City laws governing the practice of massage in Thousand Oaks were relaxed by the City Council earlier this month.

Among the changes: The educational requirement for a massage therapist has dropped from 1,000 hours to 500 hours. The 1,000 hours was considered excessive by staff, more than double the number of hours required by neighboring cities, including Simi Valley, Oxnard, Camarillo, Ventura and Santa Barbara. A valid certificate from the National Certification Board for Therapeutic Massage and Bodywork will be accepted in lieu of proof of educational training.

In addition, the five years' practical experience in lieu of the education requirement has been removed from the city's requirements.

Several massage therapists spoke against any educational reduction, expressing concern that professional standards would suffer as a result.

"I don't see why something that's been working for the past 10 years should be changed now," said Deborah Nesbit of Westlake Village, who's been a licensed massage therapist for seven years.

Background checks will now be reviewed by the Thousand Oaks Police Department to ensure greater thoroughness as well as timely processing.

"The way background checks will be processed will help make sure we obtain the information to help us to identify if these are individuals involved in similar problems in other districts," said Tim Giles, assistant city attorney.

Massage technicians no longer need an annual health certificate that clears them of having a communicable disease. Staff felt that such a health certificate would be accurate only on the day it was issued. Other cities, including Simi Valley and Newport Beach, have also dropped this requirement, according to the staff report.

Since the state doesn't set regulations for the massage industry, local cities create their own codes. In Thousand Oaks massage industry rules were first adopted in 1978. In response to recent input from local massage technicians, the city decided to update the code to make regulations "reasonable."

The city currently has about seven licensed massage establishments and 94 licensed massage technicians. Of those, 33 have home occupation permits.

One of the staff's recommendations was discussed in detail by the council and by several massage therapists in attendance at the meeting. Staff had urged the council to end the issuing of permits for home-based massage businesses due to the difficulties in regulating such operations. Those who currently hold home occupation permits could retain them, but they would lose them should they move to a new residence in the city. Mayor Dennis Gillette was the only council member in support of the failed motion.

"I want to stop the proliferation of this and I have a concern about home businesses in residential areas anyhow," Gillette said.

Several council members disagreed, citing discomfort with targeting the massage industry.

"My opinion is that if we want to do away with residential home business licenses, we should attack it as a whole rather than industry by industry," Councilmember Tom Glancy said.

Several massage therapists with home-based businesses appealed to the council on the homelicensing proposal. Patricia

Coughlin of Newbury Park said she'd met all of the city's requirements in order to obtain her license in 2001 and open a homebased practice.

"If my family and I decide to move to another home, that change will affect the practice I've worked so hard to build," Couglin said.

The council voted unanimously to pass all of the staff recommendations with the exception of the home-based licensing. That remains as-is.