Winona County wants porn-free hotels for workers

Photo: Karl Baron

Winona County employees can wave bye-bye to Serra Paylin.

It's employees will be denied reimbursement for their work-related hotel stays unless they can show that the room did not offer adult movies. The language of the resolution says it will make the county a "leader" in preventing sexual violence, by "not utilizing businesses that provide services such as in-room, adult pay-per-view."

It draws that logic from studies that correlate sexual and domestic violence with porn.

There are a couple of exceptions in the Winona policy. If employees cannot find a hotel within a reasonable distance to their destination or if the "clean" hotels are charging 15 percent or more than nearby "dirty" hotels, they may still be able to get a reimbursement. The burden of proving they had no choice will fall on the worker.

Interestingly, the Minnesota Department of Health keeps a list of "naughty" and "nice" hotels, which Winonans can consult. It's current as of about three months ago and lists 480 clean versus 117 evil hotels. Only one Minneapolis hotel was certified smut-free.

The MDH acknowledges that nearly all the hotels they surveyed offer Internet access, other than a couple in the furthest nether regions of rural Minnesota. That means that if Winonan road warriors have the will, there is a way.

Sen. Tarryl Clark tried to get a very similar ordinance passed for state employees back in March, though it was ultimately voted down in the House.