Kansas City, Missouri- Regulation of adult entertainment in unincorporated Jackson County is long overdue, county officials said Monday.
The county’s prosecutor, sheriff’s office and health department all favor a 38-page ordinance that County Executive Mike Sanders [pictured] proposed to the Jackson County Legislature.
The regulations stem from recent concerns about Erotic City, 8401 E. Truman Road, which has 26 pornographic video booths and a nude dancing bar.
While adult entertainment is strictly regulated in Kansas City and other cities in the county, rural areas are wide open, Sanders testified.
“It’s no different than what we had in the Wild West,” Sanders testified. “Anything goes.”
Erotic City is in Blue Summit, just east of the Kansas City corporate limits. In November, a man was convicted in federal court of taking a 14-year-old girl to Erotic City for unlawful sex. The girl said she had sex with up to 20 men in an “orgy room” there.
On Monday, the sheriff’s department produced a list of 115 responses that deputies made to the Erotic City address since early 2004. The calls included assaults, auto thefts, harassment and property damage — far more activity than at any other business in the county, Deputy Ronda Montgomery said.
“It constantly has to be kept an eye on,” Montgomery said. Erotic City was not charged with any offenses, and in some cases the manager was the complaining party.
Rhonda Boone, one of the operators of Erotic City, referred questions Monday to attorney Berry F. Laws III, who was unavailable for comment.
Two other adult businesses called After Dark are located in unincorporated Jackson County but generate very few calls, Montgomery said.
Paula Livingston, head of the Jackson County Health Department, testified that there is risk of spreading sexually transmitted diseases at Erotic City because sex can occur in booths or through holes in walls between booths.
Legislators spoke favorably of the proposed ordinance, although Henry Rizzo said the county should be prepared for a lawsuit.
Sanders, a former prosecutor, said that he expected a lawsuit but that the ordinance, patterned after regulations in Kansas City and elsewhere, is solid.
Among other things, the ordinance would require employees of adult businesses to be licensed, would ban locked doors and wall openings in video booths, and would require owners to prohibit loitering, sex or solicitation of sex on the premises.
Richard Bryant, legal counsel for After Dark businesses and some adult entertainment centers in Kansas City, said he could not comment on the ordinance until he had read it.
But the Kansas City ordinance it is based upon has proved workable, he said.
“It’s certainly not one we have felt compelled to file a lawsuit on,” Bryant said.