5.05.140 Revocation of license.
(1) The City Manager may revoke any license issued under this title after it has been issued, or any person’s privilege to do business in the City of Pasco, when after investigation by City staff, any one or more of the following grounds are found to exist:
(a) Illegal issuance of the permit.
(b) Issuance of the permit without authority or power.
(c) Issuance under an unauthorized ordinance or under an ordinance illegally adopted.
(d) Issuance in violation of an ordinance.
(e) When the business license was procured by fraud or false representation of facts.
(f) When issued through mistake or inadvertence.
(g) When the license application contains false or misleading statements, evasions or suppression of material facts.
(2) Other grounds for revocation in addition to those stated in subsection (1) of this section are:
(a) Substantial violations of the terms and conditions on which a license or permit is issued.
(b) Violation of ordinances or laws authorizing or regulating the license or permit, or regulating the business, activity or thing for which it is issued.
(c) Conviction of infractions or offenses under such an ordinance or law.
(d) Wrongful behavior of a substantial character and of a public concern in relation to the licensed activity.
(e) When reasonably necessary in the interest of protection of the public health, safety, peace or welfare.
(f) When a business becomes an instrument of or a cover for public disorder, crime, or other danger to public safety, morals or health.
(3) Before any such license or licensing privilege shall be canceled or revoked the holder of such license or privilege shall be given two weeks’ notice of a hearing to be held before the City Hearing Examiner, at which time the applicant must show cause why such license and privilege to do business should not be revoked. The notice to be given the applicant must state the grounds and the reasons for the forfeiture and revocation and also the date set for the hearing thereon; provided, however, the City Manager may deny the issuance of a license or immediately revoke the license of any business for any of the grounds set forth, when any such license has been issued for a period of less than 72 hours; any such determination by the City Manager shall be deemed conclusive unless the applicant appeals to the Hearing Examiner within five calendar days of notice of the revocation. Pending any such appeal to the Hearing Examiner, the business license shall remain revoked or denied.
(4) The decision of the Hearing Examiner to revoke a business license or licensing privilege, or to sustain the decision of the City Manager revoking a license on an appeal, shall be supported by written findings of fact in support of the decision. Each decision of the Hearing Examiner to revoke a business license and/or the business licensing privilege shall set forth a minimum period of time for which the business license and/or business licensing privilege is to be revoked. The minimum time period for the duration of the revocation of a business license and/or the business licensing privilege shall be one year unless the Hearing Examiner determines that extraordinary circumstances exist justifying a shorter period of time, in which case the justification for such decision shall be set forth by the Hearing Examiner in writing. In determining the minimum time of the revocation during which reinstatement of a business license and/or business licensing privilege shall not be considered, the Hearing Examiner will consider among other factors:
(a) The degree of the person’s culpability and the conduct leading to the revocation;
(b) The criminal nature of the conduct, if any;
(c) The conduct’s effect on the community; and
(d) The licensee’s acceptance of the responsibility for their actions or conversely their failure to accept responsibility or admit their wrongdoing. [Ord. 4347, 2017; Ord. 2922 § 1, 1993; Ord. 2675 § 1, 1988; Ord. 2569 § 1, 1985; Code 1970 § 5.04.110; Code 1954 § 3-1.64.]