Massage businesses face tough new regulations in Kern County under proposal at Tuesday...

[massage]

Kern County supervisors will decide whether to dramatically increase regulation of the massage industry on Tuesday.


The new rules would only bring Kern County’s regulations in line with those currently in place in the city of Bakersfield.


But they are a major change for businesses in the unincorporated areas of the county.


Prostitution is the motivation behind the change.


Earlier this year business owners complained to the Kern County Board of Supervisors about illegal prostitution services being run out of massage businesses in Oildale.


"I have an illegal, illicit massage parlor next to my business," barber Chris Vaughn told Kern County supervisors last month as they considered allowing the new regulations to come to a final vote.


An investigation by the Kern County Public Health Services Department revealed evidence, including a website full of illicit reviews of Kern County establishments, that showed there was a serious problem.


Bakersfield Police Department Detective Glenn Phippen told supervisors the City of Bakersfield’s stronger rules were pushing shady massage businesses into the county.


So the supervisors set Tuesday as the meeting to vote on the aggressive new regulations.


Those rules would implement a number of new rules that will limit who can operate a shop, how they do business and attempt to reduce prostitution and potential human trafficking in the massage industry.


Owners of brick-and-morter businesses would need to pay a $166 business license fee and a $1,600 massage business permit fee. They would also have to be fingerprinted and their criminal background checked.


All of the practitioners offering massages in a shop would need to be certified by the California Massage Therapy Council – which would include a background check.


Current businesses would be allowed up to one year to get CAMTC certification for all their employees.


The rule would also require health and safety inspections of the facilities and annual inspections that would ensure that clients of the shop were being provided safe services.


So far, said Kern County Public Health Services Director Matt Constantine, there has been little feedback from the community about the proposed rules.


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