The San Rafael City Council Monday night revisited an ordinance proposing new regulations for massage practitioners, voting to approve the first reading of the regulations.

The ordinance was introduced last month and refined over the last two weeks to address concerns of the council and residents who spoke during the meeting.

Deputy City Attorney Lisa Golfien said the new language in the ordinance addresses such issues as providing exemptions to studios that provide training for students and the enforcement of the city's neon sign regulations.

Establishments must have approval from design review board for neon signs but the city has not enforced it, Goldfien said. 

She noted that any enforcement must be done uniformly on all businesses in the downtown area and cannot be limited to massage parlors.

Under the proposed massage business regulations,  police will more effectively monitor compliance with the law and will have the ability to close businesses where prostitution is taking place without having to go through prosecution. 

According to police regulatory officer Dan Hulett, under existing rules, officers must go through the Marin County District Attorney's Office to get a complaint filed against an individual who they believe has engaged in paid sexual activity. 

He said evidence is often lacking and it becomes difficult to get a conviction for anything other than a misdemeanor.

Hulett said the current system is also inefficient because the only way policy can usually tell if prostitution is going on is to use undercover officers to investigate. In that situation, it is unlikely that more than one individual would be arrested.

Under the proposed ordinance, if police discover illegal activity they can cite the business for violating the ordinance as a warning. If the owner does not bring the business into compliance, their license can be revoked and the operation will be closed. 

At Monday's meeting, resident Steve Patterson said massage parlors have been migrating into the downtown as fronts for prostitution. He urged the council to consider a much stronger ordinance.

Massage therapist Fritzi Schnel urged that veteran practitioners be grandfathered into the ordinance even though the schools that they trained in may no longer exist so their certification cannot be verified. 

Otherwise, Schnel said legitimate practitioners like herself will largely not be affected by the ordinance because they comply with the law. 

Councilman Damon Connolly was concerned about the burdens the ordinance may have on legitimate therapists and said that would be something he will be looking at in the future if the ordinance is passed. 

Councilman Greg Brockbank spoke of concerns of massage parlors going underground and said he would like to see data on the number of registered businesses once the ordinance has been in effect for six months or a year.

Mayor Al Boro said he shared Patterson's concerns about the city becoming a destination for illicit massage operations.

"We didn't write this ordinance because of legitimate people practicing in the city," Boro said. "We do have an increase in businesses that are not legitimate."