Bloomington city leaders remain optimistic a modified plan to regulate massage businesses will still strengthen efforts to prevent human trafficking, despite removal of an annual fee intended to fund investigations.
“Really, what we want is compliance, and we want to get a regulatory structure in place,” said City Manager Jeff Jurgens. “We understand that we have a lot of great massage therapists out there and establishments, and we understand that the illicit ones are likely not going to go through this process. But we will use this regulatory process to shut them down.”
Two weeks after tabling an original proposal, the city council on Monday unanimously approved an adjusted ordinance to include application fees and other regulations for massage establishments.
The approved measure includes text amendments removing requirements related to dress code, individual therapists’ personal information and physical characteristics, and adds some exemptions for sole proprietor massage operations.
Businesses will still have a one-time application fee of $100, but there is no annual $250 license fee or any investigation fee included as part of the application. Jurgens clarified the initial application fee covers the city’s $75 cost for performing background checks.
“What this will do is establish a framework so we can administratively, if we see an establishment that we know is illicit out there, we can go in and shut that down much quicker than going through our local law enforcement,” said Jurgens.
The original proposal drew backlash from several state-licensed massage therapists who spoke during the public comments portion of the June 9 council meeting. Many said the plan to apply the $250 licensing fee unfairly grouped honest massage establishments with the illicit businesses the city intended to target.
Prior to Monday’s vote, several of those therapists again addressed the council to reiterate their concerns.
“If the goal is truly to curb illicit activity, I urge you to consider the unintended consequences of this ordinance,” said Kristina Felker. “By excluding home-based therapists, you are pushing the very problem you’re trying to prevent into residential areas where regulation is even less visible. This approach doesn’t solve trafficking, it simply relocates it. This is no longer just about fees; it’s about a fundamental misunderstanding of our profession and a mischaracterization of our businesses.”
“Grouping us with exploitative or unlicensed entities is unfair, inaccurate and damaging. What we’re asking for is not exemption, but partnership,” added Amanda Boitnott. “Let’s slow down and work together to craft policy that’s informed, fair and acknowledges the integrity and regulation already in place for massage therapists in Illinois.”
City staff stressed the code update only applies to establishments and does not regulate individual massage therapists who are already exclusively licensed by the State of Illinois.
According to the agenda item memo, the licensing framework aims to give the city “a proactive tool to intervene earlier” with clear standards and transparency to shut down businesses “that are clearly operating under false pretenses.”
It further states that illicit operations typically don’t employ licensed therapists, and are “structured specifically to evade detection.” The new regulations represent a step toward thwarting illegal sexually oriented businesses as Bloomington works to become the first city in the state to be certified for human trafficking training.
Jurgens said he’s unsure how many massage businesses and therapists currently exist in Bloomington, but he put the number of suspected illegal operations they’re targeting with the new ordinance at “under a dozen.”
“That number has been getting lower and lower as we’ve done other law enforcement efforts, and even as we’ve been discussing this ordinance we’ve seen some of those establishments move out,” he said. “That’s only going to continue to improve the situation here in Bloomington.”
Financial update
Also Monday, finance director Scott Rathbun summarized his latest monthly report for the council, highlighting positive revenue growth in state sales tax, home rule sales tax, and income tax over the final months of the 2025 fiscal year that closed at the end of April.
“At this point in time, we’re showing a positive — for these tax categories — variance of $442,000,” said Rathbun, referring to actual tax revenue versus what was budgeted.
“Last month when I gave this report, it showed a negative $1.15 million. So we’ve had a $1.6 million swing between the two months," he said, noting the final month’s income tax revenue came in $538,000 above projections.
“Hopefully, we’ll get some more information [from] the Department of Revenue on that one,” he said. “That could be a one-time anomaly, but we’ll take it.”
Other actions
Among 10 items approved as part of the consent agenda were:
- Rejecting both bids for cage work at Miller Park Zoo’s Katthoefer Building, with the staff intending to seek cost-effective alternatives after the submitted estimates came in more than four to six times above the $106,500 in grant funding budgeted for the project;
- Finalizing two separate four-year collective bargaining agreements with Laborers Local 362 for inspectors and support staff, with across-the-board salary increases of 3% in the first three years and 2% in the final year;
- Accepting a one-year extension period through November 2026 on a Strong Communities Program aimed at demolishing abandoned residential properties as funded by a $103,000 grant from the Illinois Housing Development Authority awarded in October 2023;
- Amending the Meadowbrook Subdivision improvement project for an additional $273,180 in construction services;
- Purchasing a new John Deere backhoe for the water department from Martin Equipment for $182,400, minus a $42,000 trade-in credit; and
- Adopting zoning map amendments for four separate parcels to provide clarity related to potential green stormwater infrastructure development.
