City Council Set to Talk Sex

By Lookout Staff

October 11 -- Months after a prostitution ring was broken up at a local massage parlor and a new adult shop on Lincoln Boulevard drew the neighborhood’s ire, City officials Tuesday night will tackle the issue of regulating adult businesses.

The City Council is scheduled to take up a proposed ordinance that would more strictly define sexually-oriented businesses and prevent their concentration or their close proximity to incompatible uses.

In addition to the new law, staff and legal council for the City will ask council members to tweak the current massage ordinance to help crack down on the number massage businesses and technicians involved in prostitution.

Police estimate nearly a quarter of the more than 800 businesses and solo massage practitioners offer sexual services on the side, according to a City staff report.

The proposed measures come nearly two months after a high-profile bust by federal authorities uncovered a criminal syndicate that was allegedly smuggling hundreds of women into the United States, frequently from Korea, to work in brothels in the Los Angeles area, including Santa Monica.

Despite several attempts to close loopholes in a 1986 massage law -- including a lengthy permit process and fingerprinting for some operators by local police -- City staff argues that there has been little success in ferreting out prostitution.

"The current system needs to be updated. Some provisions are obsolete,” the staff report states. “Others may be legally problematic."

It may be problematic to file criminal prosecution under certain provisions of the massage ordinance because those provisions may be preempted by State law, according to the report.

In contrast, it may be effective to prosecute under the health and safety standards of the ordinance, according to staff. Such prosecution would actually be facilitated by eliminating problematic provisions of the ordinance.

“At the same time, the ordinance could probably be strengthened by adding additional civil remedies,” the staff report states. “One possibility would be civil fines for violations of health and safety provisions.”