Ely City Council takes first step toward closing brothel

Scott Sonner

Friday, Aug. 13, 1999 | 12:15 p.m.

RENO, Nev. - The Ely City Council has taken the first formal step toward considering a proposal that would shut down the town's only remaining brothel.

The council voted 4-0 Thursday night to conduct a public hearing at its next meeting August 26th on the proposal.

Councilman Stuart Tracy is leading the charge aimed at ridding Ely of more-or-less legal prostitution. His proposal would rescind a 1959 zoning ordinance that established a red-light district where brothels would operate. He said city law then would revert to a previous ban on the practice of selling sex.

"I'm glad it's at least going to a public hearing because that's the way for government to have a public vote without going to an election," he said Friday from Ely.

Tracy said the issue has divided the town and he doesn't know how a final vote before the city council would turn out.

"It's been a 50-50 issue and it remains there in the middle ground," he said.

Councilman Randy Conner said last week he had preferred a public vote on the matter in the form of a ballot issue.

"Personally, I don't have a problem with it either way. If it stays or goes, I don't care. Those who choose to go there, fine, go there. It is none of my business," he said.

"The brothels have been in this community for at least 80 years, legally for 40 years. Most the folks who have lived here a long time say, 'Just leave the darn things alone.' They think the government needs to get out of our moral lives," he said.

State archivist Guy Rocha said prostitution isn't technically legal in Ely. He said his research indicates that selling sex for money is legal only if a local government specifically dictates that it is legal.

That's what Storey County did to allow the legal operation and taxation of the Mustang Ranch, which federal agents shut down earlier this week as part of a court order resulting from a criminal fraud case.

Rocha said zoning ordinances may dictate where a brothel would exist but don't necessarily make the practice legal.

A landmark state Supreme Court case in 1949, "Mae Cunningham v. Washoe County, determined that cities and counties still can shut down a brothel as a public nuisance even if it does conform with zoning laws.

About 30 brothels still operate in Nevada, mostly in rural counties outside city limits.