No happy ending for Billings' illicit massage parlors - Billings Gazette

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Members of the Billings City Council after the November 2019 election.

CASEY PAGE, Billings Gazette
Rob Rogers

City leaders are hopeful a new business license requirement could help curb the proliferation of illicit massage parlors across Billings.


The city has long struggled with how best to address this problem, and at the Billings City Council meeting on Tuesday night, council members got their arms around what might be a solution.


Council members debated a proposed change to the city's massage therapy business license requirements that would allow Billings code enforcement officers to shut down massage operations in violation.


The new requirements would stipulate that massage-based businesses opening or running in Billings would need a license from the state Board of Massage Therapy, a background check for the owner and then the city's business license, which has an annual renewal fee of $55.


The city license would require massage businesses to keep regular hours of operation, to keep doors unlocked during business hours, to ensure windows aren't darkened or shaded and that employees must be clothed. Additionally, if owners lie or misrepresent themselves on the license, the city would have the authority to penalize or shut them down.


"We're looking to protect those legitimate massage businesses," said Billings attorney Stephanie Baucus, who helped draft the new business license requirements.


Using civil code enforcement as opposed to a criminal investigation will help the city manage the costs of enforcement and provide a way for the city to act more quickly when a complaint about a business is made.


"It's a business license and therefore it's a code compliance issue," said city administrator Chris Kukulski.


Code enforcement in Billings is complaint-based. Enforcement officers only show up to those businesses to investigate a code violation when a city resident has lodged a complaint with the city. This helps keep the costs of enforcement down, Kukulski said. Cost has been an ongoing issue with which the city has grappled as it looked to address illicit massage businesses.


The purpose of Tuesday night's meeting was to give council members the chance to decide whether they wanted to formalize the draft business license requirements and bring it to a regular council meeting for a first reading.


However, public comment on the proposed license requirements stretched for more than an hour and debate among the council continued beyond press time.


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