R.H.E. Grants First License to a Masseuse

A massage therapist was granted a business license by the Rolling Hills Estates City Council Tuesday after persuading it that she is a bona fide masseuse with a clientele composed principally of middle-aged and elderly women.

The council’s unanimous vote overturned City Manager Douglas Prichard’s decision to deny the license to Deborah Murphy.

Prichard said he refused Murphy’s license request out of concern for the city’s reputation, adding in a report to the council that massage “is often perceived by the general public in an unflattering light.”

The 33-year-old masseuse told the council her clientele, women aged 40 to 80, are primarily Palos Verdes Peninsula residents, many of whom have manageable health problems, like arthritis. Clients asked her to move her practice, which had been in several other South Bay locations, to the peninsula for their convenience, she said.

Murphy will work at Maya, a nail salon on Silver Spur Road in the city’s business district. Elizabeth Stoltz, a 78-year-old Carson resident, said she has been getting regular massages for 12 years and finds it improves her muscle tone. She said a heart condition prevents her from physical exercise. “I have found massage to be very important to me,” she said, adding that getting “a massage in beauty salons goes way back.”

It is the first time the city has granted a separate business license for a massage therapist, although a local spa had obtained one to cover its employees. Prichard said he would have preferred the masseuse work in a health spa or a doctor’s office, but several speakers told the council that elderly women typically don’t join spas and aren’t comfortable in a medical setting.

The council added several conditions to the license, including banning alcoholic beverages on the Maya premises, limiting the hours of massage to the hours of salon operation, which are 9 a.m to 8 p.m., and restricting massage to women only. The license will be reviewed in one year.

“We don’t need to worry at this point in time that there is some nefarious activity planned for the city,” said Councilman Hugh Muller, who had checked Murphy’s references.

Murphy, who has been practicing massage for six years, was greeted by hugs from well-wishers outside council chambers.

“I am so thrilled and extremely happy that they changed their mind and granted me the license,” Murphy said after the meeting. “I’m happy in about a hundred-million different ways.”