Potential changes continue for massage therapy businesses in the wake of probations - Rochester Post Bulletin

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ROCHESTER — AnaMarie Moen said renaming her massage therapy business years ago highlighted how change can bring positive outcomes.

“I had less creepy phone calls after I switched the name to Moen Therapeutic (Massage), versus when it was Peaceful Palms,” she said.

While she still receives the rare sexually suggestive call and must occasionally deal with customers who act inappropriately, she’s noticed a significant reduction, compared to when she opened her business 10 years ago in Waseca.

Adding notices to her website and client forms has also helped, and she said Rochester’s proposed ordinance update, along with the inspection pilot program introduced last year, will likely increase awareness of what is acceptable in legitimate businesses.

“There is no way this problem can be fully addressed if we are still trying to keep it silent and the background,” she said.


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The Rochester City Council is slated to review proposed ordinance updates on Monday. Key changes focus on sanitary and health guidance and how hearings will be conducted for businesses violating local rules.

Mary Jo Majerus, owner of Healing Touch Spa, said she supports the proposed changes, but she’s not as confident that they will deter unwanted solicitation of therapists.

“It’s been in the ordinance for the last 10 years,” she said of restrictions on sexual activity and related practices in licensed massage therapy businesses. “It hasn’t stopped them now.”

Majerus said the approach is misdirected, if the goal is to reduce illicit activity in her industry.

“The whole thing is wrong,” she said. “We are going after people and businesses that are already victimized instead of going after the perpetrators of the crime — the men who are trying to find someone to give them sex.”

Majerus and Moen said they report such activity to the police, and Moen said she’s had at least one client engage with police while on the massage table.

Changing approach​

Rochester License Examiner Christiaan Cartwright said the city’s new approach to overseeing the businesses seeks to steer away from a criminalized punitive response, which led to costly sting operations in the past, with the potential for victimized therapists to be punished alongside business owners and clients.

“What we want to implement is a proactive, preventative, equitable, fair and even process to get ahead of any issues and to really create a robust, non-criminally led process for inspections and compliance,” he said.


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Some business owners contacted were reluctant to go on the record, but voiced varying levels of support for the city actions, as well as concerns about cost and time connected to the added oversight.

The result, so far, has been six businesses placed on probation for issues found during inspections last year, and another two with signed probation agreements that will be presented to the City Council on Monday.

Majerus has raised concerns about the probations, pointing out that all the owners speak Mandarin, a Chinese dialect, as their first language, which could account for a misunderstanding of expectations during the inspections.

Sagar Chowdhury, the associate director of Olmsted County Public Health who oversaw the inspection process, said the language barrier was taken into account, with offers to use interpreter services or wait for the business owners to contact someone to help explain things.

“It’s something we do on a regular basis,” he said, pointing to a variety of public health inspections that have staff interacting with people who don’t speak English as their primary language.

At the same time, he said the choice is up to the business owner. “We are not going to force anyone to use an interpreter,” he said.

Moen said the owners also have the choice on how they operate, which is why she supports the added level of scrutiny.

“I don’t think this is about discrimination,” she said. “I think this is more about how we keep all of our customers comfortable and make sure everyone who comes in feels safe.”


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She said the discovery of eight businesses that allegedly violated expected practices shows a need for added oversight.

‘When you have a group of people that start muddying the waters, it ruins it for everybody,” she said.

Expanding the ordinance​

Changes being proposed to the city ordinance related to massage therapy licenses will add detailed expectations related to sanitary practices aimed at limiting the spread of illness, which will add to the list of potential infractions that could lead to administrative action.

Chowdhury said questionable practices were noted in the recent inspections, but they didn’t necessarily violate expectations outlined in city ordinance.

In those cases, he and his staff made recommendations for safe practices but didn’t include it on the list of actions that could lead to action. Actionable items included findings of seminal fluid in the business or evidence that someone was living there, both of which could point to illicit activity, Chowdhury said.

With the added regulations, the council will also consider changing the process that could lead to a license revocation.

Current practice calls for a hearing during a City Council meeting, which makes the discussion public and seen as limiting potential interaction related to alleged offenses. It is also seen as remaining detrimental to a business if the council rejects taking action.

The proposed change would start the process with a committee or officer review to make decisions on the fate of a license. If the business owner objects to the decision, a public hearing in front of the City Council could still be requested.


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Cartwright has said the changes are intended to soften the approach and increase oversight by reducing the complaint-driven process for review, which can lead to a mistaken public opinion of massage therapy businesses.

As far as future inspections, Chowdhury said public health staff are committed to making improvements as needed, as long as they fall within guidelines set by the city, as the entity that issues the business licenses.

“No inspection process is perfect,” he said. “We are going to continue striving to improve it.”

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