LOS ANGELES — Attempting to dispel rumors that it has been seeking to secure a city deal for inspecting adult film sets under Los Angeles' new porn condom ordinance, the AIDS Healthcare Foundation said Thursday that it wouldn't bid on such a contract.
So far, city leaders have yet been able to implement any rules for enforcing the "Safer Sex" ordinance and have even asked for more time — until the end of summer — to report back to City Council on the law's recommendations.
The ordinance, first proposed by the AHF and members of the group in a ballot initiative, was signed into law by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa after City Council approved the measure in January.
Michael Weinstein, president of the AHF, said in a statement Thursday that "some opponents of the measure and members of the adult film industry have alleged that AHF would be seeking to secure a city contract for inspecting film sets for compliance."
Thursday's AHF announcement attempts to quash those rumors.
“It’s becoming clearer that the City of Los Angeles does not want—and/or many not actually have the capacity to enforce this new adult film safety ordinance that requires inspection of adult film sets for compliance with condom use in the productions,” said Michael Weinstein, president of the AHF.
“There are many objective, neutral compliance groups out there such as nursing agencies that can likely do this monitoring under contract to the city. And since this inspection and compliance effort will not cost the city anything — money for the inspections comes directly from the industry itself in the form of film permit fees — city officials should forge ahead and arrange for a qualified outside contractor to handle these compliance inspections.
Weinstein went on to say that AHF doesn't have "the capability or expertise in the arena."
"[A]s such, we will not bid on any contracts or requests for proposals to monitor adult film sets for compliance with the film permit ordinance,” he said.
Adult industry Michael Fattorosi, who has been active in trying to convince the city that the law is unworkable, told XBIZ that "AHF and Weinstein know that this is an unconstitutional and unenforceable law."
"They want someone else to clean up the mess they created by forcing this law on the citizens of Los Angeles," he said. "Millions in tax dollars will be wasted on enforcement when it should be going to schools and teachers."
Diane Duke, who leads the Free Speech Coalition as executive director, told XBIZ that the AHF's intentions behind today's announcement are unclear.
"There are a number of nonprofit organizations that provide excellent education and services for the prevention and treatment of HIV/AIDS," Duke said. "Unfortunately AIDS Healthcare Foundation is in the HIV 'business' and will do or say anything to increase their fame and fortune.
"They have proven time and time again to be untrustworthy and this case is no different," she said.
Meanwhile, a city official told XBIZ that it will be no earlier than June 5 for a committee to meet on weighing a 90-day extension over crafting the ordinance's enforcement regulations. If that were to be the case, the ordinance couldn't be enforced until the beginning of September at the earliest.
