The Morro Bay City Council in November approved a massage establishment ordinance, in an effort to combat potential illicit activity.
Friday marked the end of a 90-day period where the police department and massage establishments worked together on the permitting process.
“We’ve done interviews we have collected all of the necessary documents not only for the owners or sole proprietors but also for the massage therapists that work within the city,” said Amy Watkins, Morro Bay Police Chief.
Watkins told KBSY News there are 14 massage establishments in Morro Bay.
One of those is Opulent Healing. Owner Zoey Chiasson, said her process started with an application where she outlined her business.
“The fire department and chief of police came by to do a physical check of the entire establishment make sure everything was up to code, clean sheets, towels, just in general a clean environment,” Chiasson said.
Watkins said that there is one business the police department is still working to get proper permitting from.
Now, the ordinance enters the enforcement period where massage therapists operating without certification and city permits can face daily fines.
“So that’s the type of regulations that we’ll end up kind of following through with a lot of it will be complaint based but we will also do some random checks just making sure that everyone’s adhering to the new code and entering compliance,” Watkins said.
The fee this year was $177 but will go up about three dollars next year due to what Watkins describes as typical inflation rates.
Chiasson tells KSBY she could see the process being troublesome for some practitioners.
“I have a girl that’s moving into my space she got her massage license back in like 2005 and so she has never certified with the CAMTC so that’s a process,” Chiasson said.
