Jovanna Edge, the owner of the bikini barista stand Hillbilly Hotties, has filed a lawsuit against the city of Everett over a dress code ordinance. A federal judge in Washington wrote a partial summary judgment last week siding with bikini baristas, deeming the city’s dress code unconstitutional. Photo courtesy of Google Maps

Edge was joined in the lawsuit by her employees including Natalie Bjerke, Matteson Hernandez, Leah Humphrey, Amelia Powell and Liberty Ziska.

The settlement agreement was reached during a televised meeting of the city council on Wednesday, after a presentation by Deputy City Attorney Ramsay Rammerman and a subsequent vote.

“The city attorney’s office and administration is asking the council to vote to authorize the mayor to sign a settlement agreement in Edge v. City of Everett that will require the city to revise its quick service probationary license ordinance to have the minimum dress requirement match the minimum dress requirement of our lewd conduct ordinance and to pay the plaintiffs $500,000,” Rammerman said.

Rammerman, addressing the city council, began the presentation by recounting the history of the case — adding that “there’s no evidence that the plaintiffs in this lawsuit engaged in any of this conduct” that led to the standoff with city officials.

He said that interaction with bikini barista stands began in 2009 when there were “dozens upon dozens” of citizen complaints about stands throughout the city.

“Subsequent investigations revealed that the stands were not just selling coffee but were selling sex shows, allowing customers to have physical contact with the baristas,” Rammerman said.

“We had a problem of men masturbating near the stands. And it was part of a business model. The stand owner was encouraging this conduct because he was also selling the baristas oxycontin and he wanted them to earn tips so they could buy the drugs.”

Four baristas were prosecuted and the stand owner engaging in this alleged conduct disappeared and was later declared dead, according to Rammerman.

“At the time, it looked like those prosecutions had solved the problem and it appeared to have gone away but unfortunately that was incorrect,” Rammerman said.

“Instead, what had happened, is new stand owners learned from the mistakes … and were much more circumspect in their conduct.”

In 2013, the county asked the city to investigate allegations that a county deputy sheriff was working with a stand owner, trading information about investigations for sexual favors.

Ultimately, two stand owners were determined to have been pressuring baristas into engaging in illegal conduct and underpaying them — including at least one 16-year-old barista.

“Police had problems investigating the stand owners, however, because they were smart enough to create a paper trail and had all the baristas sign pledges not to engage in illegal conduct. They weren’t at the stands when this was occurring,” Rammerman said.

“So, the city had to conduct an extensive investigation to prove that the conduct had been so pervasive that the stand owners had to know it. Ultimately, this did work and two of the stand owners and the deputy sheriff were convicted.”

Rammerman said the city learned important lessons from that investigation, including that stopping the illegal conduct meant “getting to the stand owners” and that the current tools the city had “were inadequate” without an “expensive and burdensome investigation.”

Eventually, the city passed an ordinance in 2017 that set a dress code for the bikini barista stands which required them to “at least be wearing tight shorts and tank tops,” Rammerman said, as well as a licensing regime that made the stand owners responsible for enforcing the dress code.

After two violations, a bikini barista stand could be shut down by the city.

At that time, the city also amended its lewd conduct regulations that outlawed the wearing of G-string underwear and pasties “that were prevalent” at the stands, according to Rammerman.

“Almost immediately, we were sued,” Rammerman said. “Both these laws were challenged in federal court.”

In November 2017, a federal judge issued a preliminary injunction against the licensing ordinance under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and against both ordinances under the 14th Amendment.

The city appealed that ruling to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals and in 2019 the upper court vacated the lower court’s injunction, ruling in favor of the city.

The bikini baristas then attempted to have the case heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, which sent the case back to the trial court.

Finally, in 2022, a federal judge in Washington wrote a partial summary judgment siding with the bikini baristas and deeming the city’s dress code unconstitutional.

“It is difficult to imagine how this ordinance would be equally applied to men and women in practice. It appears designed to ban not just ‘pasties and G-strings’ or bikinis, but a wide range of women’s clothing,” U.S. District Judge Ricardo S. Martinez wrote.

Martinez also found that law enforcement would be encouraged to conduct “humiliating, intrusive and demoralizing” searches of women that would strip them of their constitutional freedoms.

Under the agreement signed by Mayor Cassie Franklin this week, the city will be able to keep most of its rules for licensing coffee stands and other businesses but will no longer be able to require that baristas wear tank tops and shorts.

“I am glad we’re for the baristas and against the people who are trying to get them to do things they don’t want to do,” City Council member Liz Vogeli said after the vote.

Emma Dilemma, a bikini barista at the Hillbilly Espresso drive-thru in Everett, told the Everett Herald after the 2022 ruling that she was relieved by the judge’s decision.

“I think this protects our safety from law enforcement touching our body,” she said.”Who’s approving my outfit? Is it my female boss or some random dude cop that I don’t know? I don’t want them having to stick a ruler next to my body.”