Kentucky Regulatory Activity Report

Louisville Massage Establishment Ordinance

In spite of an overwhelming number of calls and emails from Louisville LMTs and their clients, Louisville Metro Council passed a Massage Establishment Ordinance that does not exempt state licensed massage therapists. The application for licensing a massage establishment in Louisville will be on the Alcohol Beverage Control (ABC) website within

the week of March 16. It is undergoing beta testing at this time. The link to the page where this should be listed is https://louisvilleky.gov/government/alcoholic-beverage-control/specialty-licenses

Ongoing efforts to have the ordinance amended are being met with a wall of council members and city officials saying that there will be no amendments until the law has been in effect 6-12 months and they have actual data on what doesn’t work well.

The ordinance has many vague and conflicting phrases. Asking the city attorney who sat in on the task force for clarification only results in “interpretations” which do not seem to match the wording of the law. They seem to agree that the solo practitioner working alone who is not incorporated or an LLC is not subject to this ordinance, but it

does not specifically say that.

The Alliance of Licensed Massage Therapists of Louisville is working hard to arrange meetings with key Metro Council members, some sympathetic to us and some part of the hardline group determined to not budge on any point. Please join the Alliance Facebook page to find links to our zoom meetings and information on meetings to

attend to let council members know we are being adversely affected.

City officials want concrete data. Please let me know if you have been adversely affected by this ordinance in any way, and be specific in describing the expense or

business disruption caused by the ordinance. Please message myself or Abigail Bonham through Facebook or post what you can on the Alliance FB page so we can compile the data.

I was appointed to the “Industry Committee” of the task force and have made a request to also be on the rollout committee to monitor feedback and glitches. I’m not sure how effective I can be in that group but will try.

Any contact with city officials or officers MUST be made with grace, manners and decorum. Please do not go in combative, argumentative or defensive. Do not argue, be patient. We need to make friends here, not make people resent us. But we do need to stay in their radar, so your help is needed.

Denise Logsdon, LMT