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Show MSI Mayor Clarifies City Porno PosiSion , By MARK D. MICKELSEN NORTH SALT LAKE North Salt Lake Mayor Robert Palmquist says the city's anti-pornography anti-pornography ordinance prohibits pro-hibits the distribution of questionable ques-tionable material, but said legal leg-al action against ordinance violators is bogged down in the question of what pornography is. THE ORDINANCE is reappearing reap-pearing as a result of claim by the city council that the Circle K convenience store on High-way-89 is displaying Penthouse Penth-ouse and Playboy magazines during store hours a violation viola-tion of the city's anti-pornography anti-pornography ordinance. The city council has opted to handle the issue with "kid gloves" in the wake of some national indecision over what is and what is not considered pornographic. Rather than holding the store in violation of the ordinance, Mayor Palmquist Palm-quist has suggested that city officials approach the manager of the store and request that he not distribute the questionable literature. HOWEVER, IN an interview inter-view last week, the mayor said the city may decide to take more serious action. "If we determine that they (Circle K) are in violation of the ordinance, and if w e think it (magazines) could be proven pornographic in court, then we would take action," Mayor Palmquist said. "IT DEPENDS on the strength of wills," he added, and whether or not the city council is willing "to push" the issue. Some members of the council coun-cil have suggested taking legal action against pornography ordinance violators, but have been warned by the city attorney attor-ney that such a move would be both costly and legally very difficult for the city to win. OF THE Circle K situation, the mayor said, "I don't think our city attorney would advise taking it to court." He alluded to the fact that the city council may some day "want to go to the Supreme Court" with the problem, but said they are handling it quietly at this point. NORTH SALT Lake accepted their present ordinance ordi-nance based on an anti-pornography anti-pornography statute from the state, but revised the ordinance ordi-nance to deal mainly with the distribution of the material, the mayor said. Circle K is in violation of that ordinance if the material being distributed to proven to be lewd or obscene. THE QUESTION of what is obscene, however, holds some significant legal problems for the city, the mayor said. In 1978. several members of the North Salt Lake school's PTA organization asked neighboring neigh-boring stores to keep the magazines maga-zines behind their counters where children coming into the store after school could not see them. ON ANOTHER occasion, a group of PTA mothers from throughout south Davis County Coun-ty picketed the stores to get them to get the magazines off the shelves permanently. Many of the stores discontinued discon-tinued selling the material altogether following the demonstration. |