Beverly Hills Business Cops
Today is Sunday, September 17th and if you were to stroll down Beverly Hill's famous Rodeo Drive and wander into any of the ritzy establishments that line this extraordinarily expensive thoroughfare (some of the world's most expensive retail space on a per square footage space), you probably wouldn't bother looking for, or even notice if they had a Beverly Hills Business license. But if you did, you would see that it had EXPIRED in December 2005 and the City has not issued a 2006 license to that business just yet.
How can such a broad statement be made, without knowing which business you might or might not wander into? Because as of this past Friday, September 15th, 2006, the City of Beverly Hills has not yet issued a single 2006 business license and according to an official in the city office that oversees such things, they have no estimated date of when those licenses will be issued.
This official, who would not give his name, said that there was some kind of computer problem that prevented the issuing of licenses and it had to do with ensuring that confidential information would not print on the licenses, which are required to be posted for the public to see.
Now according to Beverly Hills City regulation, all city business licenses exprie every December 31, and must be renewed in January. If they have had a computer problem of that magnitude, don't you think it would have been solved by now? It would seem that almost any kind of computer problem should be solvable within 3 or 4 months, let alone 7 or 8. The city says nothing, apparently is doing nothing, and businesses just continue to do business, with expired licenses.
If you pay for your license late, you pay a penalty. What penalty will the City of Beverly Hills pay, for failure to issue those license? Probably nothing more than a slight bit of embarassment.
If I lived in Beverly Hills, I would sure hope they have better organization for their public safety departments.
How can such a broad statement be made, without knowing which business you might or might not wander into? Because as of this past Friday, September 15th, 2006, the City of Beverly Hills has not yet issued a single 2006 business license and according to an official in the city office that oversees such things, they have no estimated date of when those licenses will be issued.
This official, who would not give his name, said that there was some kind of computer problem that prevented the issuing of licenses and it had to do with ensuring that confidential information would not print on the licenses, which are required to be posted for the public to see.
Now according to Beverly Hills City regulation, all city business licenses exprie every December 31, and must be renewed in January. If they have had a computer problem of that magnitude, don't you think it would have been solved by now? It would seem that almost any kind of computer problem should be solvable within 3 or 4 months, let alone 7 or 8. The city says nothing, apparently is doing nothing, and businesses just continue to do business, with expired licenses.
If you pay for your license late, you pay a penalty. What penalty will the City of Beverly Hills pay, for failure to issue those license? Probably nothing more than a slight bit of embarassment.
If I lived in Beverly Hills, I would sure hope they have better organization for their public safety departments.
posted by me at 10:16 AM
