Henderson considers massage parlor moratorium to combat prostitution

Henderson might impose a moratorium on new massage parlors as it plans to rewrite city laws — yet again — to combat a small number of businesses that officials say are fronts for prostitution.

The City Council is scheduled to vote next week on a 120-day moratorium, during which the city would draft new laws.

This comes more than three years after municipal code changes in 2011 aimed at confronting the same problem.

City Attorney Josh Reid said the new law still contains too many loopholes, making it hard to shut down problem establishments.

Prostitution at a massage parlor usually leads to misdemeanor charges against an employee, Reid said, but that means the business stays open.

“We’re going to be going after establishments and not the individuals,” Reid said of the new laws.

That was the goal in 2011 as well. An ordinance passed that December allows the city to suspend or revoke a business license if anyone engages in “sexual activity” or prostitution on the premises.

But Reid said the process for going after the license has proven “too clunky” and is largely unused.

“It just doesn’t seem like they’ve had an effect,” city spokesman Bud Cranor said of the 2011 changes.

Josh Harry, owner of Massage 1 in Henderson, said he had “mixed feelings” about the possible new law. He supports going after illicit establishments, which hurt his industry’s reputation.

But he said: “I feel like the current laws, they’re not effective at weeding out the bad people. And all they do is hinder the good people.”

City business licensing records show Massage 1 has never received a citation.

Under the planned new law, the city could decide whether to seek civil penalties or try to suspend or revoke the license of a business with repeated citations, Reid said. An independent lawyer acting as a “hearing officer” would conduct a quasi-trial, at which an accused business could have an attorney.

The businesses could go to court and ask a judge to overturn any disciplinary action.

Reid said the city also hopes to scrutinize owners of massage establishments more closely before granting licenses, as is done with those seeking gaming or medical marijuana licenses.

Harry said there’s already a lot of scrutiny. He recalled being asked such questions as where his brother went to college and where his relatives live.

“There was definitely a lot of hoops to jump through, a lot of red tape,” he said, recalling the process before he opened his business in 2013.

Massage 1 has a second location in an unincorporated area of Clark County, and Harry said the county approval process was similar to Henderson’s.

A related resolution on Tuesday’s City Council agenda would impose a moratorium on “reflexology” establishments, which Reid said have been the source of fewer problems. Reflexology uses pressure on various parts of the body to treat pain or stress, and some businesses practice both massage and reflexology.

The council resolution says the city has “seen an increase” in massage establishments violating the law, but they remain a small minority. There are 86 massage or reflexology establishments in Henderson, and city business licensing figures show 67 of them have never received a citation. Others have received one or two.

One business on Marks Street, called QV or Queen Vixen Spa, has had 10 citations — twice as many as any other business.

Yet it remains open. A woman who answered the phone Friday invited a reporter to come in for a massage but did not understand English well enough to put a manager on the phone or answer questions about the citations.

Henderson police said figures on calls to various establishments, as well as resulting criminal charges, were not available. The council resolution says the city “continues to receive new business license applications” from locations with a history of prostitution or other violations.

“The end goal here is if — my mom, my dad, my wife — if I send them to a massage place in Henderson, I don’t think they should be concerned they’re going to get propositioned,” Reid said.

City officials plan to talk to massage business owners as they draft the new law, which would require council approval.

“We don’t want to create a stigma for legitimate establishments,” Reid said.

Contact Eric Hartley at ehartley@reviewjournal.com or 702-550-9229. Find him on Twitter: @ethartley