Lap dancing is probably safe in Los Angeles until at least 2005, although tomorrow’s meeting of the Los Angeles City Council will discuss exactly what the city should do in light of the successful petition drive to force a referendum of the “six-foot” ordinance that the council unanimously passed in September.
Yesterday the city clerk certified that the legitimacy the petition, setting the referendum laws in motion.
The ordinance cannot go into effect until it has been voted on by the public.
The Los Angeles City Council faces three choices that they will discuss tomorrow. They can pass another ordinance repealing the previous measure. Or they can add the question to the Democratic presidential primary on March 2, 2004, or they can wait until the next citywide election on March 8, 2005. The council has twenty days to come to a decision.
If they choose to place the question on the March 2, 2004 ballot, it will cost the city $2,800,000. The council only has until November 12 to take that course of action, although given the financial outlook of the city, that isn’t considered a likely option.
The ordinance requires a six-foot separation between dancers and customers at all times, with penalties of up to six months in jail and fines as much as $2,500 for both the dancer and their client.
Adult entertainment establishments are required to keep state-licensed security guards on their premises at all times. The ordinance also requires adult bookstores to hire security guards.
Supporters of the law have argued that adult entertainment places contribute to prostitution and drug use. It’s not known what the source of information was that established that concept.
John Weston and Roger Jon Diamond, prominent First Amendment attorneys in the L.A. area, came up with the idea of putting the ordinance to a public referendum at almost the same time - not surprising, since both men have long represented dance clubs, and both have used the same maneuver elsewhere within the past few years.
The owners of the 35 clubs in Los Angeles, as well as arcade operators, funded the drive that was overseen by Afriat Consulting, spending $400,000 to gather more than 100,000 signatures, approximately double what they needed to force a referendum.
