The authors of a government-sent voters’ pamphlet opposing the repeal of a lap dance ban, say all but one of them will stay anonymous for fear of retribution by strip club backers.
Vic Webekking, head of the group Citizens for Reasonable Regulations, said last week that he will put his name on the pamphlet after the Seattle Ethics and Elections Commission said the statement supporting the current strip club regulations could not be printed unless its authors were named, the Seattle Post Intelligencer reported.
At issue is Referendum 1 which asks voters to determine whether to keep in place new rules requiring dancers to be separated from patrons by 4 feet and a railing. The owners of the city’s three strip clubs sponsored the referendum.
Webekking told the commission that he would place his name as author, but asked that the names of his fellow writers to be left out for fear of retribution from the opposition.
The committee agreed, since Webekking admitted the committee is made up of himself only and that his fellow writers were not members.
“The people who placed this referendum on the ballot are known for their willingness to engage in acts of retribution, both legal and illegal. Mayor Nickels has referred to them publicly as associated with organized crime,” Webbeking wrote in a letter to the commission’s director, referring to recent statements Mayor Greg Nickels made on a Seattle government access cable channel.
Webekking, who lives near Rick’s Cabaret, said a Nickels aide had recruited him for the job. Wayne Barnett, Ethics Commission director, admitted he asked the Mayor’s Office to help him find someone to write the pamphlet statement supporting the lap dance ban.
Referendum 1 would not only repeal a ban on lap dances, but it would also repeal brighter lighting requirements and other rules meant to make strip clubs unprofitable. The City Council and Nickels approved the rules last month after a federal judge ruled Seattle’s 17-year moratorium on new clubs was unconstitutional.
Club owners have so far spent nearly $1 million to campaign for the measure.
