Oh, what a tangled web...
Allouez WI responds to Green Bay's residency rule -- not by trying to change state law to prohibit sex-offender non-residency zones (which have proven to be be nothing but trouble for states that have enacted same) but by enacting an unworkable rule of its own.
ALLOUEZ — Village Trustee Randy Gast is pitching a novel idea for dealing with sexual predators moving to Allouez.
Gast’s “reciprocal sexual predator residency restriction” is a response to Green Bay’s strict policy on where sexual offenders can relocate. The city’s ordinance prevents registered sex offenders from relocating to within all but about 12 percent of the city. And much of that 12 percent is uninhabitable.
“I don’t think that residency restrictions are the way to go,” Gast said.
Faced with nowhere in Green Bay to live, sex offenders will move south to Allouez, he said.
“I was very troubled by what Green Bay has done,” Gast said. “We’re right next door to Green Bay; it puts our people at risk and could potentially affect our property values.”
Gast’s plan doesn’t involve setting residency restrictions in Allouez, but it does impose on the offender moving to Allouez the restrictions of the municipality in which the offender was convicted.
In other words, if a sex offender convicted in Green Bay decides to move to Allouez, he or she would be subject to Green Bay’s residency rules. If a perpetrator from an area without restrictions moved to Allouez, then Allouez’s rules would apply, if Allouez were to adopt its own restrictions or adopt zones off-limits to offenders.
The proposal is limited to municipalities in Brown County that have residency restrictions on record. Offenders from outside the county would not be affected.
Gast’s proposal is different and separate from the draft ordinance that Hobart officials plan to take action on Tuesday, which establishes restricted zones.
Gast said that if the board were interested in the idea, he’d want it to be referred to the county’s multijurisdictional task force on sex offenders for further study.
Gast’s plan drew skepticism from fellow board members, and Allouez police officer John Flannery expressed concerns about enforcement.
Trustee Bill Sweasy said Gast’s plan had a lot of appeal at first but that it’s “fraught with difficulties” when it comes to enforcing, calling it “a big dog with no teeth.”
“If you have (offenders) from four different jurisdictions, you have five different rules for each of them,” Sweasy said. “With officers busy enough as it is ... how would they ever know who’s where and what applies to whom?”
Even if the board doesn’t like it, Gast said he plans to bring it back to the table in future meetings.
“As far as it not having teeth, that’s always a problem with ordinances,” Gast said. “I just think it’s wrong for Green Bay to put its large geographical boundaries out of limit for sex offenders, and I have this suspicion that we’re going to have to bear the burden of more than our share of (offenders) living here because of it.”
ALLOUEZ — Village Trustee Randy Gast is pitching a novel idea for dealing with sexual predators moving to Allouez.
Gast’s “reciprocal sexual predator residency restriction” is a response to Green Bay’s strict policy on where sexual offenders can relocate. The city’s ordinance prevents registered sex offenders from relocating to within all but about 12 percent of the city. And much of that 12 percent is uninhabitable.
“I don’t think that residency restrictions are the way to go,” Gast said.
Faced with nowhere in Green Bay to live, sex offenders will move south to Allouez, he said.
“I was very troubled by what Green Bay has done,” Gast said. “We’re right next door to Green Bay; it puts our people at risk and could potentially affect our property values.”
Gast’s plan doesn’t involve setting residency restrictions in Allouez, but it does impose on the offender moving to Allouez the restrictions of the municipality in which the offender was convicted.
In other words, if a sex offender convicted in Green Bay decides to move to Allouez, he or she would be subject to Green Bay’s residency rules. If a perpetrator from an area without restrictions moved to Allouez, then Allouez’s rules would apply, if Allouez were to adopt its own restrictions or adopt zones off-limits to offenders.
The proposal is limited to municipalities in Brown County that have residency restrictions on record. Offenders from outside the county would not be affected.
Gast’s proposal is different and separate from the draft ordinance that Hobart officials plan to take action on Tuesday, which establishes restricted zones.
Gast said that if the board were interested in the idea, he’d want it to be referred to the county’s multijurisdictional task force on sex offenders for further study.
Gast’s plan drew skepticism from fellow board members, and Allouez police officer John Flannery expressed concerns about enforcement.
Trustee Bill Sweasy said Gast’s plan had a lot of appeal at first but that it’s “fraught with difficulties” when it comes to enforcing, calling it “a big dog with no teeth.”
“If you have (offenders) from four different jurisdictions, you have five different rules for each of them,” Sweasy said. “With officers busy enough as it is ... how would they ever know who’s where and what applies to whom?”
Even if the board doesn’t like it, Gast said he plans to bring it back to the table in future meetings.
“As far as it not having teeth, that’s always a problem with ordinances,” Gast said. “I just think it’s wrong for Green Bay to put its large geographical boundaries out of limit for sex offenders, and I have this suspicion that we’re going to have to bear the burden of more than our share of (offenders) living here because of it.”
posted by the administration at 10:29 AM
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