City looks to strengthen massage regulations - St. Paul Pioneer Press

[Casey Merkwan]

Three times won’t be the charm. Minnetonka city staff decided after two massage businesses failed compliance checks for inappropriate conduct that they need to tighten the city’s massage regulations.

On Aug. 16, 2010, the City Council revoked the massage license for Chinese Healthy Massage at 17508 Minnetonka Blvd. for inappropriate conduct.

Less than a year later, at the same location, the city chose not to renew Hong Kong Massage’s license when the business failed a compliance check.

Tips, complaints and suspicious ads online indicated that the business was advertised as a provider of erotic massage. An undercover officer went into Hong Kong Massage on July 27 and wasn’t properly covered and was touched inappropriately.

At its Dec. 5 City Council meeting, Minnetonka city staff introduced an ordinance amending current massage regulations to prevent illegitimate massage businesses from getting a license in the city.

“We believe that part of the reason that they proved not to be [legitimate], and they actually got licenses from us, was that the regulations we had in place for checking their training requirements were not in fact sufficient,” City Attorney Desyl Peterson said at the meeting.

Therefore, massage therapists training requirements are proposed to be modified. Previously massage therapists needed to have 400 hours to obtain a license in the city, now they must have 500 hours.

Training must be from schools that are accredited by agencies approved by the U.S. Department of Education or that are members of three reputable massage organizations.

The amendment states that the business cannot advertise as a sexually-oriented business, cannot have its exterior windows covered during business hours and cannot accept only cash for payment.

“The business can’t only accept cash, which was again one of the indicators that the business was not as reputable as it should have been,” Peterson said at the meeting.

The current ordinance only specifies that the massage therapist must cover up the client’s private parts.

To ensure legitimacy, the amendment states that, in addition to covering up private parts, the massage therapist cannot fondle or touch the private parts of the client.

In early October staff sent the proposed ordinance amendment to licensed businesses in Minnetonka for review. Minnetonka has 10 licensed massage businesses.

The drafted amendment stated that touching the buttocks would be prohibited. Staff received negative feedback from massage therapists, who argued that massaging the buttocks can be legitimate because those muscles are often associated with lower back pain.

However, police worried that allowing massage therapists to massage the buttocks could lead to inappropriate touching.

To compromise, staff changed the amendment to say that massage therapists may massage a client’s buttocks but only if the client requested it and only for medical reasons.

Language was also changed to clear up who can practice massage therapy in Minnetonka. Rather than a masseuse or masseur, the person must be a licensed massage therapist. In addition, “associates” may not practice.

City staff also surveyed other city ordinances during the process of drafting changes.

Coon Rapids, Golden Valley, Maple Grove and Richfield are similar to Minnetonka’s current ordinance, which only requires massage therapists to cover private parts.

Neighboring cities like Edina, Hopkins, Plymouth and St. Louis Park do not address the touching or covering of private parts.

The council introduced the ordinance change without comment or discussion. The ordinance is scheduled for adoption on Dec. 19.

Originally Published: December 12, 2011 at 5:00 PM CST