Ordinance passes in early morning hours

A lawsuit stops the expected viewing of an explicit videotape.

By STEVE HUETTEL

© St. Petersburg Times, published December 3, 1999

Another wild day in the battle over lap dancing

TAMPA -- Hundreds of people, from nude dancers to ministers, packed a Tampa Convention Center ballroom Thursday as the City Council debated an ordinance to outlaw lap dancing.

After hearing more than 10 hours of comment from vice police, adult entertainers, church leaders and hired experts, council members early this morning unanimously approved the ordinance.

The expected viewing of a videotape showing sex acts in Tampa strip clubs was canceled after an attorney for a nude club filed a lawsuit in circuit court to block the viewing.

Christina Steinbrenner of Tampa speaks in favor of the ordinance. [Times photo: Jim Stem]

Instead, police provided graphic details of their investigations, describing for council members scenes of group sex with customers, prostitution and rape.

Dancers and lawyers for the clubs countered that what police found occurs only at a few seedy clubs, body scrub and lingerie shops, and didn't reflect what goes on at their clubs.

Tampa is one of the few cities that allow nude entertainers to have contact with customers, city officials said. That has led to a competition among clubs to see which can be the worst, Mayor Dick Greco said.

"What is going on in this town is wrong, and it will not stop until you pass this ordinance," he said. "There's just too much money in it."

Dancers argued they weren't ashamed of making money by taking off their clothes and rubbing against customers' bodies to the rhythm of a three-minute song.

"I have never prostituted myself. I have never had a sexually transmitted disease," said Tigger Finkelson, who dances at an Adamo Drive club.

"Dancing is not degrading to me. What you're trying to portray me as is degrading to me."

The ordinance would make it illegal for an adult entertainer to work within 6 feet of a customer or other entertainer.

Kathy Williams expresses her opinion during the debate. [Times photo: Amy Newman]

Violators would face a maximum penalty of a $1,000 fine and six months in jail. An establishment with more than three violations in 30 days could be declared a public nuisance and shut down.

With strip club owners and churches rallying their troops, council members expected a big turnout and moved the meeting to the convention center.

Five hundred people packed the ballroom before police shut the doors. About 300 more watched a big-screen broadcast from another room.

The scene was part morality play and part political festival. Many held signs distributed by radio station 98 Rock proclaiming: "I want my lap dancing." Backers wore lime green stickers with the phrase "lap dancing" and a red slash through it.

There were occasional confrontations.

In the convention center lobby, 71-year-old Elizabeth Hernandez called a group of dancers sinners.

"I go to church every Sunday," shot back 20-year-old Heather Linville, a dancer at the Mons Venus on N Dale Mabry Highway.

"I'm saved, I know I'm going to heaven," Hernandez said later.

Council Chairman Charlie Miranda had to hammer the gavel and warn against occasional outbursts during speeches. But only one observer was ushered out.

City Attorney James Palermo told council members that he wouldn't show the undercover police videotape because the suit was filed just before the meeting. Council members had already seen the video privately.

Hillsborough Circuit Judge James Whittemore later refused to grant a restraining order to stop the viewing. But Palermo decided to submit a copy of the tape as evidence rather than show it.

Police said that just beneath the veneer of lap dancing were women willing to masturbate customers or perform other sex acts for a price.

Usually it took place in sparsely furnished VIP rooms, bedrooms or back rooms, they said.

Despite their best efforts, police can't stop illicit sex at the clubs under current laws, said Lt. Jane Castor, chief of the criminal intelligence bureau.

"Sometimes it feels like we're taking one step forward and two steps back," she said.

After Pinellas County imposed a 3-foot buffer and otherwise cracked down in the early 1990s, the clubs became far more tame, said Sgt. John Picarenus of the Pinellas Sheriff's Office.

Unhappy customers headed to Tampa's clubs, he said. "It's more of a free-for-all on this side of the bay," Picarenus said.

That atmosphere puts sexed-up men out on Tampa's streets, said Jacqui Knight. She once was attacked and held by a man who had just left a strip club, Knight said.

"I do care about those women that whip up men into a sexual frenzy, then let them loose on the public," she said.

But dancers called the ordinance overkill. Clean up the illicit sex, they said, but don't ruin the business that pays their mortgages, kids' tuition and doctor bills.

"We have to have contact or it will destroy our business," said Joni Hicks, day manager of the Mons Venus. "Why punish a couple thousand people. Please don't condemn the innocent."

The council unanimously approved the ordinance at a public hearing two weeks ago despite the pleas of several hundred dancers. To become law, the ordinance must be approved a second time by the council and signed by the mayor.

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