FOX 11 Investigates: Recent incident shows growing pains of Green Bay's new massage policy - Fox11online.com

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GREEN BAY (WLUK) -- It's been almost one year since an ordinance took effect in Green Bay, requiring massage establishments to pay for a license.

The hope has been to crack down on bad actors, but a recent incident shows there's likely room to improve.

Green Bay Police Chief Chris Davis says his department found red flags with a recent application to get a massage establishment license for a building on West Mason Street.

“The phone number and spa name were also found on something called Adultsearch.com under the heading of erotic massage parlors in Missouri and happy endings,” Davis told the city council on January 21st. “I know from training and experience that the term happy endings is a term commonly used to describe an act of prostitution that often occurs at the end of a regular massage.”

Davis says an internet search of the applicant's phone number found it listed on several other similar websites that are also known for locating illicit massage parlors.

While those were for out of state establishments, the city previously granted the same applicant a massage establishment license for the Day Spa, on Military Avenue, on July 30, 2024.

“To issue a license to someone who is advertising that is just absurd,” said Leah Weycker, the executive director of the Military Avenue Business District.

Weycker says for a decade she's suspected a handful of massage establishments on Military to be illegitimate. She was hopeful when the city passed its license policy, but says so far little has changed.

“I guess the only thing that did change from the ordinance is they don't have their "on" lights on in the middle of the night anymore,” said Weycker. “I don't understand why it takes years to get some action here. To me that is just crazy. We inspect our food trucks more than we do our prostitution houses. That doesn't seem right.”

The city's license policy is for buildings. The state oversees licenses for individual therapists.

City records show there's been 25 applications for massage establishment licenses since the new policy took effect last February. Three have been denied and one license has been revoked.

That doesn't include the West Mason Street license request the city council took up last week.

“I want to be very clear these are things we found on an internet search and I'm not comfortable making any specific allegations of crime activity that has happened under the jurisdiction of the state of Wisconsin involving this person, but just given the advertising on other sites associated with this individual, we believe it's an unacceptable risk to the city to grant this,” said Davis.

The city council agreed, denying the applicant's request.

In addition to denying the request for a license on West Mason, the city council wanted to also take a vote to have city staff look into revoking the existing license on Military. City Attorney Joanne Bungert advised against that, pointing out the revocation process is eventually before the council. She didn't want any indication there was a prejudgment.

FOX 11 asked city council member Melinda Eck, who led the charge for the ordinance, if she knew how the applicant was previously granted a license for Military Avenue.

“That is where we're learning how not to do it,” said Eck. “That was allowing it to go through without that deep dive into the background.”

Eck says there's been growing pains, but believes the efforts to curb illegal activity are going in the right direction.

“I don't want to let it go because there's a reason why we did the ordinance and it's because we'd like to clean up Green Bay,” said Eck. “We don't want prostitution in Green Bay.”

Green Bay Police won’t say whether a criminal investigation has started into the license holder for the Day Spa on Military.

Green Bay Police Lt. Steve Mahoney says police initially approached the massage establishment license applications the same way they do for liquor licenses, by performing a criminal background check.

“We started realizing we need to do more than just a criminal background check on them,” said Mahoney. “That's where we're starting to find out the more information on people, once again, to give the alders of the city a better picture of who is applying for the application, the public safety aspect, so they can make a more informed decision on whether they should grant or deny it.”

For now, the Day Spa on Military appears to still be operating.

City documents do not show any massage violations at the location in the past year.

Through an interpreter, the license holder recently told the city's protection and policy committee her lease runs out in six months. However, court records show the building owner has been trying to evict her for the past year.

City officials have said they're in the process of making adjustments to the ordinance. That includes adding a waiting period for anyone to reapply for a license after being denied.