TITLE
Recommendation to request City Manager to communicate the City's support for Assembly Bill 1147 (Bonilla, Gomez, Holden), which would return local and land use authority to cities and counties as applicable to massage businesses and which promotes public safety by giving tools to local governments to address such establishments that are involved in human trafficking.
DISCUSSION
A state law adopted in 2008 to regulate massage therapists had unintended consequences of removing many of the local controls available to cities and counties to regulate these businesses.
Since that time, news reports indicate that there have been an increasing number of establishments that open as massage businesses that are conducting prostitution and human trafficking.
Assemblymembers Bonilla, Gomez and Holden recently amended Assembly Bill 1147 to update the Massage Therapy Act of 2014. The new legislation returns land use control back to local governments so that cities and counties can more effectively zone and regulate massage establishments, and shut them down when there is illegal activity or a threat to health and safety.
The bill also explicitly allows cities to adopt ordinances to require massage establishments to comply with reasonable health and safety requirements, abide by hours of operation and pay appropriate business license fees. The bill would also prohibit the use of sexually suggestive advertising of massage services.
AB 1147 is supported by the League of California Cities and is currently in the Senate Business, Professions and Economic Development Committee, so timely action on the legislation is important.
TIMING CONSIDERATIONS
[Timing Considerations]
FISCAL IMPACT
There is no fiscal impact.
SUGGESTED ACTION
Approve recommendation.
BODY
[Enter Body Here]
Respectfully Submitted,
AL AUSTIN
COUNCILMAN, EIGHTH DISTRICT
PATRICK O'DONNELL
COUNCILMEMBER, FOURTH DISTRICT