TOLEDO, Ohio -- After more than a year of litigation, Toledo, Ohio, officials and area convenience store owners have reached an agreement on licensing, business practices, reported The Toledo Blade. Standing in front of a Stop & Go, City Council president Joe McNamara announced last week a proposed settlement between the city of Toledo and the Midwest Retailers Association, a business group of which about 375 area c-stores are members.
The agreement, which McNamara spearheaded, stipulates that in exchange for repealing the city's licensing ordinance, the [image-nocss] retailers association would agree to establish and enforce a high standard of conduct among its member stores, said the report. Furthermore, if the ordinance is repealed, the association will forgo any claims against the city for attorney fees or damage awards, a potential savings to the city of $50,000 to $60,000, said Scott Ciolek, the association's attorney.
But the crux of the plan is the association's adoption of five ethical business practices, which include a ban on the sale of items commonly used as drug paraphernalia, a commitment to keep stores well-maintained and a pledge to sell nutritious items such as fruits and vegetables.
"They are setting the example that we need to show across the city, across the country of how convenience stores can be pro neighborhood," McNamara said.
He said the agreement is good for both Toledo's businesses and its neighborhoods and that it represents an example of government and free enterprise working together for their common interest.
To improve the stores' relationship with their neighborhoods, the association says members have agreed to attend Block Watch meetings and to meet each quarter with representatives of community development corporation alliances to discuss issues that arise. "There are specific problems in specific neighborhoods and we want to work with the CDC on the trouble spots," Dan Ridi, the retailers' association vice president, told the newspaper.
He said a few poorly managed stores are tainting the reputation of all the rest.
The agreement, which Toledo City Council must approve, also clears the way for passage of legislation requiring c-stores be located no closer than 2,000 feet from one another, said the report. While city officials and representatives of the retailers association say they favor the measure, they said it has not gone forward because of the licensing suit.
Now, with the licensing issue nearing resolution, the spacing requirement is "ready to be passed at any moment," McNamara said.
Still, the proposed pact, while hailed from both sides as a step forward, is short on specifics, the report said.
It does not lay out how the retailers association will ensure its members' compliance. With no rules or requirements set in stone, city officials said they were banking on the association's members sufficiently peer pressuring one another into taking such action as coordinating a security patrol for the stores--consisting of off-duty and laid-off police officers--and encouraging one another to attend Block Watch meetings.
But in the event that the repeal of the licensing ordinance does not achieve its objective, McNamara said the licensing legislation always could be reintroduced.
Members help make our journalism possible. Become a CSP member today and unlock exclusive benefits, including unlimited access to all of our content. Sign up here.