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The once great Memphis is doomed.

shadowcat

Atlanta suburb

Strip Club Beer Ban Takes Effect Jan. 1

The beer comes off the tables at the eight strip clubs in Memphis starting Jan. 1.

Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell announced the county will begin enforcing a four-year-old ordinance approved by the Shelby County Commission in 2007 and tied up in the court system until last month.

That was when a federal appeals court gave the county the formal approval to begin enforcement.

“We will be prepared on the first of January to fully enforce this ordinance,” Luttrell told reporters Thursday, Nov. 10. “It will be a large undertaking.”

The adult-oriented business ordinance applies to adult bookstores and strip clubs. In addition to the total beer and alcohol ban, which several strip-club owners protested would effectively kill their businesses, the ordinance requires owners to get a $500 permit each year. The ordinance also requires dancers and all other employees of clubs to undergo a background check and get a $100-a-year work permit.

Luttrell denied the goal of the ordinance is to force the businesses to close.

“The enforcement of this ordinance represents the delicate balance between a person's right to operate a business in our community and how he or she operates that business,” Luttrell said.

The apparatus for the new rules involves the Shelby County Clerk's office and the Shelby County Sheriff's office as well as the Shelby County District Attorney General's office.

The background checks to be performed by the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation will bar those who have violated laws governing the strip-club industry from getting a permit to work in the clubs. Felony convictions of owners could also be used to deny permits for clubs.

Those decisions will be made by an adult-oriented businesses board already appointed and in place.

With the Jan. 1 change, violations of the rules for strip clubs will no longer be handled by the city of Memphis beer board but instead by the five-member AOB board. A suspension of a beer permit by the beer board was usually appealed by club owners to Circuit Court, and they were able to keep their clubs open without interruption.

A consultant hired by the county in drafting the 2007 ordinance questioned why the city body never revoked a beer permit for repeated violations. He also said in comparison to other cities with strip clubs, the clubs in Memphis operated with little regard for any rules or regulations.

The applications for permits will be handled by the clerk's office with the sheriff's department responsible for enforcement and the district attorney general's office enforcing laws governing the operation of the clubs.

The beer and alcohol ban, as well as the other regulations, apply to the city of Memphis until or unless the city enacts its own ordinance governing the clubs.

Once the ordinance was passed, some bookstores and their employees began the process of getting permits from the clerk's office.

County Clerk Wayne Mashburn says the money from those applications has been held in an escrow account while club owners waged a stubborn court battle in which they lost at every level and then continued to appeal to block enforcement of the ordinance