Source: Columbus Ledger Enquirer

This could be the time to consider an exciting career in escort services. But is it the place?

That depends on whether you've got $5,000 and no recent criminal record.

Columbus is about to regulate escort services, and that would be the price of a license: five grand.

I don't know who with the city would have to go demand escorts cough up five grand, but I hope the escorts don't call the police on him, else they'll have to wait until a patrol officer's free to investigate this wild claim that Columbus Council voted to license escort services.

Hard to believe, isn't it? City leaders thought so last week when this came up at Tuesday's council meeting. "'Why are we doing this?" asked Councilor Jack Rodgers.

State law recognizes escort services as legitimate businesses, so Columbus needs regulations to monitor them, said City Attorney Clifton Fay. One person already has applied for a "home-occupation" license to run an escort service, Fay said. The proposed ordinance would prohibit that.

Mayor Bob Poydasheff said he could see why the city needs regulations: "The experiences that I've encountered with escort services, particularly in areas where you have large military installations, et cetera, is that they can degenerate... into more than just escort services, and that breeds crime, and quite candidly prostitution and things that are attendant to that," he said.

So Columbus needs a law requiring criminal background checks for escort service employees, Poydasheff said. "And I've noticed that one of the great members of our Columbus Police Department is sitting back there," he added Tuesday, so an officer was present to raise other points or answer questions.

Rodgers asked: Why recognize this as a business?

"You have to recognize it as a business if Georgia law recognizes it as a business," said Poydasheff. (The law is Georgia code section 48-13-9.)

"You can't just flatly prohibit it from a legal standpoint," said Fay, so the city needs a "licensing tool."

The tool council initially considered last week would have allowed anyone to run an escort service as long as the applicant paid $2,500 for a license and had no felony convictions in the past five years and no misdemeanor convictions involving "moral turpitude" in two years.

Council changed that to 10 years on a felony and five years on a misdemeanor, and raised the annual fee to $5,000.

Councilor Glenn Davis wanted more information. "This is new to me, and I'm still a little uncomfortable with it," he said. He requested a delay, "so I can get comfortable before I put a stamp of approval on it."

No delay's necessary, said Councilor Nathan Suber. The city's staff has "jumped through the hoops that need to be jumped through" and the city attorney's office has done all the research.

"We have certainly done some," said Fay, "and the licensing division is looking for a tool to license these people properly."

So this week council's to vote on a law requiring escorts to submit to background checks before they can get city identification cards they'll need to operate here.

It seems some operate here already: At least 16 escort services with local telephone numbers are listed in the Real Yellow Pages, including "A Nite to Remember," "A Soldier's Dream," "All Nite Long," "An Affair 2 Remember" and "1 Bedtime Story."

I called all 16 Friday. Most of the numbers led to the same recorded message, two led to a different recording, one number was out of service and only "1 Bedtime Story" was answered, by a man.

He said he had a business license, but he refused to give his name. Asked if the city had checked his background, he said, "You know, I really don't want to talk about this over the phone."

Fay said Friday that some businesses may have local telephone numbers but be licensed in other counties.

If council approves this new law, escort services will be licensed here -- in Columbus, the city that over the years has outlawed nude dancing, lewd concerts, one-on-one nude modeling and "mingling" between customers and dancers in strip joints.

You might wonder: Would escorts be allowed to mingle? What if a customer requests it? "Thanks for escorting me to the party," the customer might say, "but I'm OK now. Go mingle."

"I can't do that," the escort might reply, "It's illegal."

You also might wonder whether this law would apply to mechanics who service Ford Escorts, but probably not.