City visited seven businesses under massage parlor ordinance - Iowa City Press Citizen

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Hillary Ojeda Iowa City Press-Citizen

Published 5:18 PM EST Jan 10, 2019

Iowa City Neighborhood and Development Services staff visited seven massage parlors last month, part of the city's effort to begin implementing a new ordinance intended to target human trafficking.

Following the visits, four of the businesses failed to comply with the ordinance's requirement to fill out business information forms as requested by City staff, according to Assistant City Attorney Sue Dulek.

Two businesses complied and one business was vacated and up for lease.

"We'll have to see what happens," Dulek said of the city's response to businesses who continue to lapse in fulfilling the ordinance.

City officials say the business information forms, which ask for names of owners and employees, allow them to have a contact point for the businesses. Massage parlors are often cited as fronts for human trafficking and illegal sex work.

READ: Will a new Coralville permit system stop human trafficking in phony massage parlors?

The visits represent some of the first actions taken by the city to enforce its massage business ordinance, which was enacted last September. After the ordinance passed, Iowa City Police Department officials and the Iowa City Communications Division collected victim advocacy information and created a pamphlet. That information was shared during the compliance checks of the businesses recently conducted.

Those seven businesses were added to a list after Iowa City Police Sgt. Jorey Bailey found them on the erotic massage parlor review website, RubMaps. The website purports to beuser-generated and allows anyone to submit photos and information onlocations that sell sex services.

Iowa City Neighborhood and Development Services staff then visited them between Christmas and New Year's, Dulek said, adding that the next step is to send the four businesses that had not filed out the information notices of noncompliance.

Dulek said the notices will give the businesses a chance to communicate with the city and ask questions about how to comply with the ordinance.

As the notices haven't been issued yet, she said she couldn't provide the names of the establishments.

If a business ultimately doesn't meet the requirements, the ordinance says a civil citation could be applied and the business could be prohibited from offering services, according to the attorney.

"Now that there are beginning actions and there will be continued actions, the coalition of leaders becomes more critical," said Rape Victim Advocacy Program Director Adam Robinson about the visits to businesses.

Leaders from the police department and the advocate agencies, he said, are crucial to ensuring that the intent to reduce human trafficking is effective and that they're aware of unintended consequences.

The Rape Victim Advocacy Program was one of the four agencies including, the Domestic Violence Intervention Program, Monsoon Asians & Pacific Islanders in Solidarity and Nisaa African Family Services, mentioned in the pamphlet.

The idea for the agency handout came out of the first meeting of what will be quarterly sessions of the Iowa City Human Trafficking Initiative, made up of the four advocacy agencies and police officials.

READ: Iowa City man accused of pimping teenage girl and holding her against her will

Reach Hillary Ojeda at 319-339-7345, hojeda@press-citizen.com or follow her on Twitter at @hillarymojeda

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