Mayor stands firm on dancing laws

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, Aug. 7, 2002 | 11:05 a.m.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman isn't up for a compromise.

His unyielding stance doesn't bode well for Clark County Commissioner Mary Kincaid-Chauncey, who hoped Las Vegas would compromise with the county and create a uniform ordinance regulating lap dancing.

Kincaid-Chauncey had requested that the county's heavily debated law adopted last week be softened, arguing that when she approved the ordinance she thought Las Vegas was drafting a similar measure.

Her concerns that the county ordinance will be tricky to enforce if lap dancing regulations vary within each jurisdiction hardly moved Goodman.

"'There will be no compromise; there is nothing to talk about," Goodman said Tuesday. "We have no problem with these young ladies. If there are no problems, we like the business here. If there is a problem, those who break the law are arrested."

Goodman said he was surprised Kincaid-Chauncey expected the city to adopt a similar law.

"I don't know where she heard that; it didn't come from my office," he said.

But according to a July 8 memo written to Jim DiFiore in the city's Department of Finance and Business Services division, Las Vegas was crafting its own ordinance.

The memo written by Deputy District Attorney Kathleen Janssen mentions the city's intent to place time restrictions on lap dances, but goes on to say: "You stated that the city would consider revising its existing draft ordinance to instead prohibit certain types of patron/dancer conduct similar to what the county ordinances have."

A second letter penned in June by Pete Christiansen, an attorney who represents Jaguars and Leopard Lounge, says DiFiore, Councilman Michael Mack and city attorneys have been working on a similar ordinance for more than a year.

Deputy District Attorney Mary-Anne Miller said the county can adopt a new law that repeals the ordinance approved last week, amend the effective date or consider a new ordinance with substantive changes.

During the commission's Aug. 20 meeting, Miller said she will recommend delaying the effective date.

When commissioners considered the ordinance last week, Kincaid-Chauncey hesitated, saying she wondered whether they should cast moral values on the community. Outnumbered by her colleagues, however, she voted in favor of it.

She delivered a memo to County Manager Thom Reilly on Monday outlining her concerns about the enforceability of the county law and asked that the county postpone putting the ordinance into effect on Sept. 1.

"The more I thought about it, the more I thought this would be an enforcement nightmare," Kincaid-Chauncey said. "(Metro) wants some uniformity."

But Metro Det. Stacy Rodd said investigators support the county law. He said police, county officials and adult club attorneys worked together to craft and revise the language.

"This kind of sticks in my craw a little bit," Rodd said of Kincaid-Chauncey's request to revisit the ordinance. "To say that it would be burdensome to enforce laws different in the city than the county is presumptuous.

"As an officer, I have to figure out which side of Sahara I'm on all the time."

The county's pending law legalizes lap dancing -- a strip club act in which a topless dancer hovers above and gyrates against a patron's lap. However, the law limits the dancer to bumping and grinding against a customer's leg.

Las Vegas' laws regulating the indulgence are more vague, prohibiting fondling and caressing -- language city officials believe address any sex act that might lead to prostitution.

The ordinance was pitched after an 18-month undercover investigation into Clark County's strip clubs produced videotape footage of oral sex, masturbation and other sex acts officials believe approach prostitution.

More restrictive laws, such as keeping dancers six inches away from the customer, are far more difficult to enforce, Rodd said.

"I hope (the commissioners) will stick to their guns," he added. "They did justice to their constituents by taking courageous and pioneering steps."

Commissioner Yvonne Atkinson Gates, who sponsored the ordinance, said she won't change her position despite her colleague's second-guessing -- or despite becoming the target of angry radio talk show hosts.

"What we did was correct; what we did was right," Atkinson Gates said.

Last week Atkinson Gates, Myrna Williams, Chip Maxfield and Bruce Woodbury strongly supported restriction in adult clubs. Commission chairman Dario Herrera voted against the law.

Woodbury has since raised concerns about age limitations included in the ordinance. The law prohibits 18-year-olds from working in strip clubs that serve alcohol, but allows them to dance in totally nude bars that don't serve alcohol. He said that portion of the law might push teenagers into totally nude dancing.

It is unlikely the city will be interested in the commissioners' decision. On Tuesday Goodman went so far as to fuel some business owners' fears that tourists will favor city strip clubs over the county's because of the more lax regulations.

"Any business that wants to move over here, I welcome with open arms," Goodman said. "And the one (Jaguars) that just spent $15 million on their property, I welcome them with wide open arms."

Jaguars is on Desert Inn Road, just outside the city limits.