FALLON, Nev. — The two people most surprised by the resounding defeat of an anti-brothel measure in Churchill County were the leaders on both sides of the issue.
Question 3, which sought to ban prostitution in the rural county, was defeated by a 2-to-1 margin in Tuesday’s election. In 1974, county voters supported letting two brothels operate outside Fallon.
“It blows my mind. I’ve never been so surprised in my life,” said George Flint, executive director of the Nevada Brothel Association.
Alan Perazzo, spokesman for the Coalition to End Prostitution in Churchill County, said voters clearly made their wishes known.
“I’m just totally shocked that two-thirds of our community supports prostitution. That really surprises me,” he told the Lahontan Valley News and Fallon Eagle Standard newspaper. “I don’t have any regrets at all. I still think it would make Fallon a better place for our youth to know we don’t condone that.”
The county is a Republican stronghold that gave overwhelming support to President Bush. Fallon, a ranching and military community, is 60 miles east of Reno.
Perazzo and other supporters gathered 1,337 signatures to qualify the measure for the ballot and spent about $7,000 on the campaign.
Flint said he thinks the Salt Wells Villa brothel 15 miles east of Fallon eventually will reopen now that voters reaffirmed support for legal prostitution.
The brothel has been closed for more than a year after licensee James Kopulos ran into financial problems.
“If someone could improve its appearance and operate the business with a degree of class and honor, I believe it will reopen,” Flint said.
Before a brothel can be profitable in the county, he said, the current ordinance needs to be amended.
The county must scrap a prohibition on brothel advertising and a requirement that prostitutes be employees of the business instead of independent contractors, Flint said.
The latter arrangement doesn’t work because of the transient nature of prostitutes, and the county is the only one in the state that prohibits independent contractors, Flint added.
The other brothel, Lazy B, has been shuttered for years after continual problems with its water supply.
In 1971, the Mustang Ranch east of Reno became Nevada’s first legal brothel and led to a movement that legalized prostitution in 12 of the state’s 17 counties. More than two dozen licensed brothels now operate.