BILLINGS, MT – Billings City Attorney Brent Brooks said Monday that a new obscenity ordinance which comes before voters in June will not be enforced within the city of Billings, even if voters approve it.“The city is not responsible for enforcing that ordinance,” Brooks said during a budget-related meeting on Monday, according to reports in the Billings Gazette. “It would only be enforced within the county.”
Brooks added that under state law, the county has no authority to require the city to enforce a county ordinance, even though the city of Billings is part of Yellowstone County.
Brook’s opinion contradicts one previously issued by Chief Deputy County Attorney Dan Schwarz, who told county commissioners in March that the obscenity ordinance could be enforced countywide, should voters approve it.
Schwarz said the differing opinions come down to a matter of opposing interpretations of state law.
“It’s a very fine point, but the code is not clear,” Schwarz said Tuesday. “We’re reading the provision to mean that the city and the county to be a legislative jurisdiction.”
“Brent could be right that because of jurisdiction we don’t have the authority to enforce it in the city,” added Schwarz. “We’re reading that we do.”
The issue is further complicated, Brooks said, by the fact all voters in Yellowstone County, including those within Billing’s city limits, are eligible to vote on the new obscenity ordinance in June’s bond election.
The new ordinance in question would restrict the operations of strip clubs and other sexually-oriented businesses by altering the county’s zoning regulations.
Changes under the new ordinance would include limitations on the size and placement of advertising for such businesses, and requirements aimed specifically at adult shops that offer video viewing booths. The new regulations would prohibit business from putting doors or curtains on video viewing booths and require that customers always be within site of the store manager while viewing videos.
When asked about the city and county’s differing opinions concerning the reach of the new ordinance, Yellowstone County Commissioner Jim Reno said, “That’s not the first time that two lawyers have disagreed.”
The mayor of Billings offered a qualified concurrence with his city attorney.
“I would say it makes sense that the county cannot impose a law and then require the city to enforce it,” Mayor Ron Tussing said Tuesday, adding, “but then, I’m not the legal expert.”
