CA- Local rules go even tougher on where registered sex offenders can - and can't - live

This has all the makings for a great lawsuit to overturn many of these ordinances. Notice the war between the state and local communities.

eAdvocate Post: 4-19-2009 California:

Trying to avoid becoming dumping grounds for registered sex offenders, area cities are moving to impose even more stringent residency restrictions that those outlined in Jessica's Law.

More than two years after the passage of the statewide law banning registered offenders from living near schools and parks, Arcadia and Pasadena are the most recent local cities considering ordinances that would put nearly all of their territories out of bounds for offenders.

California's passage in 2006 of Proposition 83, more commonly known as Jessica's Law, banned registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of any school or park. But a clause in the law allowed cities to enact their own, stricter restrictions.

Local officials are concerned about a "race to the bottom," in which cities without harsher housing restrictions risk becoming dumping grounds for the region's sex offenders.

"If you don't enact an ordinance, then the state parole system is more likely to parole sex offenders to your area, and other cities' sex offenders may decide to come to your city because their city has an ordinance and yours doesn't," said Arcadia Police Department Chief Bob Sanderson.

That was the reasoning, officials said, behind Palmdale's sex offender ordinance, which extended the restricted distance from 2,000 feet to 3,000 feet and took in school bus stops, video arcades, movie theaters and museums as locations where registered sex offenders cannot live or loiter near.
The ordinance also prevents sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of each other.

"We didn't want to be that other city that didn't have any restrictions," said Judy Skousen, Palmdale's assistant city attorney.

Arcadia leaders will vote next month on an ordinance that would make up to 85 percent of the city off limits to sex offenders. Pasadena is considering a similar ordinance, which will come before the Public Safety Committee on May 4. It, too, would make much of the city legally uninhabitable for registered sex offenders, said Assistant City Attorney Frank Rhemrev.

"It would restrict a very, very large portion of Pasadena," he said.

The cities are following Los Angeles County's lead. In January, the Board of Supervisors, on a motion by Supervisor Michael Antonovich, adopted a sex offender ordinance for the county's unincorporated areas.

It effectively leaves 120 square miles of county territory available for sex offenders to live in. By comparison, the county has about 2,600 square miles of unincorporated territory, about 65 percent of the county's total area.

Other cities, including West Covina, El Monte, Alhambra, Rosemead, Pomona, San Marino and Long Beach adopted increased residency restrictions on sex offenders before the county passed its ordinance, most of them within the past year.

Arcadia's ordinance would go several steps further than Jessica's Law by banning sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of locations in addition to schools and parks - such as golf courses, day care centers, tutoring centers, public libraries and swimming pools.

It would also create "child safety zones," banning sex offenders from loitering within 300 feet of the locations, and it would prevent more than one sex offender from living in any single residence.

Cities also are concerned about the state's practice of placing multiple sex offenders in group homes. In response, Long Beach and Alhambra have adopted restrictions on multiple placements.

Some critics of Jessica's Law believe increasingly restrictive housing rules for offenders makes it nearly impossible for the state to place them anywhere in society after they serve their time and are released.

"I do have reservations about it," said Sanderson. "You're in effect creating banishment from society of these registered sex offenders."

But Tony Bell, a spokesman for Antonovich, dismissed such concerns. Antonovich's office sent letters to each city council member and city manager in the county, urging them to adopt measures similar to the county's.

"Remember, the impetus needs to be not where the state can place sex offenders, but the impact on the communities where they're placed," said Bell. "It is not our concern, frankly, about where they live. We feel strongly that they should remain in prison." ..News Source.. by Alfred Lee, Staff Writer