La Palma City Council denies sketchy spa a permit for massages after inspection
An application for a massage permit by a local spa rubbed the La Palma City Council the wrong way.
After a code enforcement inspection sent Starlight Day Spa employees and customers exiting out the back door 'with haste' last year, city officials sent the owner an Aug. 19 cease-and-desist letter alleging that he illegally operated a massage business.
On Tuesday, City Council members pressed Tom Scott, Starlight Day Spa's owner, during a public hearing with evidence in hand that the spa ran suggestive massage ads on websites like Craigslist and RubMaps, whose tagline is 'where fantasy meets reality,' in violation of the Massage Therapy Act.
Councilman Nitesh Patel asked Scott point-blank if he knew what RubMaps was.
'I believe that is website for massage parlors,' Scott said.
'What kind of massage parlors?' Vivek pressed the spa owner.
'I assume ones that are not focused on beauty and wellness,' Scott said.
Both websites have been linked to sex work and trafficking.
The location has caused La Palma trouble before.
In 2018, city staff inspected a number of massage parlors and closed four of them down, including Diamond Spa, where Starlight Day Spa currently resides.
In May, Starlight Day Spa received a business license to run a beauty salon at the location, but it wasn't allowed to offer massage services. On Aug. 15, Scott sought a conditional use permit and submitted a floor plan for a suite that included five massage rooms.
After receiving the application, code enforcement visited the business.
The inspection found lighted signage already advertising massage services at the front of the spa. Photographs taken inside showed a list of massages — from Swedish to deep tissue — offered at different time intervals and rates.
City officials also documented a code violation when they discovered concealed cameras in the faux flower decorations at the reception desk, which massage parlors are otherwise prohibited from installing to alert the entrance of law enforcement.
With the property emptied out due to employees and customers fleeing, La Palma police arrived on-site as back up until a manager showed up.
Scott referred to the inspection as the 'incident' during the hearing and denied anything sexual in nature happened at the spa when Councilwoman Janet Keo Conklin bluntly asked if it did.
'We were conducting beauty services,' he said. 'The aesthetician that was there had just completed a waxing on a customer and the customer was leaving.'
Scott claimed the spa worker knew little English and fled in fear.
Still seeking permit approval, he apologized to the city and stated that all massage advertising had been pulled in accordance with the cease-and-desist letter.
'We want to move forward,' Scott added. 'We want to be successful, and we want to bring rejuvenation to the business and to the community we're doing our business in. We're operating in full compliance with all city regulations while continuing to provide quality wellness and beauty treatments.'
He even offered to work closely with city officials while operating under a probationary period.
But Patel admonished him for the massage ads that ran before the city granted a permit for such services. Scott, who owns wax spas in Anaheim and Santa Ana, claimed he had never applied for a conditional use permit before and jumped the gun in expecting a quick turnaround on the process.
The argument did little to sway council members who denied Starlight Day Spa a happy ending and voted its permit request down.
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