PROVIDENCE — from www.projo.com – Mayor David N. Cicilline signed an executive order, effective Friday, prohibiting the city Board of Licenses from issuing adult entertainment licenses to establishments that employ minors.
The announcement came Monday afternoon, shortly before the City Council was set to consider two proposed city ordinances prohibiting persons under the age of 18 from working in adult entertainment establishments, which include strip clubs and adult video stores.
Richard Shappy, owner of the Cadillac Lounge and the Satin Doll, is president of the Rhode Island Entertainment Association. He said that the five Providence strip clubs that his association represents intend to comply. “We support it 100 percent. There is no way that we want to employ anyone under the age of 18,” he said.
The city’s 10 strip clubs have also been asked by the city Board of Licenses to sign a voluntary pledge not to hire minors. Shappy says the entertainment association’s members have signed the pledges and will return them Tuesday.
“This is not a very prevalent situation,” he said. “None of the clubs in our association have persons under the age of 18. Entertainers have to be 18. Waitresses, bartenders, and even bar backs have to be 21.”
Some City Council members say that the mayor’s order may be unenforceable, and that the necessary changes must come from the council via ordinance amendments. “The City Charter clearly states that the licensing board is governed by state law and city ordinance,” said City Councilman John Lombardi, D-Federal Hill.
Deputy City Solicitor Adrienne G. Southgate said that the mayor can issue an executive order on administrative issues falling within his jurisdiction as CEO of the city. “The board of licenses is subject to mayoral appointments approved by the council, so it is under the purview of the executive branch in that sense,” she said.
Meanwhile, the council moved on Monday evening to close the loophole in city law.
City Councilman Michael Solomon, D-Elmhurst, proposed an ordinance which would prohibit persons younger than 18 from providing entertainment or serving food and drinks at “adult entertainment establishments.”
Council Majority Leader Terrence Hassett, D-Smith Hill, proposed an ordinance with a wider scope: prohibiting minors in “sexually explicit businesses.”
“Limiting it just to adult establishments doesn’t deal with places like an adult bookstore. The idea is that children should not be around sexually explicit material at all,” Hassett said. Both ordinances were referred the council’s ordinance committee, which Solomon chairs.
Cicilline says the purpose of the mayor’s executive order is to create a tool that can be employed immediately while the council considers the ordinances. “Exploiting minors is totally reprehensible and the loophole that allows it must be closed immediately,” Cicilline said in a statement. “This order gives the Providence Licensing Board some real power while the process of developing local and state legislation is under way.”
Neither the proposed ordinances, nor the mayor’s executive order automatically rescind the license of a club caught employing minors. Solomon’s proposed ordinance would assess a $500 fee for first-time violators and $1,000 for each subsequent offense. The executive order and Hassett’s proposed ordinance do not include penalties for violators.
The proposals and the order also lack language dealing with the city’s numerous spas and brothels, which could also be employing underage girls.
All the initiatives came after a Providence Journal report last week exposed the fact that state and city law ban photos and films of minors in sexually suggestive poses, but not live acts.