Last week, City Council public information officer George Howland (who used to work at The Stranger and the Weekly) sent out an addendum to the city’s weekly list of news clips, which is ordinarily distributed by a different city employee. The addendum read: “Everyone should take the time to read this story about adult-cabaret owner Frank Colacurcio that ran in Sunday’s Times and know that his representatives Tim Killian and Gil Levy are active in the current debate around adult-cabaret zoning.” The e-mail linked to a story about five murders that police have spent decades trying to link to strip-club magnate Colacurcio.

The story, in other words, had nothing whatsoever to do with the adult-cabaret zoning law that is the subject of Killian’s and Levy’s lobbying. The e-mail only served to call Killian’s and Levy’s character into question by linking them to an unrelated murder investigation.

I called Howland yesterday to ask him why he sent out the murder story. He responded, “Some of the council members got in trouble when they dealt with these people the last time”—a reference to the Strippergate scandal, in which city council members violated so-called “quasi-judicial” rules by discussing the expansion of the parking lot at Rick’s strip club with its owners. “I want them to be aware that last time they dealt with zoning issues and Mr. Colacurcio, they messed it up, and some of those that broke the rules are still here.”

Concern about quasi-judicial rules is certainly valid. But not in this case. Not only did the story have nothing to do with strip-club zoning, the zoning issue in front of the council at the moment has nothing to do with the quasi-judicial rules council members violated in the past. Because the new strip-club zoning proposal is citywide (it would bar strip clubs from opening less than 800 feet from schools, parks, day cares, and community centers) it is not subject to quasi-judicial rules, which only apply when the council is dealing with a specific property. In other words, Howland’s “warning” did not apply to the zoning case he was “warning” the council about.

In related news, check out the P-I’s story about vice cops who go too far in pursuing strippers who violate strip-club rules. One cop paid a stripper $100 for four lap dances in a row; another purchased 300 lap dances with city money over five years. The result of all this intensive “investigatory” work? Eight convictions in four years, five for prostitution. Oh, and it goes without saying that the cops aren’t pursuing the men who engage in illegal behavior in strip clubs (fondling dancers without consent, pressuring them for sex, etc.) The strippers are “criminals.” The men are invisible.