Billings City Council considering massage business licensing ordinance - KULR-TV

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BILLINGS - Billings City Council is looking at a new ordinance involving illicit massage businesses, in an effort to crack down on human trafficking. But owners of legal businesses have some concerns.

"Its been a long running joke of businesses that used to be open, that you knew what was going on there," Owner of The Massage Company Theresa Vondra said.

For Theresa, it's no secret that some businesses in Billings are a front for illegal activity. A new ordinance in the works with Billings City Council targets those businesses, specifically for human trafficking. It's a cause Theresa supports, but she sees problems with the ordinance.

"It just comes off as the legitimate massage therapists are trying to prove their innocence," Vondra said.

If the new massage business licensing ordinance becomes law it would mean existing massage businesses would have to apply for a new license, regardless of if they have a valid license already.

"When you separate us, just as massage therapists, how much easier will it be for these illegal business to claim to be something else? Like a modeling studio, or really anything," Vondra said.

She wonders if it will really solve the original problem.

"They could just move their business towards the interstate and outside of the city, and then they don't have to apply for this license," Vondra said.

"Their business model is not to be out in the middle of nowhere. Their business model is not to be relegated to an industrial area," Billings City Council Member Penny Ronning said.


Currently, law enforcement officers can't do much about illicit massage businesses because they don't have probable cause, and it's expensive to launch big investigations into these places.

But Ronning says this new ordinance would put code enforcement as the regulating entity, and if there's a complaint filed against a business, someone has to look into it.

"The most cost effective way that other cities have been finding success is through that complaint driven code enforcement," Ronning said.

Right now, no laws are broken if a business is open 24 hours, or has darkened windows so you can't see inside.

"If we make those things against city code, then there's a reason for code enforcement to respond to a complaint," Ronning said.

A group named End Exploitation In Montana says the state ranks fourth per capita in the nation for human trafficking, something City Council wants to fight against.

"One female, in one illicit massage business in Billings, will generate 3800 to 18000 thousand dollars a month," Ronning said.

The ordinance is scheduled to go before City Council in early March, but must pass two business meetings with a majority vote before it becomes law.

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