The Eagle Rock Neighborhood Council on Tuesday is scheduled to discuss ways to regulate massage therapy businesses in Eagle Rock, an issue that prompted the Los Angeles Police Department to raid several local massage parlors in 2011 and arrest employees working there for alleged prostitution.
ERNC President Michael Nogueira and an LAPD representative will offer a presentation about massage parlors during what will be the first meeting of the neighborhood council’s board in 2013. The monthly board meeting will be held from 7 p.m. to 9 p.m. on the second floor of Eagle Rock City Hall. The event is open to the public.
The presentation will be followed by a discussion and possible action by the ERNC on whether to urge the state Assembly to improve local jurisdiction of massage parlors, as city Councilman José Huizar recommended in October 2011, with the unanimous backing of the Los Angeles City Council.
“There is some renewed interest in tackling the massage parlor issue once again,” ERNC Immediate Past President Michael Larsen told Eagle Rock Patch. Massage businesses in the neighborhood “seem to be as busy as ever," he said, adding that “it's important for illicit massage places and their customers to know that Eagle Rock will not tolerate them and will devote resources to getting rid of them."
There are at least six “erotic massage parlors” in the Eagle Rock area, according to Rub Maps, a website devoted to the massage parlor industry, which is mainly regulated by the state government.
The meeting agenda of the ERNC board also includes a presentation by Sub-District 6 Director Ethan Weiss about a candidates’ forum ahead of the L.A. mayor’s election in March.
During the previous ERNC meeting in December, the board had suggested that the ERNC host the mayoral candidates’ forum along with several other neighborhood councils in Northeast L.A.
But with less than two months left before the mayoral primary election, it’s not clear whether efforts to convene a candidates’ forum are feasible, especially given that, as a city organization, the ERNC is obliged to invite all candidates in the race and not just those most likely to win.
Other significant items on the evening’s agenda include a discussion and possible action on:
• A grant to improve the Eagle Rock Elementary Educational Foundation Library.
• A proposal to develop a 7-Eleven convenience store at 4515 York Blvd.
• A report by the ad hoc ERNC bylaws committee about its vote on proposed revisions to the ERNC bylaws, including a provision that regulates voting in the council’s elections by stakeholders who are not Eagle Rock residents.
In addition, ERNC Public Safety Director José Posada, who is also the principal of the Eagle Rock Elementary School & Magnet Center, will provide the latest details about public safety in the neighborhood.
