The City of Bloomington’s proposal to place higher fees on massage establishments and adult-oriented businesses as a way to suppress human trafficking is on hold, at least for two weeks.
The Bloomington City Council on Monday opted to postpone a vote on a combined action to amend two separate chapters of the city code that seek to crack down on illicit operations through increased licensing and application charges.
“I categorically am not in favor of sex trafficking. I also am not in favor of punishing, slandering and disrespecting people who are legitimate business owners in our community,” said Ward 7 council member Mollie Ward. “I do not believe that, as it’s currently proposed and … the current process that brought this resolution in front of us addresses the issue of sex trafficking.”
Several local massage therapists spoke out during public comment against the proposed regulations, saying the changes unfairly target the industry’s legitimate businesses. Erica Hartman said the new fees on top of the increasing cost of just doing business would be a hardship.
“In the last two years, my rent has increased, my credit card processing fees have gone up, and my supply costs have nearly doubled. But those costs are all part of running my business. What should not be part of running my business are special licensing and investigation fees for criminal activities that have nothing to do with me,” said Hartman.
“The business that I run is therapeutic massage,” added Brian Fitzgerald, owner of Bloomington/Normal Massage Therapy. “It has nothing to do with sex; it has to do with healing. So my concerns are, first of all, that we’re grouped in such a way in this ordinance, and I’m very concerned about that, as well as we were never consulted as professionals.”
The code amendments suggested by city staff would place charges of $250 for an annual licensing fee on top of a $100 application fee on massage establishments and sexually oriented businesses. The city also would establish an investigation fee.
Ward’s motion to postpone a vote until the June 23 meeting passed on a 5-2 vote, with two absences. She sought the delay to gather input from stakeholders, to adjust the proposed new language, and to split the resolution into separate items to eliminate any perceived linkage between massage establishments and sexually oriented businesses.
“We need to go through this with a fine tooth comb and let the people who know their business advise us on this. That’s how professionals treat each other, and these people don’t deserve any less,” said Ward.
City attorney Chris Spanos said matching or similar policies have been adopted in Peoria, Springfield, Decatur, East Peoria and Chatham. He said using the increased fees to weed out illicit businesses often benefits true massage establishments by forcing legitimate clientele to seek their services.
“There are people here in our community who do support sex trafficking by their very actions in engaging with these businesses, and we've heard people talk about that tonight. I think some of the most heartbreaking comments was hearing from those who are licensed health professionals in this field, who have also felt threatened and seen aggressors toward them,” said Ward 3 council member Sheila Montney.
“This ordinance language is in place in several communities across the state, and they have been able to make a significant difference in their communities through enforcement by virtue of this change, and I hope we will do the same.”
Participating remotely, Montney joined Ward 8 council member Kent Lee in voting against the delay.
“The thought of two more weeks of knowing that we are complicit in this going on in our community, I just can't abide by that,” she said.
In 2023, the city conducted a thorough license audit, but skipped a review of city code chapters related to massage venues and adult businesses with the intention of aligning new policy with human trafficking prevention efforts.
Staff also began training on human trafficking and looking into possibilities to update the code accordingly.
“We as staff have been working on various human trafficking issues since 2023,” said City Manager Jeff Jurgens. “We have, to some degree I would say, probably have had blinders on trying to work through some of these issues and try and get ahead of some of these issues.
“Part of closing one of the loopholes was working on a framework for massage establishments. Again, the people that came here tonight and talk, those are the good actors and those are delivering needed great services to our community. But we need a framework in place so that we can stop those who are not acting in good faith, or are bad actors.”
According to the staff communication on the agenda item, Bloomington is putting itself in a position to become the first Illinois city to be certified for human trafficking training and recognized as a “Partner in Peace” by the Peoria-based Center for Prevention of Abuse.
Dispatch software service
As its only other item of regular business, the council unanimously approved a $1.46 million contract with Tyler Technologies for a software service adjustment tied to the computer-aided dispatch system, as requested by the police department and IT staff.
“This involves public safety software that is used day to day in our 911 center here at the city. It’s the same platform that we’ve relied on for nearly two decades in public safety. It supports our 911 dispatch center, police department, fire department, and EMS operations throughout the city,” said Darren Wolf, manager of the Emergency Communication Center.
“We use the data that's in this system daily. We use it to report on what we’re doing as public safety agencies, how long we’re taking to respond to those incidents. We use it for internal reporting, budgeting, staffing, transparency issues. In short, this system just deeply woven into our fabric of our public safety, how we operate today.”
The three-year pact with Tyler Technologies transitions a contract dating back to 2005 from a “maintenance agreement” to a “software as a service” arrangement that calls for the company to host the entire public safety suite on a cloud-based network.
Wolf said the benefits of the new system include having a more resilient operation, stronger cybersecurity, and easing staff workloads.
Tyler Technologies will be responsible for all the hardware, backups, updates, security and technical management. Without the change, Bloomington would have needed to invest in significant upgrades to its current on-site servers.
Other business
Items approved as part of the consent agenda include:
- A contract not to exceed $2 million with Ferguson Enterprises to purchase water meters, software and maintenance as part of the 2026 fiscal year water meter installation program;
- A $390,000 service agreement renewal with Motorola for police and fire department radio system infrastructure, training, and support;
- Spending $377,000 to purchase new dasher boards from All American Arena Products for the ice rink at Grossinger Motors Arena;
- A $60,000 settlement agreement necessary to complete the Hamilton Road extension project;
- Buying 14 sets of firefighting turnout gear from Air One Equipment at a cost of $57,500;
- A $25,000 change order contract with Wm. Masters for replacing the rooftop HVAC unit at Miller Park Zoo’s rainforest building;
- A liquor license approval for Rosati’s Pizza at a new location, with the business moving to the shopping center at 1704 Eastland Drive from its current site on Prospect Road.
Also, 13 fire department personnel and two police officers were honored for receiving Lifesaving Awards during the year from May 1, 2024 to April 30, 2025. The city also issued a proclamation in celebration of LGBTQ+ Pride Month.
