DALLAS – Let’s say, for the sake of argument, there was a company or manner of business you’d prefer didn’t set shop up in your hometown. How much tax revenue would you support your city government spending to prevent the event or presence?
Before you answer, consider this factor, too: The business is going to operate for approximately three days a year.
If your answer is $675,000, it’s possible you’re a member of the Dallas City Council.
For the City Council and like-minded Dallas residents who couldn’t abide the idea of Exxxotica taking place inside the city-owned Kay Bailey Hutchison Convention Center, the good news is a federal judge has just thrown out the lawsuit filed by Exxxotica parent company Three Expo Events (TEE) — albeit without considering the merits of the plaintiff’s claims, as the case was tossed because the judge found TEE lacked the legal standing to sue.
As I see it, the not-so-good news for the council is threefold. First, the decision can be appealed, which means the fight may not be over. Second, the price tag on the legal battle, assuredly will rise if Exxxotica does appeal. Third (and arguably most important), so far as I’m aware, there’s nothing to stop TEE from hosting its event in Dallas at a privately owned venue, like a hotel with sufficient conference room space to accommodate the show.
“The judge made the right ruling,” said City attorney Larry Casto. “We are still confident that we [would have prevailed] on the underlying merits if the case had gone to trial.”
It’s good to hear Casto is confident, because it’s possible he’ll get the opportunity to find out if his side will prevail on the merits.
Roger Albright, TEE’s local counsel in the case, said he’s disappointed the judge declined to rule on the central issue of the case: “whether the convention center is a public forum” Albright said.
“Instead, we are presumably looking at an appeal and local taxpayers like me being asked to pay even more attorney’s fees to the city’s outside counsel beyond the $675,000 already spent,” he said.
Of course, the city of Dallas isn’t the only entity spending money here. The cost of going this far, just to have the case booted on the issue of standing, must sting a bit for Exxxotica, as well.
TEE Director Jeff Handy hasn’t commented on the judge’s ruling or whether his company plans to appeal. He may decide discretion is the better part of valor and either seek a different venue for future editions of Exxxotica Dallas, or simply abandon Dallas as a host city altogether.
Either way, if the current disposition of the case is to be viewed as a victory for Dallas, it has been a costly one — and arguably a hollow, purely symbolic one, as well.
When the Council originally took its stand against Exxxotica taking place at the Hutchison Center, the woman for whom the venue was named spoke up to support the decision.
“I totally admire the leadership of the mayor and those city council people who said if we have to litigate this issue, let’s do it, because it’s worth making it clear in the law that people who are coming here to gather to degrade women and children, and promotes activity that degrades other people, that they’re not welcome here,” Republican former congresswoman Hutchison said.
What Hutchison didn’t mention, however, is the council’s vote didn’t exactly represent a unified voice of opposition to events like Exxxotica, seeing as how the tally was 8-7 in favor of denying TEE access to the Hutchison Center.
Put in the context of Hutchison’s quote lauding the decision, the message sent was just over half of Dallas doesn’t welcome pornographers and their ilk. While less dramatic and definitive than Hutchison’s quote might suggest, the vote does seem more consistent with a city in which strip clubs, adult bookstores, massage parlors and other adult businesses are not exactly difficult to find.
So, socially conservative Dallas residents, you tell me: Given that I can get a lap dance, massage and stack of porn DVDs any time I’d like without ever straying outside walking distance from the junction of Walton Walker and Loop 12 (where the convention center is located), is it worth another few hundred thousand of your city’s bucks to make sure I can’t do something similar inside the Hutchison Center three days out of the year?
It’s food for thought, at least… And quite expensive food, at that.
Image: downtown Dallas, © fcn80.
