Compromise may end fight over sex offender rules
Published 11:17 pm Saturday, August 11, 2007
MONROE – Two years ago, City Council members made it difficult for convicted sex felons to find a place to live in Monroe.
They passed a law barring adult and juvenile offenders considered most at risk of re- offending from living within 750 feet of a public or private school, city-licensed day care, parks, trails, sports fields and even playgrounds.
“We’re not trying to persecute. We’re just trying to protect,” Councilman Mitch Ruth said.
No one has been forced to move since the law’s enactment.
Yet for more than a year – starting with the 2006 legislative session – the city has been fighting to preserve the law from being nullified by lawmakers and Attorney General Rob McKenna.
A proposal that could end the conflict is being crafted and could also lead to new restrictions on where sex offenders can live throughout the state.
“I feel it’s safe,” Mayor Donetta Walser said this week of her city’s law. “I’m reasonably comfortable, but I will not be complacent.”
Monroe acted in November 2005, just months after the state passed its law barring sex offenders on community custody from living within 880 feet of public and private schools.
Monroe, like Issaquah before it and Steilacoom after, simply enacted more stringent rules.
McKenna and some legislators worried that if a stream of cities followed suit, an untold number of the state’s 20,000 registered sex offenders might burrow into the far reaches of the counties and off the radar of law enforcement. Not knowing where these offenders are would put the public at greater risk, they said.
In the 2006 session, McKenna and Democratic legislators set out to pre-empt the cities’ laws so only the state version could be enforced.
But they encountered stiff resistance from Rep. Kirk Pearson, R-Monroe. He argued for the rights of cities and counties to decide where sex offenders can live within their jurisdictions.
What emerged was a compromise that left the laws of the cities and the state intact.
It also directed the Association of Washington Cities to work with the attorney general and organizations representing counties, police chiefs and sheriffs, as well as victims of sexual assault, to write a set of rules dealing with where sex offenders live.
The finished product is due to legislators by Dec. 31.
A current draft calls for grandfathering in the laws of Monroe and the other two cities.
It also suggests that the existing state law that established community protection zones around schools be expanded to include public and private parks.
Further, it seeks to improve tracking of homeless offenders and give local law enforcement more information on felons moving into their communities.
“Our goal is to make the community protection law better, not make the pre-emption go away,” said Tammy Fellin, municipal policy associate for the Association of Washington Cities, who is leading the discussion on the proposal.
With all the pieces coming together, McKenna decided not to continue fighting for pre-emption.
“He doesn’t want to sacrifice agreement on the other issues for the sake of pre-empting” the cities, said Assistant Attorney General Todd Bowers. “It is important to move forward on all of these issues.”
Lydia Guy, interim co-executive director of the Washington Coalition of Sexual Assault Programs, said the organization has not taken a position on the proposal.
She said leaders want to be sure what is put forth is feasible, workable and thoughtful, and will increase the safety of children. A general concern has been that tougher residency rules may drive more offenders into homelessness and make them harder to track, she said.
Pearson endorsed the call for expanding community protection zone restrictions to include parks.
“That’s very critical to the safety of our children,” Pearson said.
He’s also “delighted” he won’t need to defend Monroe’s law next session.
“It was quite a fight,” he said.
Reporter Jerry Cornfield: 360-352-8623 or jcornfield@heraldnet.com.
