City puts moratorium on new massage parlors

Illegal activities at several local massage parlors have prompted the City Council to place a moratorium on the establishment of new massage salons and the permitting of new therapists.

"We're enacting it out of an abundance of caution to make certain that any of the people employed in the massage parlors have legitimate training," Mayor Paul Miller said. "We just want to make sure that every business we have is legitimate."

The council unanimously passed an urgency ordinance Monday prohibiting any new permit, license, approval or entitlement for new massage businesses and therapists due to what police called a "proliferation" of massage parlor storefronts that employ masseuses who engage in illegal sexual conduct.

Applicants who can prove they attended a bona fide school of therapeutic massage operating in Ventura County are exempt from the moratorium. Also, permit renewals will not be affected.

Police Chief Mike Lewis said the problem in Simi is with small, "shady" operations with names like Pleasure Moon Palace.

"What we've seen over the last three years—and this has been a growing problem—is the little massage shops . . . opening up in strip malls and they are virtually all Chinese masseuses," Lewis said.

"Someone drives by one of these locations and there are women standing out there that are somewhat scantily clad or in shorts and it's advertising a hidden message there," he said.

Lewis said the department found out about the illegal activity from some men it had arrested on unrelated charges.

"They are soliciting some form of sexual gratification for an additional price," he said.

The department set up surveillance of the locations and watched predominantly male clients coming out, Lewis said.

When officers ran their license plates, they found that more than 50 percent weren't residents from Simi Valley.

Most of the recent applicants for the business permits, he said, are from Garden Grove, which has a large Chinese population.

The chief said the department has been working with Garden Grove vice to learn more about the problem of Chinese women being brought into the country on work permits to perform illegal sex acts.

Meanwhile, Simi police are working to shut down the illegal salons locally.

Officers have participated in undercover operations that resulted in three separate arrests. Currently, three therapists/businesses are under review for permit revocation.

In total, police work has led to the closure of seven parlors in the last two years, the chief said.

Lewis said the criminal activity is, to some extent, organized.

"After we do a revocation and the business is closed . . . within a matter of days someone new is trying to obtain a business license from the city for that exact location," he said.

State to take over

While the citywide moratorium was deemed necessary because of the increase in sexually oriented massage parlors, it is also a response to a new state law.

In 2008, the state Legislature enacted California's first comprehensive, statewide regulatory system for massage therapy. Under the new law, SB 731, a stateissued certificate will authorize massage therapists and practitioners to practice massage in any city or county without being required to obtain a local license or permit.

The law, which includes stricter criteria for obtaining a therapist license, will go into effect Sept. 1.

Because the state law preempts municipal massage regulations, the city will need to revise its existing ordinance. In the meantime, the moratorium will ensure that no other illegal operations will open and that those establishments with revoked licenses can't reopen until SB 731 is implemented.

Capt. Roy Jones, head of the police department's investigative division, said the moratorium will allow the special enforcement unit, which monitors these vice activities in the city, to address the problem without new places popping up.

"This will greatly enhance the department's investigative effort," he said.

Simi currently has 29 licensed massage establishments and 320 licensed massage therapists. According to a staff report, the police department has received three applications for new massage establishments and 31 applications for new therapists since January.

While the recent applicants technically meet the city's minimum licensing requirements, they nonetheless appear to be operating sexually oriented massage businesses or engaging in illegal sexual conduct, the report said.

Police spoke with the managers or owners of the city's many legitimate massage businesses, who said the moratorium would not negatively impact their business.

"Most of them feel that these other locations springing up are tarnishing their image so they are in full support of this moratorium," Lewis said.

The urgency ordinance will go into effect immediately and last 45 days. On June 1 it will come back before the council, which can then extend the moratorium. Once the new state law goes into effect, the moratorium will be repealed.