Two prostitution or massage busts in a year to cost a business license - Salt Lake Tribune

[massage]

Two busts in a year and you're out.

That's the standard the Salt Lake County Council has now set for initiating the revocation of a business license held by a person suspected of being a behind-the-scenes promoter of prostitution.

Until now, law-enforcement officials were frustrated by the number of times in which individuals had business licenses for several units in a strip mall or building that they would sublease to independent contractors to provide massage services or something similar.

But when those contractors were put out of business for receiving criminal citations or were cited for violations by state professional licensing officials, there was no impact on the unit's license holder, who often just brought in another independent contractor to take the busted one's place.


This amendment to county regulations will allow the revocation of a person's business license if people using his or her units collect two infractions within a year. That could constitute a pattern of behavior needed to revoke a license, said Zach Shaw, a deputy county district attorney.

County Councilman Steve DeBry, a captain over the Unified Police Department's Millcreek precinct, said this approach will help law-enforcement officials deal with a problem that has frustrated them for years.

But there's more to be done, he added, noting that a person who provides a legitimate massage but does not have a state massage license is guilty of a Class A misdemeanor "but if someone goes in and has a sex act, it's a [less severe] Class B misdemeanor. That's how messed up things are."

In another continued business licensing matter, the County Council struck a compromise taming down a push for food-truck owners to buy locally if possible.

A food-truck ordinance adopted for the unincorporated county, patterned after Salt Lake City's, no longer will mandate that food-truck owners seek local sources first but will encourage them to do so. Restaurant owners also will receive the same prodding.

Councilwoman Aimee Winder Newton had objected to a requirement that food-truck owners look locally first when restaurants didn't have to. The rules for both should be the same, she added.

Councilman Jim Bradley agreed there should be equal treatment, but argued in favor of extending the rule to restaurants and require both to support local farmers. In the end, they agreed to encourage — but not mandate — that both groups use local foods.

mikeg@sltrib.com


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