SF Ordinance Summary of Changes

December 2003

A time for celebration - Our massage ordinance passed!
On Friday, December 5, 2003, Mayor Willie Brown signed into law an historic piece of massage legislation for the City of San Francisco. Five years in the making, this new law was crafted and ultimately passed with only one dissenting vote, from Supervisor Hall, throughout the whole process.

In a major policy shift, the new ordinance moves the regulation of massage from the Police Department to the Department of Public Health signalling the Board's desire to see problems with professional massage dealt with as public health issues, rather than criminal matters.

Additionally, new categories of permits for businesses and practitioners allow those practitioners with advanced training to more easily open a private practice in San Francisco by lowering fees and less requiring less oversight.

It is our expectation that many more therapeutic massage practitioners will chose to be a part of the permitting system allowing them to operate without fear of having their livelihood taken from them.

Party time!
We celebrated this victory with a BBQ sponsored by the Coalition and the local Unit of the California Chapter of the American Massage Therapy Association on Saturday, January 17. About 25 massage professionals we on hand, along with Supervisor Chris Daly, the sponsor of the legislation and a representative from Assemblyman Mark Leno's office.

What's Next?
Now is the time to educate yourself about the new law and participate in the writing of the regulations before it is implemented. All of the relevant documents are listed below. If you are a part of a massage school, organization, or business, you might start by downloading the Fact Sheet of major changes and making copies to distribute to your colleagues and constitutents.

Get involved in the process of writing the regulations. The two people who will be coordinating the development of these regulations for the Department of Public Health are:

Linh Dang: Linh.Dang@sfdph.org and
Jack Breslin: John.Breslin@sfdph.org.

Join our mailing list and we will keep you informed of the latest developments.

A new page was posted, as of February 4, 2004, to answer Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ's). Check it out!

SF Massage Ordinance Updates