Belvidere business registration discussion planned March 27

By Bob Balgemann

REPORTER

City officials and representatives of the business community were supposed to gather Monday night, March 13 at city hall, to discuss a proposed business registration program, as a means to “eliminate prostitution through the guise of massage parlors.”

However, the inability of a key alderman to attend has prompted that discussion to be delayed until a committee of the whole meeting, scheduled for 6 p.m. on Monday, March 27.

Mayor Mike Chamberlain, during the Monday, Feb. 13 committee meeting, provided an update how such a program could complement efforts by law enforcement to target local establishments that are involved in illegal activity.

A step in that direction was taken in 2016 through a regional initiative.

Police Chief Jan Nobel, when presenting the annual police report Monday, Feb. 27, noted that four massage parlors were closed in 2016, with none of them reopening.

“We helped Loves Park with their problem, and they helped us with ours,” he said.

Belvidere had seven prostitution cases last year, compared with none during the previous four years.

During an update on the business registration proposal Monday, Feb. 13, Mayor Chamberlain said he had been advised the city was getting a “very negative response” to the possibility.

“I think part of that is they [businesses] automatically think it will be intrusive,” he said.

So, businesses will be re-invited to attend the Monday, March 27 meeting to discuss the matter.

The mayor said the plan is to discuss an effective process to control such illegal businesses, “because they will do it again. It took two years to get to the sting [in 2016] in which we shut all four down.”

He continued that “legally licensed masseuses are an honorable profession and have a rightful place in our business community.”

Of a business registration program, he stressed, “We are not looking to procure more information or put punitive measures on the business community. We want to get rid of the wrong kind of massage parlors, period!”

So in two weeks, “We will have that discussion here on [city] council floor, and everyone can weigh in and be part of the solution, so we can solve the problem,” he said.

City Attorney Mike Drella said he had received inquiries about regulating massage parlors, as is being done in the nearby Village of Machesney Park. But, his idea was to work up a comprehensive business registration program, rather than target massage establishments.