DESTIN — The city appears determined to learn the names of the people from Atlanta who want to open a strip club on Airport Road.
Rather than backing down to threats of legal action, Scott Shirley, Destin’s land use attorney, defended in a recent letter the city’s right to know who will own and manage the planned Runway Gentleman’s Club.
A group calling itself Trident Operations LLC has applied for a development order to allow it to build the club.
Trident thus far has refused to divulge the names of any of its officers. Destin attorney Dana Matthews, who represents the company, also has questioned the city’s legal authority to ask for that information.
Shirley’s letter dated March 1 outlines the city’s position. He quotes the city’s adult entertainment ordinance as stating all persons with an “influential interest” in a sexually oriented business must provide required personal information and sign the application for a license to operate.
Shirley also repeated that Destin has a right to know how the managing interest in Trident Operations, formerly held by the late Terry Stephenson, had been transferred to the new owners.
“The city has no information concerning whether there were any other owners/members of Trident at the time of Mr. Stephenson's untimely death,” the letter said.
Trident Operations is the corporate name Stephenson used in 2010 when he tried to open a topless club on Mountain Drive.
Destin eventually settled a lawsuit over the proposal that allowed such businesses to open in areas of the city zoned for industrial use.
Stephenson had planned to seek property in the small industrially zoned area, but was shot to death in Atlanta.
People thought to have been associated with Stephenson now have filed as Trident Operations LLC for a development order to open the Runway Gentleman’s Club at 908 Airport Road.
Destin officials want to make sure Stephenson’s associates can legally be part of the settlement agreement he negotiated, City Councilman Tuffy Dixon said.
“There’s some question as to whether legally that entity continued to be in existence after he died,” Dixon said. “We’re getting the applicants to make their case they are entitled to open that place.”
Shirley notes in his letter:
“If Mr. Stephenson was the sole owner/member, or if he held a controlling interest, his interest would have had to be legally transferred to other new owner/members … for the application to be legally authorized.”
Patti Terjak, head of the group Citizens for a Greater Destin, said her organization deserves credit for the decision to question the transfer of ownership.
“Had we left it to the city we’d be driving by and saying ‘What’s being built there?’ she said. “By asking questions and doing the research ourselves, we’ve come to ask, ‘How are these people building it now?’ and ‘How do these people have the right to these (settlement agreement) concessions?’ ”
Shirley agreed in his letter to Matthews to amend the request for identities to include only persons with an “influential interest” in the club. That would be those with a controlling interest or holding an office within the corporate structure.
Shirley also notified Matthews that the city has decided to lift the suspension of its review of Trident Operations’ development order application.
However, he added that “final action on the application will not be taken until such time the information requested herein is received and reviewed.”
Matthews had not responded to the Shirley’s letter as of Thursday, and did not return a phone call seeking comment.
Contact Daily News Staff Writer Tom McLaughlin at 850-315-4435 or tmclaughlin@nwfdailynews.com. Follow him on Twitter @TomMnwfdn.