Anchorage massage therapists say they're concerned proposed city licensing regulations on their businesses place them in the same category as sex workers.
Local massage therapists say they have a keen awareness of long-running problems with businesses that use massage as a front for illicit activities like sex trafficking and prostitution, which officials say is the primary target of a new local licensing system for massage establishments. But a draft of the new regulations, released this week, has provoked frustration among therapists who say the regulations are misguided.
"We acknowledge that there is a problem. But the problem is not with massage therapists," said Volker B. Hruby, president of the Alaska chapter of the American Massage Therapy Association. "It's with human trafficking and prostitution. And we want to help find a solution."
The friction comes as the state rolls out a new system for licensing massage therapists, which includes stringent requirements, fingerprinting and federal background checks. A new state statute took effect in July that prevents Anchorage from issuing its own licenses to individual massage therapists.
But the city can still regulate buildings and venues where massages are offered, and officials are clearly interested in doing so. Between 2005 and 2012, police filed prostitution-related charges against 39 people involved with more than 25 different massage establishments, according to data provided by the Anchorage Police Department. Many of the establishments were located along Tudor Road or in the Spenard area, and most had the word "massage" or "parlor" in their names, the data show.
Jamie Heinz, an Anchorage business license official who helped draft the regulations, said the city has long had its hands tied when it comes to busting businesses that have used massage as a front for selling sex. She said that without specific authority in state statute, the city was not allowed to conduct federal background checks when issuing licenses.
"We feel like also licensing the establishments (will be) another tool for law enforcement to be able to address human trafficking in Anchorage, while at the same time helping preserve the integrity of massage therapy in Anchorage," Heinz said.
She stressed the proposed license for massage businesses is only in draft form, and Assembly members have asked for feedback from professional therapists. Based on rules adopted in Boise, Idaho, the proposed regulations seek to regulate operating hours, size and equipment for facilities, including locks on doors and the way employees are dressed.
A number of places where massage is practiced would be exempt from the regulations, according to the draft ordinance. Those include hospitals, public and private secondary schools and colleges, sports venues with athletic trainers, athletic clubs, chair massages and wellness programs. Heinz said the goal is to ensure that people seeking the health benefits of massage therapy get what they paid for.
Alaska was one of the last states to adopt a state licensing system for massage therapists. The 2014 legislation, designed to treat massage therapists like other health-care practitioners, also created a state Board of Massage Therapists, which is charged with developing state regulations.
Hruby argued the new state license, which requires a federal background check and $610 in fees, is stringent enough to prevent bad operators from finding a foothold in Anchorage.
Meanwhile, the state board has started to research ways to regulate massage establishments based on a recent presentation from Anchorage officials and the FBI on sex trafficking, said Janey Hovenden, the state's division director of corporations, business and professional licensing.
City officials and Anchorage Assembly members, however, maintain the city can do a better job than the state at making rules and enforcing them when it comes to local businesses, pointing to the city's towing industry as an example.
"I have no faith in the state being able to develop any new policy right now," Assembly Chair Dick Traini, who is co-sponsoring the local ordinance, said at a Wednesday committee meeting on the new regulations. "I've seen the (Alcohol Beverage and Control Board) so ineptly handle liquor licenses in this town, it's an abomination."
While Assembly members said they want to legitimize local massage therapists, the therapists said they should have been consulted on the language of the draft regulations much earlier. Angelique Conrad, the vice president of the Alaska chapter of the national massage association, said she couldn't sleep Tuesday night after she saw the regulations.
She said she's spent 15 years working as a massage therapist at a doctor's office, and goes once a month to Alaska Native Medical Center to work alongside doctors and nurses. She said she found the language in the ordinance "infuriating."
"To be lumped in with prostitutes, so…" Conrad trailed off. "They assume that we are before we aren't."
Amanda Unser, who works in an Anchorage chiropractic clinic and chairs the state Board of Massage Therapists, said it was the industry that lobbied for state licensing and tighter regulation. She said professionals understand the business of massage therapy has been misused as a cover for sex trafficking, and the lack of communication with the industry before the draft regulations were introduced was deeply disappointing.
"This is a short-term solution to a long-term problem," Under said. "Those business owners are going to find another business face to operate under."
Jennifer Deitz, president and founder of Alaska Career College, which offers a therapeutic massage specialist program, said it's becoming more expensive to operate as a massage therapist in the state. She said it's not uncommon for the state and city to have duplicate regulations, but said the dismay stems from how the local regulations have been presented.
Hruby said the newly formed work group of massage therapists is planning to convene in the next several days. He said some of the language in the draft ordinance would directly affect the spa at the Sheraton Hotel where he works as lead therapist.
"We're going to work out a solution to the problem that helps separate us from what they're trying to lump us into," Hruby said.