Goodman rethinks plan on health cards for outcall workers

Diana Sahagun

Friday, June 1, 2001 | 10:31 a.m.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman is rethinking his proposal to require escorts and outcall entertainers to get health cards and periodic medical exams after hearing from the Clark County Health District.

Health district officials say they lack the money and staff to process all the escorts and outcall entertainers who could potentially be required to get health cards under Goodman's proposal.

Goodman said at his weekly press conference Thursday that he will examine other options with the city attorney, but is intent on protecting people from the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. Goodman proposed the bill last month after he heard that prostitutes in San Francisco were knowingly spreading the AIDS virus.

Metro Police say a majority of escort bureaus and outcall businesses are fronts for prostitution.

At a committee meeting last week, City Council members Michael Mack and Lynette Boggs McDonald said they could not support the proposal because it sends a mixed message to a community where prostitution is, in fact, illegal. They said if the businesses are fronts for prostitution they should be shut down.

"It's easy to address a problem this way, to say we're not going to tolerate these businesses at all, but I don't operate that way," Goodman said. "Las Vegas is a place where people should have a good time and a safe time."

Stephen Minagil, an attorney for the health district, said the district would have to create an entirely new program if the proposal was approved. The current health card program is food-handler based, and does not discuss sexually transmitted diseases.

Even if the men and women were required to get medical tests, there is no way under the current proposal to ensure they are not entertaining while the results are pending.

On the contrary, legal prostitutes in rural Nevada counties who are tested weekly for diseases are essentially quarantined by the brothels until the test results come back.

"Even if we were to do this, we can't protect the public the way Mayor Goodman wants us to," Minagil said.

Minagil says if every company that advertises in the phone book for escorts or outcall entertainers were to do business in the city, it would result in more than 5,000 applicants a month. Nearly 100 escorts and outcall businesses are licensed in Clark County.