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County seeks help on mobile strip club

Hillsborough commissioners decline to tighten the county's public nudity ordinances - for now.

By BILL VARIAN
Published December 8, 2005

TAMPA - Hillsborough commissioners want to make sure the stripper bus doesn't make a stop in suburban and rural parts of the county where they have jurisdiction.

They voted unanimously Wednesday to ask a consultant who is suggesting ways to strengthen the county's public nudity ordinance to weigh in on how to block strip clubs on wheels.

"To be honest with you, mobile adult entertainment venues are something I've never really considered," said Commissioner Ken Hagan, who requested the action. He wanted to make sure this is considered by the county's consulting attorney.

Hagan noted that the operators of such a bus, who pulled up outside Raymond James Stadium before a Tampa Bay Buccaneers football game last month, have compared the venture to a limousine service. So he also won unanimous support from the commission to refer the matter to the Hillsborough County Public Transportation Commission, which regulates limousines.

Commissioners chuckled as they cast their votes.

Undercover Tampa police raided a motor home parked off Himes Avenue across from Raymond James Nov. 27 after they learned strippers were dancing for paying customers inside. Customers also were served alcohol.

A customer, the dancers and operators of the bus were arrested on an array of charges. Police have said the motor home was leased to the Adamo Drive strip club Deja Vu, whose attorney has said it was an effort to promote the club.

Attempts to reach the attorney, Luke Lirot, were not successful late Wednesday.

The votes by commissioners came over the initial protests of Commissioner Ronda Storms. She said the stripper bus was evidence of an adult entertainment industry growing more brazen because commissioners are tackling the issue of public nudity too slowly and in a piecemeal fashion. "It's because of the message we're sending," Storms said.

She asked commissioners to tighten the county's public nudity ordinances based on recommendations they have already received, and hold a referendum on the issue to gauge public support and help set a community standard.

Commissioners have declined to act on those recommendations while the courts hear challenges to a nudity ordinance in Manatee County that Hillsborough is using as a model. They again declined Wednesday, saying Hillsborough needs to move cautiously so that its ordinance will withstand court challenges from the adult entertainment industry.

"We want to make sure we do this right," Hagan said. "We don't want to mess it up."

Commission Chairman Jim Norman objected to the characterization that the county is moving "at a glacial pace," as Storms described, noting that commissioners generally support tightening the ordinance and that it was a matter of making sure the county does it the right way.

"To say we're not doing anything?" Norman said. "I thought we were all on board to do the right thing."

County Attorney Renee Lee said the county's consulting attorney, Chattanooga, Tenn., lawyer Scott Bergthold, has crafted proposals that should allow the county to act on the matter without waiting to see what happens in Manatee. She said she intends to bring those proposals to them in January.

Bergthold has worked with several other governments, including Manatee County, as a consultant on antinudity provisions.

[Last modified December 8, 2005, 00:49:13]