Daytona Club's Secondary Effects Problem is City Commissioner

DAYTONA, Florida—Zoning laws are usually premised on the idea that strip clubs and other brick-and-mortar adult entertainment establishments attract unsavory characters that contribute to what is called "negative secondary effects," which then necessitate the passing of onerous zoning laws that keep the places in presumably less desirable locations, like commercial and industrial areas. The unsavory characters who frequent these places are usually assumed to be society's dregs, but what happens when it turns out that the problem character is also a city commissioner on whom the police need to be called because he's demanding sex with the waitresses? That's just what happened to Club Topic, according to the Daytona Beach News-Journal, which reported last week, "City Commissioner Carl Lentz received a trespass warning from an adult entertainment club early Friday after the club owner claimed Lentz demanded a female server have sex with him and threatened city action against the club if she didn't, Police Chief Mike Chitwood said." Lentz, who also sells real estate in the area (of course!), claims he's the victim and just went to the club to talk about a possible sale of the adult entertainment spot, but first-person accounts by staff, the son of the club's owner and partial video of the incident tell another story. Chief Chitwood summed up, “The allegation was that sex was demanded in exchange for lighter policing (of Club Topic)." Lentz also reportedly threw a drink on the waitress who turned down his demand for sex, which led to a call by the club to police, which eventually led to the chief telling the paper that "he will ask State Attorney R.J. Larizza on Monday to take a look at the situation to determine if a crime was committed by Lentz." Lentz at first agreed to tell his side of the story to the paper, but in the end handed that chore over to his lawyer, who predictable denied any wrongdoing by her client. “He went over there to discuss the sale of the club," said lawyer Lauren Y. Koleilat. "He's absolutely denying everything." Upon further consideration, she added in a follow-up email, "He was at the establishment at the request of the owner to discuss the sale of the property. These allegations are untrue, unfounded and politically motivated.” Politically motivated? Actually, the only political motivation that the club appears to be interested in is the politics of "can't we all just get along?" Rather than use the incident as an opportunity to score political points, the owner's son, William Bittorf, said of the club's trespasser and waitress-abuser, "Carl [Lentz] is a very nice guy. He just can't drink." No, but he can sure threaten to use his influence when caught with his hand in the cookie jar. It's a good thing the police responded professionally, but maybe there also needs to be a special zoning variance that protects clubs from abusive city commissioners who threaten political retribution when sexually rebuffed.