El Cajon, California: door-to-door solicitor permit

• The answer: Yes — a city business license, and it is per person, not per company. It is unlawful to transact and carry on any business in the city without first procuring a license and paying the tax (5.04.050). The solicitor line is explicit that a crew cannot ride on the employer's license: "Each agent or employee of any peddler, solicitor or itinerant merchant shall be licensed under the provisions of Chapters 5.04 and 5.08, and such agent or employee shall procure and be liable for the license fee prescribed in this section, the same as the employer or principal" (5.08.100). The city's own Business Licenses page says the requirement reaches "businesses from outside the City of El Cajon that perform services and/or sales at the customer's place of business or residence in El Cajon." There is no separate police permit chapter for commercial door-to-door sales.
• Where it comes from: The license tax collector — defined as the city tax collector, city clerk or other city officer charged with administering Chapters 5.04 and 5.08 (5.04.020). In practice the city routes applications to the Finance Department at El Cajon City Hall, 200 Civic Center Way, and offers an online filing. The bond is filed with the director of finance (5.08.110).
• Fee: The code writes its amounts in words, not figures. "Every person acting as a peddler, solicitor or itinerant merchant shall pay a license tax of two dollars per day" (5.08.100), on top of the general business tax of three dollars for each employee per year (5.08.010). A company with no fixed place of business in the city pays a further tax of twenty dollars, plus three dollars for each employee, per year (5.08.020). The real cost is the bond: before any license is issued to a peddler, solicitor or itinerant merchant, the applicant files with the director of finance a bond in the sum of one thousand dollars with a surety company holding a Certificate of Authority from the California Insurance Commissioner (5.08.110).
• Hours you may knock: The code sets no knocking hours. Chapters 5.04 and 5.08 are a license-tax scheme and name no time of day, and Title 5 has no peddler or solicitor regulation chapter — 5.90 covers charitable and religious solicitation only. Title 9's solicitation chapter, 9.75, is an aggressive-solicitation ordinance about begging near banks, ATMs and restaurants, not door-to-door sales. Ask Finance before planning an evening shift.
• What the rep carries: The license itself, on the person: "Any licensee transacting and carrying on business but not operating at a fixed place of business in the city shall keep the license upon his person at all times while transacting and carrying on the business for which it is issued" (5.04.210(B)). A license has to be exhibited when an authorized city official asks (5.04.230). No badge, photo ID card or uniform is required by the code.
• What takes the time: Getting the surety bond written. The bond is conditioned on the applicant complying with every city and state ordinance regulating solicitation and the sale of merchandise, and it stands as security for any judgment for damage arising out of misrepresentation or deception by the applicant, their agents or their employees — including through advertising circulated about the solicitation (5.08.110). The first application is a sworn statement on the collector's form giving the exact nature of the business, and, where there is no permanent place of business, the places of residence of the owners (5.04.140). No processing deadline and no background check are published. A license is not transferable (5.04.190).
• Code: El Cajon Municipal Code Chapter 5.08, Amounts Payable — 5.08.100 and 5.08.110 are the peddler, solicitor and itinerant merchant sections — with the licensing machinery in Chapter 5.04, General Provisions. eCode360 shows the El Cajon code as including legislation through Ord. No. 5177, adopted June 9, 2026.
• Worth knowing: The chapter says outright that it licenses "for revenue purposes only" (5.04.010), which is why there is no investigation and no waiting period written into it. Three carve-outs sit in 5.08.100 itself: it does not apply to bona fide non-profit political organizations, to bona fide religious organizations that do not use paid solicitors, or to commercial travelers and selling agents selling to dealers for resale. The bond section carries the same political and religious carve-outs (5.08.110). Because the license is a daily tax, a blitz that runs a month is a month of days per rep — confirm with Finance how they bill a multi-week campaign.
• Read it yourself: El Cajon Municipal Code Chapter 5.08, Amounts Payable · El Cajon Municipal Code Chapter 5.04, General Provisions · El Cajon Municipal Code Title 5, Business Licenses and Regulations · El Cajon Municipal Code Chapter 9.75, Aggressive Solicitation · El Cajon Municipal Code, table of contents · City of El Cajon, Business Licenses · checked 20 September 2026

Ask the clerk, and write the answer down:

• How the two-dollars-a-day license tax is billed for a crew working a multi-week blitz
• Whether one company surety bond satisfies 5.08.110 or whether each licensed rep needs their own
• Whether the city enforces any hours for door-to-door sales
• Whether an out-of-city company pays the twenty-dollar no-fixed-place tax once or per rep

Clerk’s name ______________ Direct line ______________ Date called ______________