Massage parlors handed moratorium - Glendale News Press

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Noting about 100 massage parlors operate in Glendale — some of which police officials say harbor illegal activity — the Glendale City Council adopted a 45-day moratorium, halting further openings as it drafts new policies to better govern those establishments.

A 2009 state law, which laid out universal policies for massage parlors, removed oversight powers from municipalities. The law, however, expired on Jan. 1, and a bill approved last year in Sacramento returned control back to cities.

"The city had no say about it, it didn't sound right to me and I raised that issue," Mayor Zareh Sinanyan said. "I discovered that many other cities had similar explosions of massage parlors."

Sinanyan said he's seen a grouping of the businesses pop up along Colorado Street. While not all of them should be cast in a negative light, he said, the concentration raises concerns.

"Colorado is a major street in Glendale, it's a very densely populated area, there's practically a high school on Colorado, so we don't want massage parlors all over residential areas," he said. "It's a quality of life issue and I don't want our city to be associated with massage parlors."

Council members voted 5-0 to enact the moratorium.

Police officials said there have been a surge of such businesses within the last several years. An official count will be conducted during the freeze on new openings.

Issues involve customers seeking sexual favors — or employees offering them — at some problem parlors, said Glendale Deputy Police Chief Carl Povilaitis.

In some cases, both men and women have complained of being inappropriately touched when they went in expecting a typical massage.

"We've had complaints in the past of people providing the massage having inappropriately touched an individual asking for a massage and those people were mortified," Povilaitis said.

One of the new policies may include requiring all owners to obtain conditional use permits from the city.

City Atty. Mike Garcia said he doesn't know yet if that would requirement would be made retroactive for all existing massage establishments.

Last year, the council adopted a policy that affected proprietors that had at least a 5% stake in their business and weren't certified by the California Massage Therapy Council to undergo a background check and pay for a $521 certificate.

Sinanyan said one thing he'd like to see in the new code is language requiring lobbies of massage establishments be visible from the outside.

"I'll point out something else the thing that was also worrisome was that a lot of the storefronts were covered up," he said.