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Sunday, Jul. 20, 2008

Mayor struggles with massage law

Writing legislation to regulate massage parlors in Macon is turning out to be more difficult than Mayor Robert Reichert initially thought.

After a series of sex-related arrests at local parlors, Reichert announced July 1 that he wanted to require anyone in the city who offers a massage for money to be licensed by the state as a massage therapist.

The idea was that licensed therapists are less likely to exchange sex acts for cash, and a license requirement would make it easier for police to tell who is operating lawfully and who isn't.

At the time, the mayor said he hoped to get an ordinance to the City Council this month. He envisioned a relatively simple ordinance of just a few lines, something that would allow police to wander into the parlors, quickly check to see if proper credentials for a massage therapist are displayed and arrest those not in compliance.

Now, Reichert said his ordinance - which sits in the city attorney's office awaiting further input from the mayor - has become bogged down by the multiple ways in which legitimate massage-like services might be performed under another name.

For example, acupressure, Jin Shin Do or shiatsu are all types of Asian bodywork therapy that the state has decided can be practiced without holding a license for massage therapy.

According to the American Organization for Bodywork Therapies of Asia, which represents schools, practitioners and instructors of the craft, those treatments may include "touching, pressing or holding of the body ... primarily with the hands" or "stretching, external application of medicinal plants or foods, heat or cold, and dietary or exercise suggestions."

In short, Reichert said, that means passing a new ordinance requiring state licensure as a massage therapist could either outlaw legitimate businesses or allow illicit parlors to continue operating under a different name. He has some questions about how intrusive the government ought to be, and he wonders how much can be accomplished through enforcing laws already in existence.

"I don't want to get into trying to distinguish what constitutes therapeutic massage and what constitutes bodywork and what constitutes movement therapy," said Reichert, who labels his legislation as it currently exists "a mess."

Other local governments in Georgia that try to regulate massage parlors do so through fairly lengthy legislation - ordinances much more extensive and detailed than what Reichert envisioned. They typically create their own legal definition of massage, often describing it as manipulation of soft tissues of the body and listing several examples including the application of pressure, friction or vibration.

Defining massage is something the mayor said he would like to avoid. He said he fears it could draw a court challenge for being too vague or too broad.

"I don't think that would be practical for us to do," said Reichert, who adds that he simply needs more information about what exactly is going on in the parlors. "Heckfire, I can't even define it. Can you imagine the ordinance that would describe that?"

Various local governments across the state say that anyone wishing to sell massages must possess specific therapeutic massage credentials to receive a business license, agree to fingerprinting and criminal background checks and keep open to city inspection their records of massages and clientele.

That's generally the case in some of metro Atlanta's core counties, including DeKalb, Fulton, Cobb, Gwinnett and Clayton. Athens, Savannah, Columbus and Warner Robins are among Georgia cities that similarly regulate massage parlors through municipal ordinances.

Some of those local governments restrict the hours during which parlors may be open, generally banning operation between midnight and about 8 a.m. They may require the masseuse to wear clothes of a certain length, or mandate unobstructed views into every massage room through a window or by removing the door.

Several cities and counties ban anal and genital handling outright. In Savannah and Athens, no massage may be given to a person of the opposite sex unless a doctor or other medical professional has ordered the therapy.

Warner Robins City Attorney Jim Elliott said massage parlor laws have been on the books there since the 1970s. They were updated in 1996 to better accommodate licensed massage therapists, he said.

"We don't have a proliferation of (massage parlors) down here the way they seem to have, or have had, up in Macon," he said. "Maybe our ordinance has just scared people off."

Elliott said he personally has not heard complaints about restrictions the city law imposes, and the ordinance has never been legally challenged for excluding legitimate businesses.

He acknowledged the difficulty of writing a law to regulate the parlors and said it's easier to say how things should be than actually implementing restrictions.

"It's tough to draw a line that says what you can or can't do," he said.

Former Macon City Councilman Cole Thomason a few years ago tried to implement a massage parlor law that mirrored some of the requirements in other cities and counties. He was unsuccessful, and now Councilman Erick Erickson is working to revise and revive that legislation.

Erickson's draft requires people selling massages to present their state license to the city in order to get a business license, and like other laws, specifies operational requirements governing cleanliness, non-transparent clothing for therapists and the prominent display of prices. It, too, is in the attorney's office awaiting further review, although Erickson's effort is separate from the mayor's.

Reichert sees Erickson's proposal as more expansive than he prefers. Once the legislation is refined, the councilman said he hopes to meet with the mayor to determine what language could stay and what should go.

Erickson said a backup idea is to enable the city to revoke business licenses from anyone found guilty of prostitution. Oftentimes, those arrested have been back at work the next day.

"That's the overwhelming complaint," Erickson said.

To contact writer Matt Barnwell,

call 744-4251.