A bill being written by a Utah lawmaker directs the state's porn czar to develop model ordinances for Utah communities wishing to protect their residents from pornography and obscenity.
Rep. Wayne Harper, R-West Jordan, said several community leaders approached him and asked if the state's obscenity and pornography complaints ombudsman, Paula Houston, could be more involved in helping them write local laws.
"I concurred with them that her office needs to go through and provide some leadership in developing model ordinances and regulations that can be enforced with uniformity," Harper said.
"It's to resolve a problem that a couple of counties and cities in the state have had where they've approached her and she's brought it up that she didn't feel it was in her charter, and so this makes it clear that she can do it."
Houston's post, the first of its kind in the nation, was created by the 2000 Legislature. The former West Valley prosecutor was named to the position in late January of this year but given a vague job description. Her exact duties continue to evolve, she said.
Houston said she already considers drafting model ordinances a part of her job but doesn't object to Harper placing that responsibility into statute.
However, Houston said, model ordinances governing sexually oriented businesses already are available. She said she has spoken with representatives of several Utah communities about sexually oriented business laws, but none has asked her specifically for a sample ordinance.
"I don't think there's a need for me to create a new model ordinance, but I may be wrong," she said.
Sexually oriented business ordinances, by nature, "pretty much have to be local ordinances," she said, because every community is different and may have specific needs or concerns.
"Sexually oriented businesses, Internet and child pornography — pull all those things together and maybe there are some recommendations that would come out of her office for the different political subdivisions," Harper said.
Houston said the regulation of Internet pornography is handled largely at the federal level and child pornography is governed at the state level.
Scott Bergthold, a Scottsdale, Ariz., attorney and former president of the now-defunct Community Defense Counsel, wrote a model ordinance on sexually oriented businesses for the International Business Lawyers Association. He also has advised several Utah communities in developing their own anti-nudity and anti-pornography laws.
Bergthold said it's a good idea for the state to give its communities a sample ordinance as a starting point from which they can develop their own laws.
"Then you avoid the problem that California and some other states have had where everybody around the state has different ordinances, then something gets invalidated . . . and everybody is running around scrambling, trying to figure out how it fits into what their current code structure is," he said.
Bergthold said most Utah communities already regulate sexually oriented businesses, pornography and obscenity but may do it in a variety of ways, including through zoning ordinances and business licenses.
By consolidating those restrictions under one or a series of specific ordinances, he said, local communities show they "recognize their continuing duty to adopt their laws and update their laws on a regular basis with court decisions as they are announced."
A sample ordinance promoted by the state only makes that process easier, Bergthold said. But it's important, he added, that Utah's community ordinances reflect decisions made by the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Denver, which may have interpreted pornography and obscenity laws differently than the other 11 federal appeals courts.
That variation in judicial decision-making is why a nationally promoted model ordinance just won't work for most states without significant revision, Bergthold said.
Harper said he doesn't expect much opposition to his bill because it simply clarifies duties of the porn czar. He noted that when the bill creating the position was passed, language specifying the porn czar's powers and duties ultimately was not included.
Houston has been working on a moral nuisance law and plans to present her proposal to the Judiciary Interim Committee at its November meeting. If passed by the Legislature, the law would protect communities from "any place that is a nuisance as a result of obscenity and pornography," she said — similar to laws that forbid drug houses.
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