ACTION REQUESTED:
Title
Communication from the City Manager and Corporation Counsel with a Request to ADOPT an ORDINANCE Amending Chapter 18 of the CODE of the City of Peoria Pertaining to BODYWORK ESTABLISHMENTS.
Body
BACKGROUND: Until 2005, Chapter 18 of the City's municipal code regulated massage establishments/massage services. The city deleted Chapter 18 on 1/18/05 as "changes in the state statute gives exclusive jurisdiction and power to regulate and license massage therapy to the state through its Department of Professional Regulation." The Massage Licensing Act specifically prohibits home-rule municipalities from regulating or licensing massage therapy.
The Massage Licensing Act specifically preempted home rule authority. See 225 ILCS 57/55:
Sec. 55. Exclusive jurisdiction. The regulation and licensing of massage therapy is an exclusive power and function of the State. A home rule unit may not regulate or license massage therapists. This Section is a denial and limitation of home rule powers and functions under subsection (h) of Section 6 of Article VII of the Illinois Constitution.
Although this Act would seem to prevent the City from regulating massage businesses, the court has held otherwise.
The authority of a municipality to regulate massage establishments was upheld in Kinghealth Spa Inc. v. Village of Downer's Grover (2014 Ill.App.2d 130825. The issue in that case was whether ta local licensing commission could revoke a massage parlors license. Interestingly, the Court relied on Wes Ward Enterprise, Ltd. v. Andrews (42 Ill.App.3d 458 (1976) where the court held that the City of Peoria's massage business ordinance was a reasonable exercise of the local government's police power. The court specifically noted the holding in Wes Ward that "the ordinance provisions prohibiting nudity and the touching of sexual and genital areas were obviously designed to proscribe such unlawful conduct and to prevent unscrupulous persons from permitt...
Click here for full text