Dallas- It’s now illegal for minors to enter or work in Dallas strip clubs, and closed-door “VIP rooms” are henceforth banned, the Dallas City Council ruled Wednesday as part of a reform of ordinances governing sexually oriented businesses.
The changes come in part as a result of Dallas police discovering a 12-year-old girl had danced nude over a two-week period at Diamond’s Cabaret last year. The club remained open because no city ordinance allowed the revoking of the establishment’s sexually oriented business license for employing a minor.
“When we realized we did not have the tools in place, we have moved quickly to put those tools in place,” Mayor Tom Leppert said of the strengthened ordinance. “We are pressing the issues associated with the minors, and it gives us the tools the Police Department is going to need to continue to address this situation and address it in a very forceful way, a very aggressive way and a very timely way.”
While the protection of children is an obvious goal, the council’s new ordinance is “overbroad and overreaching for what they want to do,” said Diane Duke, executive director of the Free Speech Coalition, an adult entertainment trade organization. “The City Council had a knee-jerk reaction. It’s imposing unnecessary rules that have nothing to do with 12-year-olds on clubs that do not and will not employ 12-year-olds.”
But Dawn Rizos, owner of the Lodge strip club, said the city’s new rules make sense and won’t be difficult to comply with.
“We support any measures that will prevent such a situation from ever happening again. The Lodge already complies with nearly all the new changes, except for the fingerprinting,” she said in a prepared statement.
By council ruling, the revised ordinance takes effect Monday. It empowers Police Chief David Kunkle to shut down a sexually oriented business within 10 days – reduced from 30 days – upon citing it for a violation of the new ordinance.
If Dallas police revoke a sexually oriented business’s operation license, the business may appeal the ruling to Dallas’ Permit and License Appeals Board, and ultimately, state district court.
Dallas’ new ordinance does not include several provisions that some council members had previously discussed implementing.
Among them: requiring adult entertainment industry workers to obtain city licenses, mandating club cover charges and enforcing physical buffer zones between dancers and strip club patrons. Some city officials expressed concern that such changes would invite a wave of legal challenges.
Mr. Leppert said the council would review the new ordinance within six to 12 months “so we can see how this law plays, and it’ll let us see if we need additional tools.” He said he did not know whether sexually oriented businesses would sue City Hall over the new ordinance.
District 13 council member Mitchell Rasansky said he doesn’t care. In fact, he vowed to expand the ordinance.
“This is only the first stage,” Mr. Rasansky said.
Said District 3 council member Dave Neumann: “We need to make sure the tool works. If this does not work, we’ll come back six months from now.”