Nickels turns down audit challenge by Rick's strip club

Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels has spurned an offer by Rick's strip club to open up the business' books for an audit by an independent accountant.

The offer — an effort to rebut Nickels' recent comments linking the club to "organized crime" — was made to Nickels in a July 24 letter from Rick's attorney Gil Levy. The letter gave Nickels 10 days to respond and said Rick's would pay for the audit.

Nickels did not respond, so Levy released the letter publicly Thursday, along with an offer to allow local newspapers to select the professional accounting agency and open up the club's books. Details of the offer were not specified and would be subject to further talks, Levy said.

Levy said he wanted to "dispel the mayor's accusation" that Rick's is anything but a legal adult nightclub.

But Nickels didn't back down at all Thursday — if anything, he sought to needle Rick's even more.

"The mayor decided it was an offer he could refuse," said Nickels' spokeswoman Marianne Bichsel, using a play on the famous line from "The Godfather."

Bichsel derided Levy's letter as a "publicity stunt" and would not comment further on why the mayor ignored the offer.

Nickels made his well-publicized comments linking Rick's to organized crime in a call-in show on the city's cable-television channel last month. Noting "the clubs don't make their money off of Pepsi," Nickels said there was "organized crime involved in at least that one club [Rick's] and perhaps others."

Nickels said he was referring mainly to the 2003 "Strippergate" scandal in which Rick's owner Frank Colacurcio Jr. and dozens of associates allegedly funneled thousands of dollars in illegal campaign contributions to three candidates who were then Seattle City Council members.

As a result of that scandal, Colacurcio Jr.; his father, Frank Colacurcio Sr.; and two associates were charged with causing false campaign-finance documents to be filed. The charges were dismissed by a judge who ruled the state's campaign-finance laws don't allow for criminal penalties. (Both Colacurcios have served time in prison in the past for tax evasion related to skimming cash from strip clubs.)

Levy called the mayor's statements "shameful McCarthyism" designed to drum up public sentiment against a ballot measure being pushed by local strip clubs this fall. That referendum would overturn strict new rules on behavior inside the clubs, including a ban on direct tipping of dancers and a ban on lap dances.

Nickels has cited the referendum in comments about Rick's, noting that local strip clubs have already contributed more than $500,000 to the campaign. In his letter to the mayor, Levy responded that Rick's and other clubs have "scrupulously complied" with campaign-finance laws in making those contributions.

Levy's letter noted the large amount of money Nickels raised for his 2005 re-election campaign even though he did not face a serious challenge. Yet, Levy wrote, "no one would have the temerity to suggest you were associated with organized crime based on the amount spent on your re-election campaign."

Jim Brunner: 206-515-5628 or jbrunner@seattletimes.com