“We can find out,” City Manager Terry McGean told the commission.

In 2011, a U.S. District Court judge issued a preliminary injunction, ruling in favor of a group of street performers claiming that a town ordinance had violated their First Amendment rights. The emergency ordinance, passed in June of that year, required all street performers to register at city hall each day and pay a small registration fee. It also prohibited street performers and artists from selling their wares on the Boardwalk, among other things. 

A consent decree signed the following year essentially formalized the terms of the injunction. Simply put, it allowed street performers and vendors to sell their creations and eliminated registration requirements. However, it prohibited them from setting up at North Division Street.

Buas told commission members this week he was seeking information on the topic after witnessing sales on the Boardwalk. He said he wanted specifics of the court opinion issued more than a decade ago. 

“Reading it, I thought you could suggest a tip,” he said, “you can’t sell.”

Mayor Rick Meehan said that buskers could sell items on the Boardwalk, so long as they were their own creations. He noted, however, that it was worth a second look.

“We can have Heather [Stansbury, city solicitor] double check it,” he said. “Now, it does make you curious sometimes when there’s a hundred things out there …”

McGean agreed to have the city solicitor review the issue.

“You have to make it, and it has to be artistic …,” he opined.

Buas on Monday also questioned if solicitation was allowed along the Boardwalk. He said he had witnessed people coming out of Boardwalk stores and encouraging people to enter. 

“Do we have any rules on that?” he asked. 

Councilman Frank Knight said it was allowed, so long as they don’t enter the Boardwalk. 

“As soon as you step onto the Boardwalk, it’s a violation,” he said. 

Officials noted it was also a condition of outdoor display permits issued to Boardwalk businesses. 

“So if they are in an outdoor display area, they are not supposed to be soliciting to begin with because that’s a violation of the outdoor display,” Meehan added.

This story appears in the June 14, 2024, print edition of the OC Today-Dispatch.