To: From: Rochester City Council ROCHESTER Minnesota Office of the City Clerk Anissa Hollingshead, City Clerk Date: October 30, 2017 Subject: Recommendation to deny application for Massage Therapy Business license by Tuina Massage LLC DBA Lan s Spa Tuina Massage LLC DBA Lan s Spa Application On August 25, 2017, an application was submitted for a massage therapy business license to be held by Tuina Massage LLC DBA Lan s Spa at 308 Elton Hills Dr NW. Yi Lan Wang submitted the application on her own behalf, and presented herself as the sole member/owner of Tuina Massage LLC. Summary of Denial Recommendation After working with Ms. Wang over a period of weeks to obtain a complete application as required under RCO 115A, and submitting the application for the review of the Rochester Police Department, it is my recommendation at this time that the request for a business license be denied. The reasons for the denial recommendation include: The previous business at this location, Tuina Massage, had its license revoked by the City Council on July 5, 2017, following a prostitution arrest. A number of circumstances lead to concern there are strong ties between the former operators of Tuina Massage and Yi Lan Wang, and that therefore her application may be an attempt to continue/restart the same business interests the Council took action to revoke without addressing the concerns that led to the revocation. o While Yi Lan Wang indicates there is no association between herself and the prior owners of Tuina Massage, she lists her home address as a property owned by Gary Donnay, the husband of an owner of Tuina Massage. That home address is also used by multiple other therapists working in businesses owned by Ling Donnay. o When Ms. Wang first came into the City Clerk s Office to apply for an individual massage therapy license, she was with Ling and Gary Donnay. o Ms. Wang has indicated she alone will be working in the business, but applied for a massage license from the City of Plymouth in September of 2017. o Tuina Massage has an active website that has continued to be updated, and still accepts phone calls at the business number which is used interchangeably with Oriental Massage in advertising on Craigslist and Backpage.com. It appears this marketing is being maintained in the expectation business can be resumed at some point, despite the license revocation. 1 P age
o Follow up emails to inquire about the status of her application have been signed primarily as Yi Lan Wang however one from the same email address was signed Thank you, Julia as were emails previously received from Julia Wang, the prior partner/co-owner of Tuina Massage with Ling Donnay. Detail of Denial Recommendation History of Tuina Massage at 308 Elton Hills Drive NW Tuina Massage is located at 308 Elton Hills Drive NW, and previously operated in the City of Rochester until the Council revoked the prior business license on July 5, 2017. That license had been applied for and issued in late 2016 after Ling Donnay submitted a business application. The application Ms. Donnay submitted indicated the business was a partnership, but the application did not contain any information about the other partner involved nor was any of the partnership paperwork required under RCO 115A submitted. Despite these application deficiencies, a license was issued on November 3, 2016, to Oriental Massage at 308 Elton Hills Drive NW. Upon notification by Ling Donnay the business was instead operating as Tuina Massage, the license was reissued on December 13, 2016, in that name with an expiration date of December 31, 2017. On March 27, 2017, there was an undercover operation and subsequent prostitution arrest at Tuina Massage at 308 Elton Hills Dr NW. Ling Donnay was not present at the time of the arrest, but was called to come in as the manager by the individual who was working and arrested. The Rochester Police Department notified the City Clerk s Office of the arrest on April 10. At its May 1 meeting, the City Council set a public hearing for June 5 to consider sanctions against the business license. At the request of Ms. Donnay s husband on her behalf as she was out of the country at the time, and the request of her business partner Julia Wang who contacted the office after the first hearing notice was sent, the hearing was continued until July 5, 2017, when the Council voted unanimously to revoke the business license. There are a number of pieces of information which lead to the conclusion Ms. Wang may be intending to reopen the business at 308 Elton Hills Drive and operate it as a continuation of sorts of the prior business. Connections to Ling and Gary Donnay and Julia Wang There are several connections between Ms. Wang and the prior owners of Tuina Massage. Ms. Wang first came into the City Clerk s office on July 28, 2017 to apply for an individual massage therapist license, and came into the office at the same time as Ling Donnay and her husband Gary Donnay were in the office submitting papers relating to one of Ms. Donnay s businesses. The address Ms. Wang provided as her home address (39 Park Drive NW in Eyota) on both the business license application and her own application for an individual massage therapist license is a single family property owned by Gary Donnay, the husband of Ling Donnay. Although he is not listed on any application or business record as playing any role in a massage therapy business, Gary Donnay began calling the City Clerk s Office in late May of 2017 after the hearing notice was sent regarding considering sanctions against Tuina Massage. He continued calling the office over a period of several weeks to inquire about the hearing, what the action taken by the Council on July 5 meant, the status of his wife s other business license, and whether other applications for individual massage therapist licenses for therapists who would be working in one of his wife s businesses had been granted. 2 P age
Two individuals applied in May and listed the business address for Tuina Massage as their home address, stating they were staying at the business. One of them, Xiuxia Pan, did not provide a subsequent address, as she was cited in May for working without a license at Tuina Massage, and the completion of a police background check revealed a pending prostitution arrest in Plymouth, Minnesota, leading to the withdrawal of her application. The other applicant was Lian Wang. When she was told the business location did not permit residential use, she changed her address to 39 Park Drive NW. The license that was issued to Lian Wang was mailed to that address, and Mr. Donnay called when he did not receive it. He stated to the City Clerk that although mail is not delivered to that property, the post office in Eyota knows that s his house and puts the mail with that address in his PO Box. Yi Lan Wang s individual massage therapy license was issued on October 3, and was also sent to the Park Drive address in Eyota. The home at 39 Park Drive NW is listed in Olmsted County property tax records as a single family residence, with Mr. Donnay as the sole owner since 2006. It is not homesteaded. Mr. Donnay is also listed as the owner of a single family home at 4334 56 th St Ln NW in Rochester. That property is homesteaded. That is the address Ling Donnay has provided on her individual massage therapist application, as well as her business application for Tuina Massage. That address is also listed as the home address for two other individuals with active massage therapy licenses in the City of Rochester, Qingan Liu and Xue Dong. When Ms. Wang came into the City Clerk s Office on August 25, 2017 to complete the massage therapy business license application, she came in with a friend who was helping interpret for her, as her English is not very strong. She stated had nothing to do with the prior owners, and was not associated with the trouble at the business previously. However, as previously noted, her business license application listed 39 Park Drive NW as her home address. When submitting the application, Ms. Wang was told she needed to supply a copy of the lease for the location, as well as the business organization paperwork. She subsequently provided a membership conveyance agreement for the sale of Tuina Massage, LLC, from Julia Wang as the sole member to Yi Lan Wang, signed and dated Aug. 25, 2017. That membership conveyance indicated the buyer would be liable to landlord for the Tuina Massage LLC s rental obligation under the existing lease, of which she also provided a copy. The strip mall lease was dated Oct. 13, 2016, and is between C&R Elton Hills, LLC, as the landlord and Tuina Massage, LLC, as the tenant, signed by Ling Donnay and Julia Wang as the tenants to run through November 30, 2019. After submitting her business application, someone stating she was Yi Lan Wang began calling and emailing the City Clerk s Office regularly to inquire about the status of the business license. When Ms. Wang has been present at the Clerk s Office in person, she is unable to communicate in English without the direct and continuous assistance of someone else either with her or on the telephone. On the telephone and via email, however, communication has been solely in English, and although not perfect, understandable. The final email received by the Clerk s Office on Friday, Oct. 13 from the email address that had been indicated as being from Yi Lan Wang was signed not by Yi Lan Wang, but as Julia. After previously communicating with Julia Wang in the weeks before and after the revocation of the Tuina Massage license, it seems possible the phone calls and emails about the license status were actually coming from Julia Wang, not Yi Lan Wang. This may indicate another strong connection between the prior business operations and the plans for a new business in the location. Continued marketing and connections between Tuina Massage and Oriental Massage 3 P age
The Tuina Massage location has remained as it existed as of the date of license revocation July 5, 2017. The exterior signage indicates both the business name and telephone number. A search of the telephone number online indicates there have been continuing advertisements on both Craigslist and Backpage.com for massage therapy services, using both the Tuina Massage name and address, and that of Oriental Massage at 14 6 th St NW, also operated by Ling Donnay. The website of Tuina Massage has been recently refreshed, and advertises that the business is currently open, using the same telephone number that is listed on the exterior sign. Visual inspections of the business location by police have not turned up evidence of the physical business location being open at this time, however marketing has continued to use the name and contact number. This may being done to funnel business to the Oriental Massage location at this time, but there also seems to be an intentional desire to continue marketing the Tuina Massage name and location. It appears this marketing is being maintained in the expectation business can be resumed at some point, despite the license revocation. License application for Yi Lan Wang in Plymouth The City of Rochester was contacted by the Plymouth Police Department in September to advise Ms. Wang was also applying for a massage therapy license in Plymouth. Ms. Wang indicated when applying in Rochester, she would be operating the 308 Elton Hills Drive location on her own, yet went and applied for a license in another jurisdiction. On her application with the City of Plymouth, Ms. Wang listed 39 Park Dr NW as a prior address, and gave her current address as an apartment on Shelard Parkway. The Police investigator in Plymouth indicated that the apartment listed was notorious as a site used by multiple individuals involved in businesses suspected of trafficking, and in some instances charged in prostitution. 4 P age
Tuina Massage Website active today (screenshot from 10-16-2017): 5 P age
Backpage.com ad for Tuina Massage from January of 2017 Backpage.com ad for Oriental Massage in August, 2017 using all the same information as Tuina, including phone number 6 P age
Dec. 2016 photo of business from Google streets Current photo of business (captured on Google Streets Feb. 2017 verified still current on 10-15-2017) 7 P age