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AB 1147 Assembly Bill-Bill Analysis Page 25 of 35 Board members; and imposing a California residency requirement on all Board members. [ The current language in this measure reflects some of the recommended changes however it does not include political appointees but rather designated appointees from specific professional associations, colleges and schools, law enforcement, cities and counties and the DCA .] c) Issue Preemption and Practice Rights for Massage Therapists. Background . The original intent of the SB 731 was to create uniform standards regarding education, training and background investigation for massage practitioners to help professionalize the massage industry in California and provide more distance from an unfortunate association with the sex trade. According to the American Massage Therapy Association's 2014 Industry fact sheet, massage professionals work in a variety of work environments, sole practitioners account for 62% of practicing therapists, many of whom practice in multiple settings. 65% of those sole practitioners work at least part of their time at a client's home, business, or corporate setting, 38% at their office, 35% at their home, 26% in a healthcare setting, and 26% work in a spa setting. Because so many massage professionals are sole practitioners who work from their home, travel to a client's homes, or contract with spas in various cities and counties, the concept of statewide certification was designed to help alleviate practitioners from being required to meet multiple duplicative and often restrictive practice standards which would vary city by city. From a consumer protection standpoint, certification meant that a "certified professional" has met specified educational, training, and background standards, thereby giving consumers some reassurance that the practitioner was properly educated and trained. According to CAMTC, for many years "the perception of massage as a vice resulted in many cities requiring expensive conditional use permits. [Some] [r]estricted massage businesses from opening within 1,000 feet of schools, churches, or residences effectively zoned massage out of many small cities. As reported by CAMTC, zoning massage as "adult entertainment," cities force[d] massage clients to seek healing and restorative services in unsafe, outlying and industrial areas, adjacent to adult bookstores and AB 1147 Page 34 nude dancing establishments. Many cities still have local ordinances that presume massage clients will be engaging in sexual intercourse with the massage providers. For example, Los Angeles requires that a poster be posted in public areas informing massage clients that it is illegal to have condoms on the premises." Additionally, the proponents of state regulation argued in discussions around SB 731 that in the past, local regulation treated professionals and illicit massage businesses alike and consumers may have had a problem knowing how to distinguish legitimate massage practitioners from illicit massage businesses. In crafting a voluntary, statewide certification program in California, proponents of statewide regulation recognized a need to eliminate restrictive and duplicative local registrations and certifications. SB 731 included a specific provision in BPC 4612 (a) (4) which created a specific exemption (known as the " preemption" ) for certified massage professional from certain restrictive business regulations. The statute specifically states "Nothing in this section shall prohibit a city, county, or http://www.leginfo.ca.gov/pub/13-14/bill/asm/ab_l 101-1150/40_11 47_cfa_20140620_1 11115_sen_comm.html 7/3/2014