Ante Bilic, a Saratoga-based adult club owner whose dancers have
sued him for unfair labor practices and whose Sunnyvale club was
searched by police in connection with a prostitution sting 13 years
ago, wants to open a topless bar in Gilroy.
GILROY
Ante Bilic, a Saratoga-based adult club owner whose dancers have sued him for unfair labor practices and whose Sunnyvale club was searched by police in connection with a prostitution sting 13 years ago, wants to open a topless bar in Gilroy. Despite his legal headaches, though, Bilic has avoided charges and won the labor suits, and now he wants to turn El Amigo Restaurant into his latest venue, which has raised eyebrows in the community.
“I don’t think it will be well welcomed,” said Roy Martinez, a supervisor and manager at Home Depot, which sits in the same parking lot as El Amigo, just north of the Gilroy Premium Outlets on San Ysidro Avenue. “Our customers are already unhappy about all the day laborers hanging around, so there is already a difficulty in getting people to shop here. Bringing a strip club would only harm this.”
Converting the place into a strip club requires permission from the chief of police and a special permit from the planning commission, which plans to consider the issue Jan. 15 if Bilic can get a signature by Tuesday from El Amigo Owner Huberto Acevedo saying he is willing to consider selling his building. But whenever planning commissioners review Bilic’s application – which has cost him $4,185 so far – they will only consider its legality, not the social or political repercussions of allowing a topless bar in a town that has traditionally shirked at the idea.
“At the planning commission level, we’re bound by the law, whereas the city council has the political ability to deny a project based on other issues,” Planning Commissioner Ben Anderson said. “Do I think that a strip club’s a good idea for Gilroy? I gotta say, I’m not sure. It’s tough.”
To receive a permit, Bilic must prove that he or his various partnerships – through which he runs Paul & Harvey’s bar, Taragon Restaurant, Sporty’s Bikini Bar and the Kit Kat Club, all in Sunnyvale – have never had a permit revoked. Although four dancers at the Kit Kat eventually pleaded guilty to performing lewd sexual acts in public in 1995, authorities never charged Bilic with a crime, according to court records and his lawyer, Nanci Clarence, a partner at Clarence & Dyer in San Francisco.
Clarence also stressed that her client, who would not answer questions, has prevailed against unfair labor lawsuits in the past and that police never revoked his permit after the Kit Kat investigation. Now Bilic faces a class action lawsuit from two dancers who claim he violated wage and labor laws. Clarence said she does not expect these suits to derail Bilic’s Gilroy plans given his past legal triumphs.
“We’ve been down this road before, and we prevailed,” Clarence said.
But prevailing against red tape in a town where a lingerie and sexual novelty store is the closest thing to a strip club is another matter.
In his 26-year career with the city, Planning Manager Bill Faus said he has not seen one strip club application come across his desk. Even Hooters, which relies as much on its signature wings as its curvy waitresses, withdrew its application to open a restaurant here in 2007. As for topless joints, the city council unanimously passed an ordinance in 1993 making it harder for such places to open in Gilroy.
The ordinance cites “deleterious secondary effects” and “serious objectionable operational characteristics” of adult clubs and allows them only within commercial zones and with a special permit issued by the planning commission. Police Chief Denise Turner also has the final say-so when it comes to the permit’s details and whether the venue can sell alcohol.
If the planning commission rejects Bilic’s application because it finds his legal troubles a concern or his application incomplete, then Bilic will have a chance to appeal to the City Council.
“I certainly don’t think that Gilroy is a place for such a thing, but like anything else we need to understand that this is a free country, and if we have rules and regulations in place and people adhere to them, then the process must go through,” Mayor Al Pinheiro said.
Councilman Perry Woodward’s initial reaction rang with more alarm.
“There’s an element (a strip club) would bring that is rather unsavory. From my life experiences, it seems to me that it would be a negative development,” Woodward said. “I need to keep an open mind, but I have a concern for public safety, and when large groups of men assemble late in the evening, that’s going to tax an already over-taxed police department, so I have real concerns about that.”
El Amigo and the land it sits on is worth about $1.1 million, according to county records. The spot sits tucked away behind the outlets, and Acevedo, the owner, has told the Dispatch that business has struggled in the last year with the economy and the opening of a series of chain restaurants in the new Pacheco Pass shopping centers. Hooters was suppose to join that group.
Planning Commissioner Art Barron brought up the dormant Hooters proposal as evidence that people in Gilroy tend to be sensitive about racier forms of entertainment.
“A lot of people have been talking about Hooters, but this to me is a lot different and can lead to other bad, criminal things,” Barron said. “But on the other hand, you have to give (Bilic) his fair time and let the process go through.”
