St. Petersburg Times photo \nTAMPA - Some 32 news organizations and several hundred marchers were said to be on hand as the Tampa City Council's hearing on an adult club lap-dance ban kicked off at the Tampa Convention Center Thursday afternoon. And if the Council passes the ban for the second time today - they already passed it Nov. 18 - it needs only the mayor's signature to become law, which, considering Mayor Dick Greco's well-publicized support for the ban, might be all but a done deal if the Council passes it.
The hearing was set to start with a two-hour presentation by the city, followed by an attorney and experts for the city's adult clubs. Following that, members of the public would speak for three minutes each.
The Council may well want to put the whole business behind quickly in the end. The St. Petersburg Times says Councilman Shawn Harrison couldn't reach his top aide on the phone Wednesday for several hours, because the aide was too busy talking to people about the proposed lap dance ban. Council chairman Charlie Miranda tells the paper his car mechanic, Sam's Club shoppers, and people on the street had nothing else on their minds but the lap dance ban proposal.
The Council wants the nude dancers to keep their distance from club patrons - six feet or better. "There's more interest in this than in any election I've ever seen," Miranda tells the Times. "They're aware of the issue and what's going on. It's sad in a way. But everywhere you go, it's the topic of conversation."
The Convention Center could well end up hosting a throng in the thousands, according to some reports, as two ballrooms were reserved - one for the meeting and one for the expected overflow.
The Times has also published a still from a police video said to show two club dancers. The video was still expected to be shown at Thursday's hearing. It's said to show repeated close-ups of female genitalia and even women engaging in alleged oral sex onstage.
The controversy is considered a clash between the local economy, morality, and "the specter of Big Brother," the paper says. Lap dancing is the dancers' primary income source, with dancers earning $20 or more per lap dance and up to $400 a night with them. Dozens told the council in the November hearing lap dancing enabled them to buy their homes, put their children through school, and care for sick or older relatives, the paper continues.
Club attorneys were believed to have thought of going to court Thursday morning to stop the video from being shown, the Times says, because - among other things - it may show one clip from a pending criminal case and could compromise one defendant's fair trial rights.
And Councilwoman Linda Saul-Sena tells the paper showing the video in public made her queasy, though city attorneys may have persuaded her it has to be part of the record in case club owners sue over the lap dance ban if it passes.
But Tampa's cable television station wasn't planning to show the video during its live coverage, limiting its camera views to council members and audience during the video's showing. And the ballroom monitors were to be blocked from minors' view, the Times says.
