The ongoing battle against prostitution in Norwalk has spurred the ordinance committee to draft a statute that would enable prostitution rings posing as massage parlors to be shut down. As with most statutes the unintended consequences alarmed professional licensed massage therapists in Norwalk. About twelve people showed up for last night’s public hearing to speak to the committee about concerns ranging from a desire to eliminate prostitution and protect licensed therapists from operating in the city.
Under a draft ordinance, taken from samples sent by the Connecticut Conference of Municipalities and the City of Stratford, fees, restrictions and inspections were codified. The terms used in the draft ordinance alarmed some therapists. The code would require therapists to license their businesses with the city, require sanitary inspections, and require records kept of who was treated.
During the public hearing many spoke about their concerns, and their ability to operate as licensed therapists. All supported anything that would target people who are unlicensed from using the words “massage” or “massage therapist” in either advertising or as part of their business.
Steve Kitts, executive director of the Connecticut Center for Massage Therapy (CCMT) agreed that so-called massage parlors give massage therapy a bad name. In drafting the public act for Bob Duff, he explained, the language or the law important. He was willing to work with municipalities, to avoid impacting licensed massage therapists.
Kathy Watt spoke of the accreditation process that a licensed therapist goes through. “The rigorous programs of the CCMT provides our students have between 600 and 1100 hours of training, including as many as five courses in the hand-on study of massage, science courses in Anatomy and Physiology, Kinesiology and Business Fundamentals as well as course on ethics and self care.”
The CCMT is the oldest accredited massage therapy school in Connecticut, and with a 28 year history has accreditation from national massage organizations and has courses recognized by the Connecticut Commissioner of higher Education.
“I am supportive of all efforts by city and state legislators and law enforcement to put an end to illegal businesses that operate under the guise of “massage” but are really adult entertainment, to put it politely.” said Susan Lane, licensed clinical massage therapist who has lived in Norwalk for the 30 years. “They give legitimate massage a bad name. This is why I connected Senator Bob Duff and Steve Kitts, the Executive Director of CCMT. Together they crafted the Public Act 07-35 that will give all the towns and cities of Connecticut the laws we have long needed to fight and help eliminate “massage parlors” once and for all.”
Joanne Gardella spoke on behalf of her husband, a licensed therapist, who runs his massage business from their Norwalk home, “the language you have here is basically going to stop us from running our business out of our house.”
After the public comments, Mike Coffey explained that, “where we are coming form is a way to regulate the illegal massage parlors. We started the process by getting the statute from the CCM, and in large part adopted from Stratford ordinance. A set of revisions, were made, and some additional revisions made tonight. We are looking at home practices being exempted. I will work with corporation council and revise the ordinance for our September meeting.”
After some discussion with the audience, Peter Nolin, corporation counsel, promised to post the revised the draft on the city web site by August 15th.
