Planners approve bail business

Greg Harman

Thursday, June 22, 2000 | 9:45 a.m.

Bail Bonds Inc. finally cracked the resistant Boulder City market, gaining approval Wednesday from the Boulder City Planning Commission for an office downtown.

What would be the first bail bond operation in the jail-less town of 14,000 had been denied a business license because the town's zoning laws don't list a code for bail bond agencies.

Then came a fiery meeting before the Boulder City Council and bail bond critic Mayor Bob Ferraro, who urged the company in May to leave off the offending word "bail" from any signage.

On Wednesday Planning Commission members -- after being informed of certain First Amendment rights by City Attorney Dave Olsen and of city regulatory limitations by the city planner -- ultimately realized that nothing they said could keep the operation from setting up permanently downtown.

But the commissioners kept up the city's resistance to the "b-word" despite Olsen's warnings.

"There are real serious questions I would have about us trying to control the content of the signs," Olsen told the commissioners. "You're treading on real delicate First Amendment rights."

With one objection, the members approved a conditional use permit for Bail Bonds Inc. to operate in Boulder City, provided the company pick a color scheme consistent with the area.

"We'll do whatever color sign you want," agreed American Civil Liberties Union attorney Allen Lichtenstein, representing the company. "We're trying to be good neighbors."

During weeks of negotiations with the city, the bondsmen agreed to omit the word "bail" from all of their signs, even though both sides have admitted to the shaky legal ground that such a condition rests upon.

But one commissioner objected to "bail" being written on the door of the company's Nevada Highway location, from which Bail Bonds Inc. has operated for weeks with a temporary business license.