Minutes - Council - 05/27/2008 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Case #2: Consider Hearing Examiner's Recommendation Relating to Pawnbroker License at 6101 Highway 10: City Attorney Goodrich reviewed the staff report and noted that the Police Department has alleged that Ralph's Gun and Pawn was in violation of various provisions of City Code and sought to have their license revoked. He noted that on January 22, 2008, the Council authorized a hearing examiner to consider revocation of the license. He stated that the hearing was held on March 3,2008 with Michael Scott serving as the hearing examiner. He stated there was a court reporter present and a transcript of the hearing was distributed to the Council at an earlier meeting. He stated that he suggests the Council consider three separate motions, rather than one. He stated that the possible motions would be to consider adoption of the findings of fact, the conclusions, and the sanctions. He stated that the hearing examiner made detailed findings of facts and recommended that the pawnbroker's license be revoked. He stated that tonight is not a public hearing and due process had already been given to Mr. Jerdin, the owner of Ralph's Gun and Pawn. He stated that the Council could hear comments and ask questions, but noted that this is not the time to rehash the facts of the case. Todd Jerdin and Paul Bogart appeared before the Council. Mr. Bogart stated that he is a friend of Mr. Jerdin's and has been helping him with the computer system at the shop. Mr. Jerdin stated that the facts and findings are true and that he made mistakes. He stated that his intent was not to do anything illegal, but he inherited the business and a computer system that he didn't know very much about. He stated that he was supposed to have an employee that stayed on and helped train him, but that didn't work out. He stated that Mr. Bogart has helped him work most of the bugs out of the system. Mr. Bogart stated that one of the violations was illegal activity and he noted that he was working on the computer the day that some criminals came in and tried to deal stolen merchandise. He stated that Mr~ Jerdin phoned the police and he helped by talking to the criminal to delay them so the police could get there. He stated that he did not think all of the pertinent information came out through this process and noted that he doesn't think Mr. Jerdin represented himself well early on in this process. He stated that he likes to buy used tools and firearms and went to Ralph's because it gives him a place to legally transfer firearms and make sure they are sold correctly to people with background checks. He stated that he went into Ralph's for this purpose and began a conversation with Mi. Jerdin, in which he asked if he knew anything about computers and explained some of the problems he had been having. Mr. Bogart stated that he has 20-25 years of experience and agreed to work with him. He stated that the more information they entered into the system, the more error reports they got back. He stated that some of this dated back to 2005, so they found that the former owner was also not entering things correctly either. He stated that they have been working with Mary Pederson at APS to help reduce their errors. He stated that he feels it is a pretty clean system now and they are creating less and less errors. He stated that he did not think the problems with the computer system came out during the hearing process. Mayor Gamec stated that this type of business is susceptible to illegal activity and he doesn't recall having any problems with the previous owner. City Council / May 27, 2008 Page 6 of 15