The Riverside City Council last week unanimously voted to move forward with an ordinance that seeks to curb copper wire theft in the city.
“This ordinance today is a result of a lot of hard work from my office, and, of course, our folks in the city attorney’s office,” Councilmember Sean Mill, who championed the effort, said at the March 11 meeting. “We’re going to go after the carrot, which is, if we can, try to prevent people from monetizing the theft, [and] maybe they’ll stop stealing the wiring.”
The ordinance, as introduced, requires junk dealers and scrap metal recyclers to be closed overnight, ensure the people selling items are 18 or older, limit cash payouts to $10, provide daily transaction reports, notify the police department of certain sales and purchases and allow for periodic inspections.
The businesses must also obtain a city business tax certificate, minor conditional use permit, state business license from the California Department of Justice and a city junk dealer/recycler business establishment permit.
The ordinance also gives the city the ability to deny applications for establishment permits and/or revoke existing establishment permits under certain circumstances.
“If junk and scrap metal businesses within a municipality are not properly regulated, then any stolen wiring, piping or machinery can be sold to and bought from these businesses without any hindrance or penalty to the business owners,” Deputy City Attorney Jacob Castrejon said.
Castrejon said a number of municipalities — including the California cities of Stockton, Patterson and Riverbank — have adopted ordinances in an effort to curb what he called “rampant theft” of scrap metal and machinery.
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“Just like the ordinance being proposed today, the ordinances from these municipalities all address subjects like licensing requirements, required operating procedures and mechanisms to hold junk and scrap metal dealers accountable for every transaction that they enter into,” he said. “Evidently, the need for an ordinance to regulate junk and scrap metal dealers is well documented.”
Councilmember Clarissa Cervantes, who has been outspoken in her hesitation to criminalize the actions of people who are struggling to survive without addressing the underlying issues, said she supported the ordinance and said that she felt it was a “great approach.”
“I think this is the better approach I feel comfortable with, to assure that we are holding folks accountable versus just continuing to penalize the individual, because I just feel that’s just the cycle that perpetuates, and that we’re not getting to the source, and this does feel like getting better to the source,” she said.
According to City Attorney Jack Liu, it’s estimated that the ordinance would impact two businesses within the city of Riverside.
“By no means do I think that this is going to solve the problem we have, but it’s going to make it less attractive to do it in Riverside,” Mill said before making the motion to introduce the ordinance. “Hopefully our surrounding neighbors will follow suit and do the same.”
Before the ordinance can go into effect, it will have to come back to the council at a future meeting for final adoption.
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