By Paul Gable
Horry County Council will hold a workshop on its proposed new strip club law Tuesday June 25, 2013 in council chambers beginning at 4 p.m.
The meat of the agenda is advertised as an explanation of pending federal litigation and proposed Horry County ordinances.
The federal litigation is the stimulus for changing the current county ordinances governing strip clubs, which are woefully inadequate and expected to be struck down with the current litigation.
The intent of county staff was to rush council approval of the new ordinances governing regulation and zoning of strip clubs in order to bolster the county’s defense in court.
The proposed new ordinances are so restrictive they would effectively close down all existing strip clubs. They were drafted for the county by an attorney in Tennessee who reportedly specializes in drafting and defending these restrictive types of ordinances.
County staff wanted second reading of the proposed ordinances at last week’s regular meeting of council. However, scheduling the workshop delayed that vote.
Now we are hearing county staff wants second reading of the ordinances at tomorrow’s workshop.
Rushed legislation is never good legislation, especially when the reason for rushing it through is other than establishing solid law.
County staff has allowed this issue to sit on the back burner for approximately 15 years. Now they are trying to make up for that negligence in a few weeks.
Lack of attention to the current county strip club laws led to the current litigation in federal court.
By attempting to rush through new laws, is county staff setting up the county for further litigation and even more waste of county tax dollars on legal fees?
Speak Up…