City Council won't take further action against 'sexpresso' stands

YAKIMA, Wash. -- Despite concerns about pole dances and Five Dollar Hollers, the Yakima City Council decided today against taking further action against coffee stands featuring scantily clad baristas.

During a special meeting at City Hall, the council debated the wisdom of applying the city’s new adult business ordinance to coffee stands or any other businesses that engage in “adult sales practices.”

The meeting was scheduled in response to police reports of pole dancing and $5 “booty shakes” offered at so-called sexpresso stands. There are four in Yakima and one in Union Gap.

In the end, the council voted 4-3 against a motion by Councilman Dave Edler that would have adopted language modeled on new laws in Snohomish County, where authorities recently arrested five baristas on prostitution charges.

Voting in favor of Edler’s motion were council colleagues Maureen Adkison and Dave Ettl. Voting against were Mayor Micah Cawley and council members Kathy Coffey, Rick Ensey and Bill Lover.

“I just think we have to be careful as far as regulating free enterprise,” Coffey warned.

But Edler warned the council’s inaction would not squelch complaints. “We’ve almost guaranteed that this will come back to us,” he said.

Today’s debate was only the latest skirmish in a culture war that erupted last summer, when Edler first proposed tougher regulations to counter a growing proliferation of sexpresso stands in Yakima.

After the council updated the city’s indecent exposure ordinance to outlaw G-strings or see-through apparel as primary clothing, police in January conducted an undercover sting and cited a barista at Dream Girls for a G-string violation.

Police said baristas at two other coffee stands, Deja Brew and Moulin Brew, offered suggestive dances for tips, raising fears such stands were beginning to mimic strip clubs.

-- Chris Bristol