Changes to Sumter County business license ordinance lessen barriers to reentry for those with convictions

Late last year, City of Sumter officials tightened the grounds under which a business license could be denied, revoked or suspended as it relates to people with past convictions.

This decision sparked conversation at the county level, too, but county leaders took a different approach, and now Sumter County's business license ordinance has looser grounds under which a business license could be denied, revoked or suspended as it relates to locals with past criminal convictions.

Sumter County Council unanimously approved on third and final reading changes to the county's business license ordinance, including changing 10 years to three years and altering the language to clarify the types of offenses that could prevent someone from having a business license from the county. Changes also clarify that the wrongdoing done within the last three years must be directly related to the type of business the applicant or licensee wishes to operate.

The amended ordinance reads as follows:

"The license official may deny a license to an applicant when the license official determines [that the] applicant, licensee, prior licensee or the person in control of the business has been convicted within the last three years of a crime directly related to a business enterprise for which the license is sought; The applicant, licensee, prior licensee or the person in control of the business has engaged in nuisance activities directly related to a business enterprise for which the license is sought in the County or in another jurisdiction; The applicant, licensee or the person in control of the business has actual knowledge or notice of any person or employee of the licensee that has committed a crime on the business premises or has permitted any person or employee of the licensee to engage in the unlawful sale of merchandise or prohibited goods on the business premises and has not taken remedial measures necessary to correct such activity."

Before these changes, the county's ordinance allowed the license official to deny, suspend or revoke a business license if the applicant or licensee has been convicted of a business-related crime within the past 10 years. It also stated that a business license may be revoked, suspended or denied if the applicant or business owner "has engaged in an unlawful activity or nuisance related to the business or to a similar business in the county or in another jurisdiction."

Before the City of Sumter passed its amendment to the ordinance in September, the city could deny, suspend or revoke a business license if the applicant or licensee had been convicted of a business-related crime within the past 10 years, but now, after the change, crimes unrelated to the business could also bar someone from keeping or applying for a business license in the City of Sumter.

Verbiage that could bar people with criminal convictions from owning and operating businesses is not found in every county in the state, but there are business-related hurdles such people face throughout the country as is.

According to the RAND Corp. (its name was derived from the phrase "research and development"), a nonprofit and nonpartisan organization that challenges public policy to promote equal rights, business owners with criminal records already struggle to benefit from federal assistance programs.

For example, the Paycheck Protection Program, which was a part of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act, helped businesses with less than 500 employees survive the pandemic, but small business owners with criminal records were ineligible to receive money from it at first.

Then federal courts ruled this stipulation unlawful, according to an article from the American Civil Liberties Union.

In short, business owners with criminal convictions are having to overcome hurdles on a federal level and at the local level because of ordinances such as the ones the City of Sumter and Sumter County have that could bar some Sumterites with criminal convictions from having a business license, though county officials have now lessened the barriers.

1.2 million South Carolinians have criminal convictions, according to data from paperprisons.org, and not all of them live in municipalities with this kind of ordinance, but many do.

City of Sumter Mayor David Merchant and Sumter County Council Chairman Jim McCain have confirmed that neither the county nor the city has had any business license denials.

As of late February, the number of active businesses in the City of Sumter is 3,868, and in the county, there are 3,066 active businesses.

In fact, both ordinances do not require that the city nor county deny a business license on account of a recent criminal conviction.

The language of the ordinances as they stand today does provide, however, the city and county with the option to deny, revoke or suspend a business license on account of a recent criminal conviction.

City attorney Danny Crowe pointed out that the ordinance uses the word "may" instead of "shall" when it says that the "license official may deny a license to an applicant," so it still gives room for Sumterites with recent criminal convictions to be approved to operate businesses in city limits, according to earlier reporting.

Sumter County's business license ordinance also uses "may" and not "shall."

In short, these ordinances that could bar Sumterites with recent criminal convictions from owning businesses do exist, but as of now, they have not prevented any Sumterites with recent criminal convictions that have applied for business licenses from operating businesses.

Both the county and the city state in their ordinances that anyone who is denied, revoked or suspended of a business license has the right to appeal to council.