 278 of the Vancouver Charter give Council the power to grant, refuse, revoke or suspend a business license, to hear appeals from suspensions by the Chief License Inspector and to hear recommendations from the Chief License Inspector that business licenses be suspended or revoked. The Vancouver Charter provides that license holders must be given an opportunity to be heard before Council decides to suspend or revoke a business license. As a result, business license hearings must presently take place before a majority of Council members. Because of evidentiary and procedural requirements, business license hearings in front of Council can be lengthy. In many recent cases, hearings have taken considerably longer than the two hours allotted. Rescheduling adjournment hearings places a further burden on members of Council. Difficulties in scheduling hearings can lead to delays in dealing with problem businesses.

For some time, City staff have been exploring the possibility of creating a smaller, separate licensing board or licensing panel which could conduct business license hearings. City staff have explored a number of options, including the concept of a separate licensing board, similar to the Board of Variance, with members appointed by Council and the Province. Another option, which staff believe may be preferable to the more cumbersome model of the Board of Variance, is a committee of three Council members who would preside at each license hearing or appeal. It is envisaged that this committee could make a final decision regarding business licenses. The decision of the committee would be reviewable by means of judicial review in Supreme Court, as Council decisions are now.

To establish such a committee, it would be necessary to amend the Vancouver Charter. Preliminary inquiries with the Ministry of Municipal Affairs indicate that the Province would be most receptive to a proposal to make legislative changes to the Vancouver Charter

if that proposal was to establish a separate Business License Review Committee consisting of Council members, rather than a separately appointed board.

Before Council could create a Business License Review Committee, the Vancouver Charter would have to be amended to give Council the power to delegate its license authority to a committee of Council members and to provide that the decision of such a committee would be final, without the necessity of a report back to Council.

At this point, inquiries made by the City Manager's Office to the Ministry of Municipal Affairs indicate that the Provincial Government would probably react favourably to a request to amend the Vancouver Charter as noted above, particularly given recent concerns regarding problem businesses in the Downtown Eastside and the burden that addressing problem businesses creates for Council and City staff.

Alternatives/Options

There are a number of ways that a Business License Review Committee could be configured. Staff have considered the following options:

(a) a committee of three Council members appointed to deal with each business license hearing, with Council empowered to establish more than one such committee at the same time;

(b) a committee of three Council members appointed for a one-year term to deal with all business license hearings;

(c) a committee of three Council members appointed for a three-year term to deal with all business license hearings.

The recommendation of City staff would be that Council request an amendment to the Vancouver Charter to give Council the power to establish Business License Review Committees consisting of three Council members and the authority to establish more than one such committee at the same time. Council would then have the option to establish up to three committees which could conduct hearings simultaneously, in order to deal with any backlog of hearings or any licensing problems Council wishes to deal with expeditiously.

CONCLUSION

Business license hearings and appeals can be time-consuming and cumbersome for busy Council members. A system of Business License Review Committees, each consisting of three Council members, could alleviate the pressure on Council as a whole and eliminate problems with license hearing backlogs. The provincial government appears to be prepared to go forward with the necessary changes to the Vancouver Charter to empower Council to create such licensing committees, should Council decide to request those changes.

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