Vancouver Council Candidate Caught Operating Unlicensed Business

Local residents were shocked when they learned that the Republican candidate for the city council seat has been operating a business for 11 years without obtaining a Vancouver, WA business license.

Bill Turlay, 75, opened Emerald City Granita & Beverage in 1996 in a different city in Washington. At the time he applied for and received a State of Washington business license. When he moved to Vancouver in the year 2000, he wrongly assumed that he didn’t need to get a Vancouver business license.

As Andrea Damewood reports in The Columbian, “The city’s language about who does and does not need a license is too complicated, Turlay said, adding it should be clarified so that other business owners don’t also run afoul of the law.”

“If you go back and read (the code), it is very confusing,” Turlay said. “I assumed because I’m working out of my home — there’s no signage, no commercial deliveries, no one coming in and out — I thought: ‘Oh, I’m exempt.’”

Shortly after the error was discovered, Turlay applied for the city business license. City officials did not bill him for past unpaid licensing fees and penalties.

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