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NORTH WEBSTER - Flaws in the sexually oriented businesses ordinance proposed by the county and the fact that officials are gun-shy because of past litigation prompted the North Webster Town Council to again table the matter.
Town attorney Mike Armey said he was in touch with county officials Tuesday and that the Plan Commission is proposing amendments to the ordinance approved by the Kosciusko County Commissioners. He advised that the town wait and see what the amendments are before acting on the ordinance.
"I am not, after the bath we took financially before, going to be leading the pack," said council president Myron Clark.
North Webster paid $15,000 in legal fees to the Indiana Civil Liberties Union after a community standards ordinance was challenged by Sam Stimmel, owner of Cruiser's Night Club, in 1995. Including the town's attorney fees, the matter cost residents of North Webster about $28,000.
Cruiser's offers exotic dancing in the two-story bar located on East Washington Street.
Part of the settlement established by a consent decree in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Indiana, South Bend Division, permanently bars the town from enforcing the ordinance it passed in September 1994.
One of the problems with the proposed sexually oriented businesses ordinance, Armey said, is the requirement that such a business be at least 1,000 feet from a residential area. With that restriction, Armey said, "we could have none in North Webster or virtually any other town in the county."
The town of Milford has not yet acted on the matter for similar reasons, although the past litigation factor does not apply to them. Milford's attorney, Jay Rigdon, was at Wednesday's meeting as a resident of North Webster and explained that the vagueness of the ordinance could exclude a video store from opening, for example, if the content of a movie fell into the criteria outlined by the county ordinance. Two of the five movies nominated for best movie for the upcoming Academy Awards fall into that category, he said.
Vickie Bowman, director of the American Family Association of Indiana, argued that sexually oriented businesses deal with sexually explicit material and that R-rated movies would not qualify.
"I agree that you should adopt an ordinance that fits your community," Bowman said. "We don't want to ban businesses from opening or run established businesses out ... we just want to zone, regulate and license."
Bowman urged town officials to contact the National Legal Foundation for assistance in drafting a "constitutionally sound ordinance."
While Armey has been in touch with the NLF, Clark said that the town is not going to have Armey "spend time on amending a county ordinance ... that's the county's job."
Only a handful of the standing-room only crowd appeared to be at the meeting in regard to the ordinance.
Local resident Helen Hoy, who lobbied the county for the original ordinance, presented a petition signed by 230 residents encouraging town officials to adopt and enforce a sexually oriented business ordinance "as soon as possible."
Stimmel was present with his attorney, David R. Hoffman of South Bend, but had no comment. Hoffman agreed that the proposed ordinance is vague and overbroad. He said he submitted the ordinance to the ICLU as written "and there are problems." In its current form, he said, there would be "adequate grounds for a constitutional challenge."
"I don't want to feed the ICLU attorneys again," Clark said in reinforcing his decision to hold off on the ordinance. "If our attorney will not say we can defend our position, I will vote against the ordinance. I will not make the citizens of North Webster pay $28,000 again. We could have paved a hell of a lot of streets with that."
Councilmembers Ken Wagner and Kay Andrews agreed that the town should not rush into anything, making the decision to table the matter unanimous.
The council plans to discuss the matter again at its March 18 meeting if the county has made the amendments it is considering.
