MEMPHIS, TN — If by the end of the year the city of Memphis manages to push through its first city ordinance governing sexually oriented businesses, it almost will make the months Shelby County officials spent hammering out their own law a waste of time.Shelby County’s new tougher Sexually Oriented Business (SOB) law goes into effect January 1st. Among other things, it outlaws the sale of alcoholic beverages in the county’s gentlemen’s clubs — all located within the Memphis city limits — taking a $2 million bite out of city and county revenues. That could mean increased property tax burdens for local residents — something city fathers wanted to avoid.
Instead, the law the city council plans to put into effect will allow the sale of alcohol but include adjusted fees and hours and some other “tweaks” to the county’s ordinance, according to City Attorney Elbert Jefferson. If the city can finish and enact its ordinance by December 31st, it will supersede the county’s and spare the taxpayers.
But there’s a slight wrinkle: Nine current council members who support the proposed new SOB ordinance are due to leave office January 1st, ushering in another crop of leaders who might not be as willing to “reach out” to the adult businesses in town as Jefferson as the current officials have been. It’s also the holiday season and there is some question about whether all council members will be available to meet often enough to finish the law before the end of the year.
As might be expected, not everyone on the county commission is pleased with Memphis’ effort to usurp its authority.
“I think it would be an extreme disservice to everyone in Shelby County for a lame-duck council to in effect gut the ordinance that we passed,” Commission Chairman David Lillard told the Commercial Appeal newspaper.
According to the paper, the county’s ordinance was approved in September and restricts the sale and consumption of alcohol, establishes a five-member board to regulate the adult industry, and requires all employees at cabarets, adult bookstores, escort services, and massage parlors to undergo a background check and obtain a work permit.
The city’s ordinance likely will require work permits and background checks, as well, according to Jefferson, but the oversight board likely will be a subset of the city’s liquor authority.
Shelby County Assistant District Attorney General Bill Gibbons said he fears the Memphis law may not stand up to legal challenges. The county’s ordinance, he said, was patterned after a 1998 state law that has withstood at least two lawsuits, but the city’s diverges from a proven formula and may “invite litigation.”
