Minutes 04/16/1941 - Laserfiche WebLink

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~;~o Hutct~ns offered the follow,lng amendment to the License Tsn~ O?din~uce, which was pls. ced on its first reading: -~'AN ORDINANCE TO ~2~D AND RE-ORDAZN SECTZON ~6 OF THE LI~zEB~ ~ · T~Xf ORDiNA.~CE ADOPTED APRIL 8th, 1941, SO AS TO ~3?AD A~ FOLLO~S~:,, On motion adjourned. C1 e rk. Approved ~ _ ~ ~ ~P~esident. Portsmouth, Va., April 16th, !941. present: At a called meeting of the City Coun¢il~ held Apmil 16th~ 194!, there were John P. Leigh, Lesli% T. Fox, George L. Grimes, James N.Howard, ~.R. Hutchins, Frank D. Lawrence, G. E. '~arren, Pear!e J. ~i!son, ~ud Chas. F. Harper, City Manager. The following call for the meeting was r cad: "You are reouested to attend a special meeting of the City Council, in-the Council Chamber at ~:00 P.M. on Wednesday, April 16th~ to consider reques% of the Ret~ ~ Merchants As- sociation in regard to merchants, licenses. By Order of the President." nonce. Privilege of the floor was granted anyone interested in the License Tax Ordi- A delegation from the Retail Merchants Association. ~r. Hackman presented John A. Morris, %~no asked theft the license on merchants be made the same as in 1940, and sented the following statement: ~..~,~.~_. Leigh, City Manager Ha-~per~ and ~embers~ of theCity Council: Before presenting .to you the plea~ and reasons why the City Counci~ mho~:l~ at this time increase the License ~axes o~f the Retail ~.~erchants of our city, I fi~st~ thar~k Mayor Lei~ andCity Manager namer ~or their very courteous rec~tion of last ~e~ w~en we req~esSed a hearing before a special called meeting of t~ City Council~ The ~ Mecca.ts ~ere very ~eatlv p~lisnem in o~ papers las~ We~es~y, April 8th, that the City ~d ~st~rbed ~C~n they Oouncil ~d adopted ~ ~nd- me~t to the License T~ O~nancs of 1941, abolisD~ng the former method t~t has bee~ in use for~about fourteen y~ars, ~ud adopting the flat rate of ~ on rentals and $26.00 base rate in place of Dhe fo~er equitable plan. ~hen the License Tax Ordnance was placed on its first reading, nothing said at t~t time about increasing the ~ercDmnts~ License T~. ' g_ _- ~ to yo~ o~. v~ews ~.d ~ea~ons w~y you snou~t m~e ~y increase in our. License 'z'~. ~ The merd~ts of POrt~odth ~ve always resoonded to m-, , ~ ,~, . to t~em in ~uo o~t of v · , ~ . ~ ~ and ail aDoeals m 8e ' Z _ - p - e ery *~or~hy cause presented to them oy the City ~vernment ~ud the ij zens of ~or~smou~. - The City of Portsmouth does not have any g~up of citizens more loyal and pa- triotic th~ ~he Retail ~erchants of the City, and t~ey~ ~ are always ~he measuring rod by which a p~gressive city is Judged. We always stud ready ~o give 6ur support to eye,thing that makes for the good ~d best interest of our City ~d its citizens. The ~eSail Eerchmuts L~ve passed through some very trying financial e~eriences$ during the past ten ye~s, ~ud It has only been ~in ~he past three years that they a~ getting back to normal conditions w~th the orospect of making a net profit. During all of the ~ears of the depression they did not complai~ o~ even request the City A~inistration to reduce their license t~es. Now when it s~peams t~t we have t~ opportunity to make ~od our losses of past years, ~e do not feel that the ~Oouncil should i~oose th~s additional burden on us. Re- tail Merchants take a g~eater chance 6f loss in seeking to ce. try on thei~ various lines of businesses thmn ~y other class of business men. OiQ~ol~g sSyles and the des~reB ~ ~s~es of tke public, cause us in