Carpentersville wants to crack down on unwanted solicitors

The same soliciting law that’s designed to prevent people you don’t know from knocking on your door soon may be extended in Carpentersville to prevent them from leaving unwanted fliers and related materials behind.

Tuesday, Carpentersville trustees will consider adding teeth to the village’s ordinance to bar people from leaving handbills on public property and from distributing it to homes with “No Soliciting” or “No Trespassing” signs.

If the change is approved, Carpentersville would join West Chicago and Aurora in halting curtailing handbillers from leaving items at “No Soliciting” sites.

In September, Carpentersville trustees came to a general consensus about language dealing specifically with handbill distributors. Those in violation would first receive a warning, then a yet-to-be-determined fine. It would be up to residents to report and prove violations.

Carpentersville peddlers must now purchase a $40 monthly solicitor’s license from the village in order to do business. Violators face fines ranging from $5 to $500.

Police Cmdr. Timothy Bosshart said the matter is not a major issue in the village. The notion of bolstering the law was prompted by a pair of residents who complained about people passing out handbills, Village Attorney James Rhodes said.

How West Chicago, Aurora do it

Last year, in response to complaints about free, unwanted newspapers being thrown on residents’ driveways, West Chicago added an amendment to its solicitation law that included distributing leaflets. The city also started selling its own “No Soliciting” signs for $3.10. Residents also can download signs from the city’s website.

West Chicago initially tracked those who bought them to verify that those who complained about the activity had a “No Soliciting” sign, city spokeswoman Rosemary Mackey said. Officials later stopped keeping tabs on who bought the signs, due to the lack of demand for them, Mackey said.

“We haven’t had any issues, so we’re not collecting the names and people don’t have to register,” Mackey said.

In 2006, the Aurora City Council overhauled its ordinance to deal specifically with distributing leaflets because residents were receiving unsolicited materials that marketing firms or landscaping companies had thrown into residents’ yards, whether they had a “No Soliciting” sign or not, city spokesman Kevin Stahr said.

The unwanted paperwork presented several problems, Stahr said.

Because the elderly risked hurting themselves in the cold if they went out to clear away the papers, the fliers stayed put.

If the papers got buried, they jammed up snowblowers. Finally, an overabundance of fliers and other paperwork would also, “Make a home look like the residents weren’t there and (they) were potentially more susceptible to being burglarized,” Stahr said.

Aurora is in the midst of reviewing its ordinance to deal with the free, unsolicited newspapers that have surfaced in the city.

“We’re drafting possible solutions now to see whether we can address that issue,” Stahr said. “It’s kind of a fluid situation at this point.”

Violation of First Amendment?

Carpentersville Trustee Paul Humpfer would like the ordinance to also keep politicians and religious organizations from distributing their paperwork to homes with “No Soliciting” signs, a proposition Village President Ed Ritter finds objectionable because it would limit the way candidates reach voters.

Even so, authorities from the Illinois office of the American Civil Liberties Union say the village is well within its rights to do so.

“Legally, the issue becomes really that once the homeowner posts the prohibition against solicitors, it’s a trespass issue and so the law is essentially enforced under a trespassing ordinance, which the homeowner is free to invoke on their own,” said Ed Yohnka, director of communications with the Illinois ACLU. “It’s sort of the homeowner’s right to control what comes in.”

‘We’re not soliciting’

Britt Zink doesn’t consider himself a solicitor.

He’s one of the owners of Woodridge-based Door to Door Direct, a company advertisers pay to distribute their freebies across the Northwest suburbs.

Those items include newspapers, park district newsletters, campaign fliers, door hangers and product samples. The way Zink sees it, he’s just doing his job.

“Solicitation is ringing the door bell ... and then trying to sell them on the spot,” Zink said. “It’s not leaving something on the door. People don’t subscribe to the standard, presort (mail) that comes to them in their mailbox, so why is it any different for us?”

Because he doesn’t consider himself a solicitor, signs that say “No Soliciting” don’t stop him from leaving his wares. He also has asked his employees not to purchase local licenses that legally allow them to drop off their information.

Moreover, Zink says, neither “No Soliciting” signs nor tougher laws against leaflet distributors in Carpentersville will stop him from doing his job.

“They can pass those things all they want,” Zink said. “Basically, we look at it as a First Amendment right to go to people’s houses and give them this information because, again, we’re not soliciting.”