4 Herald— Lantern— Dispatch 8 May '85

Establish Community Standard Council: Toughen Attack on Porn

By E. J. DUFFY VILLAS — Rev George W. Fincke handed Lower Township council an anti pornography petition signed by 3.435 peo pie during a standing-room-only meeting Monday. Volunteers and ministers from the new ly-formed Coalition of Concerned Citizens (CCCi collected the signatures over the weekend and in the final minutes before council's morning session The petition drive followed a full-page ad about it in last week's Lantern and Rev Fincke's broadcast against porn Sunday He and other members of the interde nominational CCC want council to pass a law strongeiMhan the proposed ordinance it has been considering « No 85.2 » that virtually bans adult businesses through restrictive zoning measures Local Rotarians. Kiwanians and the Lower Township Taxpayers' Association support Rev Fincke's call for a law that altogether outlaws sexually explicit material in Lower The local Chamber of Commerce is expected to follow suit at its next meeting. WITH TWO MEMBERS ABSENT, coun cil voted unanimously to scrap Ordinance 85.2. Council also voted 3-0 for Resolution 85-74 through which it "affirmatively op poses" pornography and seeks to prevent it in Ixmer within the parameters of" the U S Constitution The resolution's regarded as a temporary measure, however, while Solicitor Bruce Gorman drafts two ordinances that attack pornography from different angles — through zoning restrictions, and ap proaches recommended by Rev Fincke and other local clefgy Those proposetord i nances will be readv for council intrrauction at iLs May 2() meeting. Gorman told Rev Fincke. senior pastor of Covenant Bible Churcfi. Fishing ^ Creek With council's approval, the measures could be adopted as law June 4. Gorman said. Nevertheless, the minister worried aloud that council adopted the resolution just "to placate" pron opponents when

he's just heard that sexually explicit video tapes are being sold in Lower. "WHAT IS GOING TO HAPPEN to those who are currently selling adult videos?" he asked [ Gorman said any township action against the sellers awaits enactment of the pending ordinances Meanwhile, he added, local clergymen could ask County Prosecutor John Corino to determine if anystate laws against obscenity have been i violated "That s the best I can offer at this juncture <sincei we currently don't have an or dinance in place." the solicitor explained Officials and clergymen should "educate" the people against buying the vido tapes. Mayor Robert Fothergill told the minister. "The recourse is. if there's not a market for that item on the'shelf. it would disappear." Fothergill predicted. Rev Fincke didn't buy that reasoning. There's a big market for drugs too," he replied "but that doesn't mean you ignore it I'm tired of hearing there's nothing we can do "A young girl can make more money as a prostitute than as a secretary; should we encourage that?" he asked. "I think the petitions that you got reflect the position of this community." observed George Pratt of Cold Spring, a North Wildwood policeman (That city was scheduled for .final action on an anti pornography ordinance last night, too late for The Lantern deadline > PRATT SAID HE DIDN'T want to see the township resolution against por nography forgotten, but acted upon by/ • police While ministers approach the courK ty prosecutor about state anti-obscenity laws, township lawmen could be watching the businesses that sell sexually explicit videos to determine any connection between them, drug sales or links with known criminals. Pratt suggested "Let's enforce it." he urged. "I understand that they're showing films in the back of the store." one woman said of a video outlet. "I think that we should somehow investigate this.

0 "This particular store evidently has a mercantile license now." she said. "Do p they renew this yearly?" She suggested the township find out if it can restrict sales of sexually explicit n materia' by tightly regulating mercantile e license renewals. Real estate agents, she added, might be convinced to prohibit property sales to potential adult businesses f through deed restrictions etc. 1 TWO TOWNSHIP WOMEN, who practice Swedish massage, told council that they are concerned that the pending antipornography ordinances would put them out of legitimate businesses — not at all I associated with sex. Ordinance 85-2 placed heavy restriction on massage parlors I "People who work at massage parlors are working on parts of the body that I t don't work on." masseuse Linda Foster wryly observed. Fothergill told her Gorman has been directed to draft the pending ordinances so that her business won't be banned. "Who is going to say feat is pornography and what isn't?" a3ced township MUA member Linda Merrill. Gorman noted earlier that James Joyce's anti-clerical novel. "Ulysses," was once considered smut. Writer Studs Terkel's non-fiction book on labor. "Working," has also been banned. Merrill noted. "Linda, we understand that defining it is going to be a problem" Fothergill conceded. Zoning restrictions, as incorporated in rescinded Ordinance 85-2 and North Wildwood's Ordinance 894, must now meet ) the test of a recent case decided by

f Superior Court Judge L. Anthony Gibson. He has ruled Egg Harbor City's 1981 zoning code unconstitutional because it restricted adult businesses to one tract of municipally-owned land. Gibson's decision permitted a tavern owner to display nude dancers in a non-alcoholic bar. TO SURVIVE COURT CHALLENGES, the pending ordinances stand a better chance if a total ban on pornography is backed up by legally acceptable evidence that such a ban accurately reflects Lower s collective moral standard. "What these petition^ do is, help us establish the community standard that we need if we have to defend this ordinance in court," said Fothergill. "This proves that you care." he told the petitioners, "and we appreciate that." "It is very important that we establish this standard," Gorman told Rev. Fincke. "So. George, I would urge you to continue your efforts..." The solicitor suggested a ballot referendum on pornography during the November general elections. One weekend's work brought in 3,435 signatures on the petitions. But they represent less than a third of the 9,393 registered voters in the township of some 20,000 people. Despite the CCC petition drive, porn opponents have "not done enough" to establish a community standard, said Elwood Reamer of Villas. He proposed canvassing the entire township for signatures from 51 percent of its citizens so "nobody will be able to stand up thejj and say" the pending ordinances don't nold up in court.

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. ■ 1 ilflii. J * Fred Schmidt: He Bucks Tide of Public Sentiment

By JACK SMYTH CAPE MAY — He admired President John F. Kennedy. He sees former president Jimmy Carter as "a person full of character and honesty." Chrysler head Lee Iacocca strikes him as a man of "tremendous drive and ability to move people" When he settled in Cape May in the early 1970s, he had long hair, a beard, wore a dashiki and was regarded by some as a hippie. Today, Frederick W. Schmidt Jr.. is the . picture of a conservatively dressed, successful lawyer. Attorney Schmidt is appearing in Superior Court representing three clients who own sections of the city beach and are challenging the city's right to impose resrictions on them. The ruling in the case could have a landmark impact on the control of beaches everywhere. A LITTLE OVER three weeks ago, Schmidt reached a personal pinnacle in his secondary career as a real estate investor with the purchase, together with a group of partners, of the Victorian Plaza, a nearly four-acre shopping complex in the heart of the city. Less then 15 years ago. Schmidt was a poverty lawyer working for federallyfunded Legal Services in Camden, N. J. He went to Washington, D. C. during the same period for a peace demonstration, and together with thousands of other young people was chased by the police. Nowadays, Schmidt's clients are more likely to be landowners and real estate investors. He is an articulate spokesman for the view that developers and entrepreneurs are responsible "for so much oPtne material wealth that we have taklay." HE STILL BUCKS the tide of public sentiment, but from a different standpoint. "It's hard for me to rest with a clear conscience when I see such a pattern of abuse towards private property owners," Schmidt said last week, explaining why he is involve^ in the legal battle over the beaches. ^ Schmidt Was born in Lewis ton. Me., and raised in Toms River, N.J. At Toms River , High School, he ran the half-mile, wresU- I ed. and was co-captain of the football team on which he played center. He remembers the "good times and fun" of those days including summers he spent ^asa-lifeguard at Island Beach State Park.

The earlier years in Maine, he recalls fondly, too. "I'LL NEVER FORGET my roots in new England. That's one of the reasons that I moved to Cape May. because it reminds me of New England. I spent many a summer with my grandparents in a cottage they owned on Bear Pond, North Turner, Maine. They took us on tours throughout New England, he said. He attended college at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, and studied law at Rutgers' Camden campus at the suggestion of his father, a construction supervisor. * "He told me to get into law," said Schmidt. "I don't know why he did. He didn't understand law then, nor does he now." Schmidt moved to Cape May in 1973. But it wasn't until 1976 that the direction of his life changed, and his career took an upswing. "IN 1576 WHEN I became Edgar Holmes partner, I decided I wanted to make something of myself, that I was tired of drifting," said Schmidt. "I said I'm going to seize upon this and I'm going to do it right, and from that time forward I believe that I have had a driving force within me. to get ahead, to accomplish things in both my profession and outside my profession," he said. (Page 33 Please) Dorf* Ward .