As massage business violations pile up, St. Charles tweaks city law

St. Charles tweaked its pioneering massage business laws Monday night in efforts to eliminate ongoing problems with the massage industry in town.

In the past two months, city officials revoked the businesses licenses of four massage parlors in the city. Monday night, two more massage businesses entered guilty pleas for violating various aspects of local law.

“I knew when we passed this ordinance that we might have a little bit of growing pains and learn through trial and error,” said Police Chief James Keegan in introducing changes to the massage law.

Some of the key changes include a ban on any kind of blacking out of the windows of a massage establishment and punishment for landlords with track records of leasing space to problematic businesses. The new law would put a five-year ban in place. The ban would prevent landlords from renting a space that hosted a problematic massage business to another massage business for five years after a massage business license revocation.

Aldermen took action at the end of 2014 to put specific massage laws on the books following three prostitution arrests at a handful of businesses that spring. The laws put a spotlight on the massage profession, and more police scrutiny. But the crackdown on questionable massage business practices hasn't fully translated to the businesses themselves yet.

“We want to be able to drive by a facility and give a thumbs-up and see what's going on,” Keegan said. “What we've also seen from our hard work is repeat offenders. If the tenant is not going to be a responsible business owner, then it will roll down to the landlord. We've seen a propensity by some landlords to rent to the same type of business. And then, lo and behold, we have the same types of incidents at the location.”

Mayor Ray Rogina said he has a standing appointment with a local massage therapist because of back problems developed through many years of running. He said discussions with his own therapist make him feel confident the new language will help the city attract and keep only quality massage businesses.

Mike Devo, co-founder of the International Medical Massage Association, also praised the changes as having “a lot of common sense” behind them.