CC_Minutes_2023_0424 - Laserfiche WebLink

Home

Regular City Council Meeting Monday,April 24, 2023 Page 13 City Attorney Tierney reviewed the State role regarding Statute 146a in regard to City regulations, indicating her belief that City regulations as they exist and are proposed do not conflict with the provisions of chapter 146A. Mayor Roe explained it was brought up about a possible violation with the First Amendment. He explained he presumed that if massage is not being offered for sale under the First Amendment, that probably does not require a license anyway because the City is regulating a commercial activity. But in the other sense, he wondered if there was concern here with respect to First Amendment type massage. City Attorney Tierney explained it is hard for her to answer such a general question. She stated that even under the First Amendment, when talking about expressive activity and City regulation, it starts at the beginning, which is what expression it is and what is the context of that restriction. She explained it needed to be found out whether this would be some sort of a time,place, and matter restriction because she was pretty sure massages do not take place in a traditional public forum. To the extent that they did take place in a traditional public forum, under where the venue is, the City could still regulate with sufficient reasons. But, she did not think the City is regulating the forum. Rather, she thought the City was regulating in its police power, as a health regulation and in general, First Amendment activities are not implicated. That said, provided that the City did not enforce, intentionally, a regulation to limit speech, she thought the City would be okay, noting that will be something that needs to come to them and to be looked at for the particular situation. She explained that such a general statement is hard to speak to directly. Mayor Roe believed that while the Fourth Amendment protects unreasonable search and seizure, as a part of the City's policing powers for health and safety, the exchange with the people who get the licenses is that licensees can be required to provide that information as a condition of the license. City Attorney Tierney confirmed that was correct and the reason is to make sure that the individual who engaged in the license activity at that moment was the individual who is on the license. Mayor Roe indicated the Council could decide if they want to add requirements that might be in other cities, licensing setups, and that can be done as part of this or at another time. Councilmember Strahan explained her understanding was the City already has a licensing ordinance in place and the Council was just adjusting some of the licensing requirements. Mayor Roe indicated that the City does already have a licensing scheme in place now.