County considers confining outcall services

Thursday, June 28, 2001 | 10:56 a.m.

Advertisements for "escorts" and "dancers" blare out all over the Las Vegas area -- on the Internet, from billboards, in weekly news magazines, in telephone books and in graphic fliers distributed free on the Strip.

Police call these "outcall services" fronts for illegal prostitution, but the businesses flourish nonetheless.

Now, a proposal from Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny would keep offices for outcall services at least 1,500 feet from existing or planned homes, churches, schools, libraries or parks in unincorporated areas.

Commissioners are scheduled to address the issue July 5. If accepted, the proposed ordinance could come up for a public hearing and vote later in July.

The move is resented by those in the outcall industry. Richard Soranno, operator of vegasgirls.com, an Internet-based outcall service, called the proposed ordinance an absurd effort to harass his industry.

He said he'll fight the proposed zoning rule.

The outcall-service offices are nothing but phonebanks and account books, he said.

Many of the entertainers never visit those offices, he said. Those who do don't look any different than other professionals, Soranno argued.

"Some girls come to the office right after they come from church or from school," he said. "Plenty of them are Mormons and Catholics and mothers of children. They just happen to be strippers."

Metro Police Deputy Chief Bill Young doesn't argue that the women have lives outside of the adult-entertainment industry, but what they do when working is a problem, he says.

He said police know exactly what the young women do when working as outcall entertainers, and that is breaking the law.

"I've been on hundreds of sting operations," Young said. "It has been my experience that almost 100 percent of outcall services have been fronts for prostitution."

Prove it, make an arrest and get a conviction, responds American Civil Liberties Union counsel Allen Lichtenstein.

"If there is an act of prostitution, then clearly people can be arrested and charged with prostitution," he said. "If dancers are going beyond the law and offering sex for money and not just erotic dance, then they are breaking the law."

But "erotic dance is not sex," and is protected by the Constitution as a free speech activity, he said.

Lichtenstein is an advocate of legalizing prostitution, which he says would combat the hypocrisy of the local governments and the hotel industry. Those institutions sanction prostitution, he said.

He said if the intent of the county ordinance is a backdoor attempt at censorship, it will be thrown out by the courts.

Kenny said her proposed ordinance isn't censorship, but a step toward protecting residential neighborhoods, especially children, from exposure to seamy businesses.

The move follows a similar rule passed earlier this year by the city of Las Vegas.

However, the city has few, if any, licensed offices for outcall services.

Soranno said nearly all of the offices for outcall services are in the county. Rules state that a company working in the unincorporated areas -- including the Strip -- must be based in the county.

Those companies can still send entertainers to the city of Las Vegas, but a company based in the city couldn't send entertainers to the Strip or other parts of the county, Soranno said.

More than 150 outcall companies are registered in the county, offering such "full service" entertainment as A Fetish for Flesh, College Blondes Looking for Fun, Exotic Secretaries in Short Skirts and Full Service Ladies of the Night.

Although there are dozens of outcall businesses registered in the county, a few owners have the majority of registered outcall-service business licenses.

If the County Commission accepts the proposal it could go up for a public hearing and possible passage later in July.

Rob Warhola, a deputy district attorney who advises Clark Commissioners on land-use issues, agreed that the intent of the ordinance isn't to stop outcall performances.

"We protect our residential areas from very intense uses all the time," Warhola said, comparing outcall-service offices to check-cashing services. "We're treating it just like any other intense use.

"I think it's based on sound planning, and I'm confident that it's constitutional."

Metro Lt. Terry Davis of the police department's vice section said the ordinance would not do a lot to stop prostitution, but it could help keep crime out of residential neighborhoods.

Outcall performers dropping off their money, and the offices, are targeted by criminals, he said. "And it is an adult-oriented business. Everyone knows that."

Warhola said the 1,500-foot separation will still leave places in the county for the offices.

Chuck Pulsipher, a Clark County zoning administrator, said the ordinance would not require existing offices to close, but it would affect new offices.

Kenny said county staffers are looking at rules to push existing outcall service offices out of the potentially restricted areas. She said the county would give at least a year for existing offices "to come into compliance" with any new zoning requirements.

Soranno said he doesn't believe the zoning rules are simply designed to protect residential areas. The 1,500-foot rule doesn't leave much room for new or old offices, he said.

Local governments "have been harassing us for years," he said. "This zoning thing is another hardship, an undue hardship, on our business."