VENTURA : Revisions in Massage Law Tentatively OKd

Massage parlor employees operating in Ventura would no longer be tested for venereal diseases under an amendment to a city ordinance that received tentative approval Monday.

The City Council gave unanimous approval to a revised version of the massage ordinance that also requires all new massage technicians to be graduates of “a recognized school” of massage technique, said city Administrative Assistant Deborah Millais.

Millais said the revisions were proposed in response to claims by massage parlors that the “tone” of the original massage ordinance, adopted in 1982, “suggested that massage was something less than a legitimate business.”

The revisions, which will be up for a final vote next Monday, “leave the ordinance strong enough to allow police to pursue enforcement should it become necessary, while amending those sections most disturbing to the massage business people,” Millais said.

She said that the ordinance was passed at a time when massage parlors were sometimes used as fronts for prostitution but that since then the business has gained respectability.

One provision that didn’t change, despite objections from the parlor operators, would disqualify anyone who had a “massage establishment, escort service, nude entertainment, wrap parlor, nude photo studio or similar permit suspended within a year.”