Hamilton Mayor Yaede wants to regulate massage parlors, council calls it...

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HAMILTON >> After police raided two massage parlors and arrested two women on prostitution engagement charges in March, Mayor Kelly Yaede said Hamilton Township would not tolerate indecent activities and promised her administration would draft an ordinance regulating local rubdown establishments.

“As we continue our efforts to maintain our community’s high quality of life, we are working on a local ordinance that will regulate massage parlors to deter unscrupulous actions by any individual seeking to conduct illegal activities,” Yaede said at the time.

The mayor directed Hamilton Township’s Department of Law to craft an ordinance subjecting all Hamilton-based massage parlor owners and therapists to strict rules and regulations. The 10-page ordinance was presented to Hamilton Township Council on June 21, but Hamilton Council unanimously declined to introduce the measure.

“This is really overregulation of an industry that is already overseen by the state,” Hamilton Council President Ileana Schirmer said recently in explaining why Hamilton Council had declined to introduce the ordinance. “I think we did the right thing.”

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The state regulates massage parlors through the New Jersey Board of Massage and Bodywork Therapy, which grants massage therapy licenses to qualified applicants who are judged to be of good moral character.

The Massage and Bodyworks Therapist Licensing Act, also known as NJSA 45:11-53, went into effect Sept. 2, 2012, and also requires massage parlor owners to register with the state massage board.

State regulations


If someone performs massage work in New Jersey without a license, that person could be fined thousands of dollars, according to Lisa Coryell, spokeswoman for the New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs that oversees the massage licensing board.

“Under the law,” Coryell said, “an unlicensed practitioner faces a penalty of up to $10,000 for the first offense and up to $20,000 for each subsequent offense, to be recovered by the director or the board or committee within the Division of Consumer Affairs.”

Hamilton police in April 2015 filed a criminal sexual contact complaint against a township man, Wayne Watts, 66, on allegations Watts had inappropriately touched a female client during her visit to the Gentle Strength Massage Therapy business that Watts operated on Quakerbridge Road.

Watts was allegedly performing unlicensed massage therapy work in Hamilton Township. The state denied his application for a massage therapy license in February.

To be eligible for a massage and bodywork therapy license in New Jersey, an applicant must be of good moral character and successfully complete a minimum of 500 hours of in-class study in the field of massage therapy or pass a written examination pertaining to massage therapy. The state licensing board reviews criminal background history checks to assess an applicant’s moral character.

For example, the board on Feb. 17 denied applicant Meilan Huang a massage therapy license because she had previously pleaded guilty to charges of engaging in prostitution while working at a massage therapy establishment at the time of her June 2008 arrest.

Any New Jersey employer offering massage and bodywork therapies also has to register with the New Jersey Board of Massage and Bodywork Therapy and submit to a criminal history background check, according to state law.

Under New Jersey statute 45:11-76, “No employer shall engage in or advertise or hold itself out as offering massage and bodywork therapies unless the employer is registered with the board.”

To register with the state board, owners of New Jersey massage establishments must complete written applications that include full biographical details and complete information on the names and locations of the establishments.

“If the board finds reason for action against a practitioner, that enforcement action could take several forms, such as a uniform penalty letter, a notice of violation, or the issuance of a formal complaint,” Coryell said.

Local regulations


Even though New Jersey already regulates the massage therapy industry, other towns in the state have adopted their own municipal ordinances to crack down on local rubdown establishments.

West Windsor Township Council adopted an ordinance to regulate massage parlors on Oct. 15, 2012; Lawrence Township Council introduced a 10-page ordinance April 16, 2013, regulating massage establishments in Lawrence; and Hightstown this year recently adopted an ordinance regulating massage, bodywork and somatic therapy businesses in that Mercer County borough.

The ordinance that Hamilton Council declined to introduce on June 21 was essentially a carbon copy of the Lawrence Township massage parlor regulatory ordinance. Hamilton’s ordinance would have gone a step further, however, by restricting local massage parlors to operate only between the hours of 8 a.m. and 10 p.m.

Like the Lawrence Township ordinance, the proposed Hamilton Township ordinance would have required all massage parlor owners in the municipality to undergo a criminal history background check and apply for a $400 municipal license to operate a massage therapy establishment. The ordinance also would have expressly prohibited unlicensed therapists like Wayne Watts from performing massage work in Hamilton Township.

The following operating requirements are mentioned in both the Lawrence Township ordinance and the proposed Hamilton ordinance that council declined to introduce:

“Every portion of the massage, bodywork, and somatic therapy establishment, including appliances and apparatus, shall be kept clean and operated in a sanitary condition. A broad spectrum anti-microbial disinfectant shall be used.”

“All employees, including massage, bodywork, and somatic therapists, shall be clean and wear clean, nontransparent outer garments. Dressing rooms must be available on the premises. Doors to such dressing rooms shall open inward, be self-closing, and non-lockable.”

Like the Lawrence ordinance, the Hamilton proposal would have specified that no owner or manager of massage therapy establishments “shall tolerate in his or her establishment any activity or behavior prohibited by the laws of the State of New Jersey, particularly, but not limited to, laws proscribing prostitution, indecency and obscenity, including the sale, uttering or exposing and public communication of obscene material; laws which relate to the commission of sodomy, adultery and proscribing fornication.”

If Hamilton Council adopted the ordinance, Hamilton Township would have gained the power to prosecute massage parlor owners and managers as accessories if an employee was found guilty of violating the ordinance. Lawrence Township already has that power.

Anyone who performs unlicensed massage work in New Jersey can be fined up to $10,000 by the state for the first offense and up to $20,000 for subsequent offenses. Any person who violates Lawrence Township’s massage regulations can face a municipal fine ranging from $500 to $2,000.

Hightstown’s newly implemented massage parlor ordinance subjects violators to a penalty in the amount of $2,500 per offense. Violations of Hamilton Township’s proposed massage regulations would have commanded a fine ranging from $500 to $2,000.

Government power


Schirmer, as Hamilton Council’s president, said the totality of Hamilton’s proposed ordinance was problematic to her, saying the ordinance would have given the township the power to go inside massage establishments “and dictate how they would run their businesses.”

Yaede in a recent interview with The Trentonian called upon Hamilton Council to reconsider its position.

“I cannot stress the importance of providing the municipality with the tools to keep Hamilton clean, safe and beautiful,” Yaede said, “and I implore the council to revisit this issue and perhaps find common ground or amend the ordinance, protecting the residents of Hamilton Township going forward.”

Yaede and all five members of Hamilton Council are Republicans. Vinnie Capodanno, a Democratic former Hamilton councilman, said he liked Yaede’s get-tough approach on massage therapy establishments but congratulated Hamilton Council for showing its independence.

“I don’t think the ordinance was that bad to tell you the truth,” Capodanno said, “but I understand why they rejected it. They are Republicans and don’t want overreach.”

The Mercer County Prosecutor’s Office in March executed a search warrant at the New Spa establishment on Nottingham Way and the Blue Spa establishment off Whitehorse-Mercerville Road. Those operations led to the arrests of 51-year-old Dong Zhang and 51-year-old Honglian Zhang for allegedly engaging in prostitution.

Hamilton officials on June 22 shuttered the New Spa business due to the massage parlor being deemed unsafe for human occupancy. Three female employees of the massage parlor aged 50 years or older were inside the building when township officials deemed it an “imminent hazard.” Hamilton police officers transported those women to the township’s train station and township building inspectors ordered the establishment shut down.

An orange notice on the spa’s front window read: “No individual is to occupy this building until the structure is rendered safe and secure.”

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