AUSTINTOWN Concerns prompt trustees to redo stripper resolution

A court official couldn't find proof that the law professor who helped write the resolution is a registered lawyer.
By IAN HILL
VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER
AUSTINTOWN -- Township trustees have decided to rescind a controversial strip club resolution so they can propose a new, nearly identical resolution.
Trustee David Ditzler said he expects the measure will be rescinded at the Dec. 23 meeting.
The resolution, approved unanimously Sept. 23, requires strip club owners, strippers and other club employees to get a license to work in the township.
Local residents and representatives of The Babylon club had submitted petitions to the Mahoning County Board of Elections to place the resolution on the November 2003 ballot.
The petitions could prevent township officials from enforcing the resolution unless it is approved in the election.
The reason
Ditzler said the decision to rescind the resolution was made as a result of a closed-door meeting Monday night with Linette Stratford and Karen Markulin Gaglione, assistant Mahoning County prosecutors.
The assistant prosecutors were concerned that trustees had acted improperly by holding closed-door meetings to discuss the resolution with Alan Weinstein, a professor of law and urban studies at Cleveland State University, Ditzler said.
State law allows trustees to hold closed-door meetings with their attorneys. Township officials have said Weinstein was hired as both a consultant and their attorney.
To practice law in Ohio, attorneys must be registered with the attorney registration office of the Ohio Supreme Court. A Supreme Court official couldn't find a registration Tuesday for Alan Weinstein.
Atty. Scott Cochran, who represents The Babylon, has said he didn't think trustees could hold a closed-door meeting with Weinstein acting as a consultant. The assistant prosecutors echoed those concerns, Ditzler said.
Weinstein also helped write a similar strip club resolution for Boardman.
Ditzler said he expects the new strip club resolution to be nearly identical to the resolution that is slated to be rescinded. The prosecutor's office most likely will change some wording in the resolution so that businesses like drugstores that sell adult magazines do not need a license, he said.
Babylon's stance
Trustees have said they hope the resolution will limit the negative effects that a strip club can have on a community. Cochran has stressed that he feels The Babylon hasn't been a detriment to Austintown.
Cochran noted that he believes the petitions should prevent trustees from enforcing the new strip club resolution until it is approved by voters. Ditzler said that decision would be made by the county board of elections.
Status of petitions
He added, however, that he believes The Babylon should have to submit new petitions if the proposed new resolution is approved by trustees.
Cochran said The Babylon would contest that in court.
Michael Sciortino, the elections board director, said he believes the prosecutor's office would have to determine the future of the petitions.
County Prosecutor Paul Gains could not be reached to comment Tuesday.
Sciortino added that the board hasn't finished checking to ensure that all of the 1,749 signatures on the petitions are valid.
Township officials said they've collected affidavits from 20 residents who said they signed the petitions because those circulating the petitions said they were trying to put home rule on the ballot.
Home rule is a limited form of self-government that failed in the November election. Cochran said he didn't think those circulating the petitions misrepresented the purpose of the petition drive.
hill@vindy.com