Joe Redner's"VOICE OF FREEDOM"

Evaluation is an important necessity of government programs and organizations, that in being similar to businesses, they need to know how they are performing. According to (Peters, 1984) "in its simplest form, evaluating a public program involves cataloging the goals of the program, measuring the degree to which these goals have been achieved, and perhaps suggesting changes that might bring the performance of the organization more in line with the stated purposes of the program." In other words, policy evaluation includes the assessment of a policy, including its content, implementation, goal attainment, and other effects, while also trying to identify factors that augment to the success or failure of a policy.

Policy evaluation is as old as policy is, furthermore, " Legislators, administrators, judges, pressure group officials, media commentators, and citizens have always made judgements about the worth or effects of particular policies, programs, and projects" (Anderson, 1997). Evaluations can also be used for less laudable purposes. According to (Anderson, 1997) "program decision-makers may turn to evaluation to delay a decision; justify and legitimate a decision already made; to extricate themselves from controversy about future directions by passing the buck; to vindicate the program in the eyes of its constituents, it funders, or the public to satisfy conditions of a government or a foundation grant through the ritual of evaluation."

The most important step in an evaluation is to identify the goals of the program. "The legislation that establishes a program or organization should be the source of goal statements" (Peters, 1984), however, the language of the legislation is usually written in a vague manner to avoid offending a colleague of the coalition that is needed to pass legislation. The advantages and usefulness of a program evaluation extend to the evaluation of particular policies. Though more narrow in scope than programs, policies also need to be evaluated as their effectiveness and adherence to their original goals. According to (Jones, 1984) "policy is a standing decision characterized by behavioral consistency and repetitiveness on the part of those who make it and those who abide by it." The ordinance that I have chosen for this paper is the "Separation Ordinance" in Tampa, Florida.

What is the Separation Ordinance and Why Evaluate it?

The separation ordinance was signed into law by the City Council of the City of Tampa, Florida on December 3, 1999. This policy aimed at reducing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, prostitution and lewd and lascivious acts. The basis thrust of this policy is that people who make any physical contact in an adult entertainment establishment will face certain and swift arrest.

The over-arching philosophy of the policy is that keeping people from having any physical contact in an adult entertainment will help to:

· stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases to the public

· protect adult entertainers from the exposure of sexually transmitted diseases

· protect patrons from the exposure of sexually transmitted diseases

· reduce the amount of criminal activity occurring in adult uses, i.e. prostitution and lewd and lascivious acts

· keep the community a safer place

These may be lofty expectations from an ordinance that basically deals with trying to arrest individuals who are closer than six feet within an adult entertainment establishment. But the notion is that if the communities are safer places, these things will occur naturally. In other words, if lap dances are stopped, the problem our community faces with sexually transmitted diseases will vanish.

The separation ordinance does not provide clear guidelines for its enforcement. Instead, local police are encouraged to implement raids on adult use establishments that conform to the ordinances objectives, while taking into account local considerations and laws. The part of the ordinance dealing with the arrest of individuals for being within six feet of each other is much more known than that dealing with the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. This part of the ordinance dealing with arrests has caused the most controversy. According to (Huettel, 1999) City Attorney James Palermo stated that officials haven't decided when to enforce the ordinance; again demonstrating the vagueness of the ordinance. Under the provisions of the ordinance, anyone who comes in contact with one another in an adult establishment will be arrested; therefore, there are numerous incidents of tourist being held accountable for laws they are not aware of. In July, the new ordinance was enforced 8 months after it was passed and the arrests included an airline pilot, a student, a lawyer, and they were all visiting from Wisconsin, Ohio, Georgia, Palm Beach, Orlando and Fort Meyers (Sandler, 1999).

At times, the need for evaluation may emanate from public protests. This seems to be the case in lap dance ordinances around the country and Canada. Even though a by- law was passed in Toronto banning lap dancing, as in Tampa, lap dancing continues. Detective Sergeant Chris Hobson, of the Toronto police force's morality squad reports that no one is really sure if lap dancing went away entirely, but there is no question its still there and still an issue (Toronto Star). A special interest group in Shoreline, Washington was not willing to compromise their narrow agenda for the sake of the community's broader values (Deis, 1999). This scenario demonstrates a special interest group pursuing a strategy for gaining a decisive role in reshaping the foundation of their government. This special interest group was powerful in the region's adult entertainment industry. When the Shoreline City Council began a process on regulating lap dancing, a particular business decided to challenge the foundation of the city and their strategic weapon used against the city was a charter election (Deis, 1999). This was an attempt to gain voter support for a ballot measure "that would have eventually imposed a charter on the city, forced the entire current council out of office, and appointed a charter commission charged with designing brand new city government and them staging new elections for its leadership" (Deis, 1999). This charter never materialized, however, it is important to note that this case history illustrates how special interest groups can use the democratic process to forward their specific agendas in their efforts to avoid local government control. It also shows how a community, when threatened from the outside, can coalesce to defend itself and can succeed; "as a result, no local government can be complacent about how well it understands and reflects it's community's values while honoring the constitutional rights of minority interests" (Deis, 1999).

Protests in local city council meetings have been organized to fight certain aspects of this policy that appear to be unfair, and unconstitutional when implemented. Some of these cases seem unfair when a real infraction has not been committed; however, it is more the case of being guilty by association. Perhaps there are some cases that are clear-cut and individuals should be held accountable for their actions.

Due to the controversy surrounding this aspect of the Six-Foot Rule, I would like to design an evaluation project, local to Tampa, that focuses on the impact of the policy on residents of the community, that of stopping the transmission of sexual diseases. Reports originating from the City of Tampa City Council Meetings, the agency responsible for oversight of the Six-Foot Rule's implementation, are very favorable to this policy. However, policy language explicitly states that they want to protect the public from the exposure to disease transmitted by physical contact of a sexual nature and therefore the community is empowered by the policy. A cursory overview of newspaper reports about the Six-Foot Rule shows that quite the opposite is occurring. Thus, I would like to design a project that seeks to answer: 1) To what extent is the Separation Ordinance responsible for making the public safer about the transmission of sexually transmitted diseases? 2) How do residents of Tampa feel about the Separation Ordinance?; and if the answer to question two is negative then; 3) How do the benefits of a policy such as the Separation Ordinance balance with the negative impacts that it has on American citizens and themselves?

Intended Audience

There are several groups and individuals that may be interested in the results of an evaluation of the Separation Ordinance. These groups include individuals who make and implement policy, and groups and individuals in the public affected by the policy, or have a special interest in the policy. People who participated in making the Separation Ordinance include the City of Tampa's City Council. Charlie Miranda, president of the City Council, signed it into law - some have criticized this as a political stunt.

Those most responsible for the implementation of the Separation Ordinance are the City Council. Others include local law enforcement and the courts, and city officials-such as the mayor who can encourage overall compliance with the Separation Ordinance. An example of a mayor encouraging compliance with the Separation Ordinance occurred in Tampa when Mayor Dick Greco responded to complaints that the ordinance was not being complied with.

Interested publics include adult entertainers, patrons of adult entertainment (including tourist), special interest groups and adult entertainment business owners. In some cities people have formed First Amendment right groups or special interest and stood against perceived, unfair aspects of the Separation Ordinance. In some cities charismatic, individuals and business owners have raised the issue of fairness in the Separation Ordinance, and have become the focal point of protests against it. This is the case in Tampa where Joe Redner, entrepreneur; including adult businesses and a local resident, uses his weekly television show "Voice of Freedom," and his affiliations with various First Amendment rights activist, to protest the policy. According to (Kahn, 1999) "any regulation of adult entertainment must be carefully drafted and presented to provide adequate protections for the applicant's First Amendment rights or else the ordinance will most likely be stricken unconstitutional."

The courts, primarily an arm for implementing the Separation Ordinance, should be particularly interested in an evaluation that focuses on the voice of the publics to make sure their rights are being upheld and the goals of the ordinance are rational. In addition to the primary audiences, other city councils in other states, First Amendment right advocates, and academia may all be interested in the outcomes of the this program evaluation plan.

Methodology

As I stated earlier, I would like to design an evaluation project, local to Tampa, that focuses on the impact of the policy on local residents - including residents who live in locations that surround adult establishment businesses. As a result of the evaluation I would like to answer 1) To what extent is the Separation Ordinance responsible for reducing the spread of sexually transmitted diseases? 2) How do the residents feel about the Separation Ordinance? And if the answer is negative then, 3) How do the benefits of an ordinance such as the Six-Foot Rule balance with the negative impacts that it has on American citizens and themselves?

Goals, Measures, and Data

The main goals for the ordinance are to 1) to rid the community of individuals who participate in adult entertainment and/ or support any illegal activities in adult entertainment establishment, and, 2) stop the spread of sexually transmitted diseases. The guidelines dictated by the City Council of the City of Tampa, that law enforcement use to achieve these goals are listed earlier in the paper. In achieving these goals, the City Council emphasizes that residents should be involved in the process, and stresses that the majority of residents support the Separation Ordinance. Ways of measuring these two major goals of the Separation Ordinance include 1) recording the actual number of arrests prompted by the Separation Ordinance, 2) comparing crime statistics before and after the implementation of the Separation Ordinance - and over the total years of the Separation Ordinance existence, 3) comparing local health statistics of sexually transmitted diseases before and after the implementation of the Separation Ordinance, and, 4) recording citizen's opinions of the Separation Ordinance and its impact on their communities and themselves.

When recording the actual number of arrests, it is important to note the stated reason for the arrests. Were the individuals arrested for lewd and lascivious acts in an adult entertainment establishment? If so, was the adult entertainer, adult entertainment patron or owner of an adult entertainment establishment the culprit in the majority of cases, or are the majority of infractions results of raid tactics implemented by the Mayor that I stated earlier in the paper? It may be significant to break down illegal activity (lewd and lascivious acts, and prostitution) related cases in terms of actual involvement with adult entertainment establishments, or are these illegal activities having their fruition by other modes (ex. streetwalker prostitution or isolated lewd and lascivious acts). This data regarding arrests is available from the local police records. If the desired data regarding arrests are not broken down this way for the evaluator, hopefully the researchers will engage in the task of concentrating on one area and go through its record of Separation Ordinance arrests. The procedures just stated can also be applied to sexually transmitted disease data, while including the same distinctions about data, regarding directly related incidents to adult entertainment establishments or transmission through other means.

Comparing overall crime statistics before and during the Separation Ordinance will require the cooperation of law enforcement. What kinds of illegal acts, and their frequency need to be known? A major indicator on sexually transmitted disease is incidence of prostitution. One would expect the aggressive implementation of the Separation Ordinance to cause the incident of sexually transmitted disease to decrease. It will be interesting to note and compare the changes in the rates of different kinds of illegal activity due to the Separation Ordinance.

Surveys, interviews and focus groups will be helpful in providing information on citizen opinions of the Separation Ordinance and its impact on decreasing the transmission of sexually transmitted disease in their community. I would like to design survey questionnaires and mail them out to at least 75% of Tampa's residents in surrounding adult use areas. To try to insure a decent percentage of return, the questionnaire will be approximately five short, multiple-choice questions on the back of a postage-paid post card. Questions will appear similar to this example:

On a scale of 1 through 5, with 1 being poor and 5 being excellent:

1) How do you rate the Separation Ordinance?

2) What effect do you feel the Separation Ordinance has had on addressing transmission of sexually transmitted disease in your community?

This questionnaire will work as a vote of, or against, confidence in the Separation Ordinance. The City Council of the City of Tampa Florida proclaims that the majority is favorable of the Separation Ordinance. An independent evaluation of that statement will be more reliable.

I would like to have the program evaluator interview approximately 30 citizens and 30 additional citizens in surrounding adult use areas. The citizens can be picked at random from the questionnaire. Also, the individuals will hopefully feel more at ease to speak their mind than they might in a focus group.

In interviews I will want the evaluator to ask questions such as:

· Have you noticed any change in your community since the Separation Ordinance Implemention?

· Do you feel better as a result of the Separation Ordinance, in that it did not expose you to sexually transmitted diseases?

· Do you feel that there is anything unfair about the ordinance, or how it is enforced by the proper authorities?

At least two focus groups of both citizens of Tampa and citizens in surrounding adult use areas may also provide an excellent source of information as to how they feel about the Separation Ordinance and the implementation of it by local officials. Focus groups will also reveal different topics that should be researched and possibly discussed in interviews.

Setting and time frame

The setting for this project design is Tampa, Florida - concentrating on certain surrounding adult use areas. Data from Tampa will be compared to other data hopefully available from other cities across the country. But this evaluation will specifically detail the Separation Ordinance's impact of the transmission of sexual diseases on citizens and any fluctuation of illegal acts in connection to adult entertainment establishment, while including the opinion in Tampa. Perhaps these methods may be used in other communities that may have a need for this type of program evaluation.

This project is designed to be carried out in a 6-month time frame. In the initial month, preliminary data will be gathered as to the characteristics of Tampa, the City Council of the City of Tampa Florida and its citizens, crime statistics and overall numerical impact of the Separation Ordinance in terms of arrests and changes in crime rates, and changes in sexually transmitted diseases. In, the next month the survey questionnaires will be developed and focus groups will be conducted so they can have input into the survey. During the third, fourth and fifth months questionnaires will be mailed and received - with a reminder sent out at the end of the fourth month.

In the fourth and fifth months interviews will be conducted; focus group follow-up also. And in the final month, the data will be analyzed and made into a report to be distributed to all interested audiences. No complicated statistical techniques are expected to be necessary. Most of the data analysis will be qualitative. Totals and averages will be reported and calculated only to compliment the qualitative data.

Impact and Special Problems

Expeditious reactions are not expected from this evaluation. Instead, I expect its major results to be used as an informational resource for those discussing policy. Local authorities could use information from this study to improve strategies for citizen involvement with the Separation Ordinance, and to increase perceived fairness of its implementation. The City Council of Tampa could also use this policy evaluation results as either an affirmation of their findings in regarding citizen sentiment about the Separation Ordinance, or as a gauge for what needs remain to be achieved in terms of gaining citizen support.

I think it is highly unlikely that this kind of evaluation would cause any kind of revolutions regarding policy. Nonetheless, unintended impacts should be considered. The study could have the result of raising the consciousness of citizens about the Separation Ordinance. This could, in turn, cause more protest against the policy, or more citizen support for the policy - or perhaps a split among citizens, or citizens and special interest groups. Another unintended results could be a rise in litigation with possibilities of large costs to Tampa.

No great change affecting society is anticipated. Most of society does not have affiliations with adult entertainment establishment, and therefore lacks an interest in the Separation Ordinance. Compounding the lack of interest from the majority of the population is the fact that most adult use employees are not organized into a strong political block. Therefore, politicians and bureaucrats do not feel as compelled to appease their demands, as they would demands of religious organizations. Perhaps this study, if duplicated in other affected communities, would be a catalyst for this kind of organization.

Special problems conducting the study mainly deal with access to information. Permission to conduct the study is not necessary since most data is public information, however, if permission is attained from the necessary agency, you may have more access to additional information. If the study is perceived to be against the interests of the policy makers and local officials, they could put up barriers. It is postulated that a majority of this information is public record, but gatekeepers can make research harder.

Another problem could be the response of residents. Individuals may not be interested enough to simply fill out and return the questionnaire, be interviewed or come to focus groups. The study is designed so that information will be coming from several sources. This allows for crosschecking information as to its validity and for back-ups in case a source needs to be eliminated. Other special problems could include the attitude of the researcher and how that could negatively impact the information gathering process, perhaps a lack of truthfulness from citizens. Residents could feel that they could be single out and harassed by local officials if they speak their mind against the Separation Ordinance.

Policy Recommendations

After examining the verbatim City Council minutes (Tampa City Council) and watching the video taped version of the December 2^nd - 3^rd meeting, one cannot deny the fact that the City Council of the City of Tampa took discerning measures to ensure that all interested parties had a voice; the council even secured Tampa Convention to accommodate the people. Nonetheless, it appears that the citizen's voice is missing. In other words, there is only representation of 2 camps; the bureaucrats and the adult entertainment camp. The fact that the adult entertainment camp was providing most of the relevant scientific studies by accredited individuals, it seems that the findings were automatically (perhaps subconsciously) discredited because of their affiliations. On the other hand, the city also has presented relevant cases in surrounding towns to defend their claims. When Dr. Douglas Holt, Director of the Hillsborough County Health Department (the state agency charged to control and prevent communicable diseases) reported "in general, activities where clothing or intact skin comes in contact with either body fluid or infected areas of the skin have a low risk of transmission of disease." He went on to say, "nude lap dancing that does not involve contact between the genital area and the mucus membrane of a patron, would not transmit disease " (Tampa City Council). He was then asked by the council, who he was being paid by, and he kindly replied "I'm on state time." This is an illustration of his findings perhaps not being what the council had intended it to be and then trying to discredit it by assuming the he was hired by the other camp. Again, my point it is that you do not get a fair representation of the people because the relevant studies have been disregarded and the bureaucratic camp's ideology is what appears to be correct. Both camps have valid information and needs to be evaluated in regard to the goals of the ordinance.

The goal of the ordinance to stop the spread of disease is a measure that seems noble. Nonetheless, the goal of stopping disease transmission cannot be accomplished by this ordinance. Therefore, on this account, I recommend focus groups to find out what the pulse of the community really is. The council is expected that the Separation Ordinance is having a positive effect on decreasing the transmission of sexual diseases and reducing illegal acts in adult use establishments. However, it also expected that implementaion of this policy will be found to be quite disfavorable - even appear unconstitutional. I recommend that this aspect of the Separation Ordinance be revamped - perhaps tailored to a possible solution/ compromise that could come as a result of focus groups. This type of evaluation seeks to capture the voice of the people and produce solutions and compromises from the ground up. Other findings could be that people realize the local authorites are abusing the Seperation Ordinance, and using it to carry out their own personal agendas. As reports of individual business owners being singled out and focused upon during raids of adult establishments, has left us wondering what the real goal of the ordinance really is.

In these cases, the City Council would need to be put on notice so that stricter guidelines and safeguarding measures could be put into play. I strongly advice an independent trained interpreter be brought in on all City Council meetings and other relevant meetings. This professional will report on what is said, but more importantly what is not said. In other words, body language, hand gestures, eye movement and the inflection of a tone of voice are all part of the repertoire of unsaid messages. The interpreter can report unbiased summaries of the meetings and let the citizens evaluate what the goals are.

An independent evaluation of the policy from the viewpoint of the people that it affects is important. And in this case it involves protecting the community from STD's. Agencies can look at their numerical indicators, but it so important to actually look at changes that occur or don't occur in the lives of people. One must ask if rights are being violated and if innocent people not intended to be affected by the policy, are being harmed. If this is the case, their predicament should not be ignored - or simply pushed aside for someone else to solve.

In Toronto, an initiative has been made by the Metropolitan Licensing Commission, which registers more than 2,500 exotic dancers and 41 clubs, to work on by-laws to regulate exotic dancing to assure safety for dancers and the public (Chidley, 1995). Therefore, if Tampa's concern is the transmission of sexual diseases, than perhaps a commission can try to insure safety measures for the dancers (i.e. education on STD, regular health screenings). However, as Dr. Judith Hanna, Senior Research Scholar at the University of Maryland reported at the City Council meeting, that during exotic dance, no bodily fluids are exchanged, so there is no health risk (Tampa City Council). STD's can't be transmitted through dance; therefore the implementation of regulation on lap dancing would only be to make the community feel safer, knowing that there is oversight on the matter.

In London, the same holds true where "the Pru and Standard Life are major shareholder's in SFI group, owners of Britain's biggest chain of lap dancing clubs" (Horley, 1999). SFI has been successful in packaging lap dancing, as mainstream entertainment and does so by their strict door policies. The police have the power to close down these establishments on the grounds that to many, the explicit finale to many dances constitutes a lewd act. However, the vice unit officers report that "their priorities are drugs and violence and SFI suffers from neither" (Horley, 1999). Due to SFI's professionalism, councils share the same views as police and are becoming more liberal. It used to be that the dancers had to stay at least three feet away to receive licensing, but SFI has proved that a simple no touching rule is sufficient (Horley, 1999). These are cases where compromise and innovation was used to come up with solutions.

References

Anderson, J. (1997). Public Policymaking. New York: Houghton Mifflin.

Chidley, J. (1995). A no to dirty dancing. Maclean's, 108, 34-5.

Deis, R. (1999). How a special interest group tried to change our form of governance. Public Management. 81, 12-14.

Horley, N. (1999). They're brazen, and coming to a town near you. Statesman, 128, 32-33.

Huettel, S. (1999, December 9). Daring arrests, clubs mock lap dance ban. St. Petersburg Times, p. 6.

Jones, C. (1984). An Introduction to the study of public policy. New York: Harcourt Brace.

Kahn, M. (1999, May). Regulating adult entertainment and sexually oriented businesses. The Agenda, 22, 2-7.

Lap dancing is still a hot issue. (1998, August 1). Toronto Star, p. 54.

Sandler, M. (2000, July 16). Police get tough on lap dancing. St. Petersburg Times, p. 9.

Tampa City Council Public Hearing, File no. E-99-8, 14. (1999).