Council unanimously passed the ordinance on Tuesday, which will amend the part of the city’s ordinance regarding massage establishments and services.
Acting City Manager, Steve Bergstresser, said it the new ordinance replaces the existing ordinance moving forward.
“This update will allow the city to license and regulate massage establishments and services to more effectively protect the public’s health and safety and general welfare,” he said.
As many as 9,000 illegal massage parlors currently operate in more than 1,000 cities nationwide, fueling a roughly $3 billion industry, according to the Polaris Project , a nonprofit that runs the National Human Trafficking Hotline.
Local communities have been looking at ways to combat the problem, and Kettering has been studying the problem for several months while crafting its now passed new ordinance.
Two recent issues of businesses trying to portray themselves as genuine massage establishment, but really operating as illicit brothels have highlighted the issue that Kettering is seeking to take on.
The Asian Hawaii Massage in the 2900 block of Linden is closed, with no lights on but just one word left on the window: spa.
Its manager, Haiyan Wang, 45, has been indicted for promoting prostitution for operating a brothel, according to a Montgomery County grand jury report.
MORE: Fairborn massage parlor raided in prostitution ring, human trafficking probe
Similar allegations at spa businesses have occurred several times in the past year. Most recently, a bust in Fairborn in October; in Piqua earlier this year and in Miami Twp. last year.
“They’re fronts for sexual services, human trafficking,” medical massage industry expert Jennifer Cull said of the illegal operations fronting as massage businesses.
Cull said cities across Ohio have similar laws on the books like the one Kettering just passed and she’s glad that the city took action.
“They don’t want these sex businesses. They don’t want it in the city. We don’t want it in the state of Ohio,” Cull explained.
Kettering’s Massage Establishment and Services Ordinance is modeled after many other cities in the state including West Carrollton, Centerville, Springboro, Fairborn, Huber Heights, Westerville, and Cincinnati.
One of the most important parts of the new ordinance is the requirement, with certain exceptions, that anyone performing massage in Kettering must be licensed by the city and by the State Medical Board as massage therapists.
MORE: Kettering seeks to prevent massage parlors before they arrive
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