Wednesday, May 9, 2012    Text size: 

LOS ANGELES — The final meeting of the Adult Film Industry Working Group will be held Friday at City Hall.

The panel, which has met two times already, is charged with crafting policies to implement Los Angeles' porn-condom ordinance and plans to report its findings to City Council on May 16.

At the hearing on Friday, members of the panel will approve the group's second meeting's minutes and the city administrative officer will present for review and approval the working group’s report with recommendations to the mayor and City Council.

The meeting will also include a discussion of "next steps" and general public comments.

Enforcement of Los Angeles City Ordinance No. 181989, called the "Safer Sex in the Adult Industry Act," has been put on hold while the city tries to sort out how to implement it, as well as determine which authority would be responsible for tending to it.

The porn-condom ordinance was passed by City Council in January while a ballot-initiative effort by the AIDS Healthcare Foundation was in full swing; council members decided for the ordinance that makes condom use mandatory for porn productions shot on location within city limits after weighing legal and ballot-initiative costs.

At its second meeting last month, the Adult Film Industry Working Group — comprising of various officials from Film LA, the LAPD, city Fire Department, the City Attorney's office and county Health Department — discussed potential problems with enforcement, including whether Film LA, which coordinates film permits for the city, can ask producers whether their productions involve sex.

Questions such as those, it was brought up, could lead to First Amendment issues.

One of the number of topics discussed involve cam sites and whether the city could enforce the law in the privacy of people's homes by raiding them over suspected violations.

Another problem that dogs the ordinance is the actual cost of implementing it through a formal program, particularly when the city faces a $238-million shortfall.

Group such as the Free Speech Coalition have been adamantly opposed to the ordinance and pending enforcement, and claim that the ordinance is a waste of taxpayer money.

Last week, the Free Speech Coalition's Diane Duke and Jeffrey Douglas met with Los Angeles City Administrative Officer Miguel Santana and his staff to discuss the recently enacted condom ordinance for adult industry productions.

Duke and Douglas listened to the city administrator's thoughts on the ordinance in general and the complications inherent in its implementation and enforcement specifically and the FSC discussed constitutional issues raised by the ordinance and voiced concern over the potential for government overreach in its enforcement. According to Duke, the meeting was successful.  

The "Safer Sex" ordinance currently isn't being enforced in the city, but later this month the ordinance likely will be put in effect, dramatically changing the wheels of porn production in the region.   

Los Angeles' San Fernando Valley, also known as Porn Valley, counts more than 100 adult film studios, 800 performers and about 3,000 closely working in the industry — and many studios have threatened to leave the region and contemplate moves to other states, including Arizona, Nevada, Oregon and Florida.

The Safer Sex in the Adult Film Industry Ordinance Working Group meeting is scheduled Friday from 9-10 a.m. at Los Angeles' City Hall, 200 N. Main St., 15th Floor. The meeting is open to the general public.