ELIOT, Maine ? After hearing success stories from attorney Scott Bergthold to show the town?s ordinances regulating strip clubs will be legally defensible, residents promptly voted Saturday in favor of those ordinances.
Approximately 200 residents attended the special town meeting on three ordinances regulating strip clubs, passing each unanimously. The ordinances prohibit employees of any club from appearing ?in a state of nudity,? ban the sale of alcohol and limit the hours of operation so that it must be closed from midnight to 6 a.m. Partial nudity would be allowed under the ordinances.
The vote essentially negates a suit filed against the town by the attorney for the proposed 403 Gentlemen?s Club, as residents voted to replace the moratorium on nude entertainment, which the suit was filed to stop, with the three ordinances.
Bergthold of Chattanooga, Tenn., has a national reputation for helping small communities ban adult entertainment businesses. He cited a number of national cases that have won at the U.S. Supreme Court level, and expressed confidence that the three ordinances would hold up in court if another suit is filed.
?I feel like this set of ordinances that is before the town tonight puts the town in the strongest position it can take based on the case law that?s been upheld in other jurisdictions,? Bergthold told voters.
While a town cannot completely ban all adult businesses, Bergthold said a town can regulate the time, place and manor of the adult establishment. ?That?s what these regulations do,? he said. ?They address for the town of Eliot, ordinances that would be strong as constitutionally possible.?
In a court of law, towns are only required to provide reasonable evidence that an adult establishment has created ?adverse secondary effects,? Bergthold said, which in this case could include an increase in crime, drug activity, noise, and a decrease in property values.
Towns can also adopt regulations based on the experience of other jurisdictions. Bergthold provided statistics from similar cases in other areas of the country, like in Phoenix, Ariz., where there were 783 ?sex-related? arrests in two years, almost all of which were on the premises of the 11 adult businesses located there. He said the statistics he provided were upheld by the U.S. Court of Appeals.
For complete results of Eliot?s regular town meeting on Saturday, see Monday?s Portsmouth Herald.
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