City imposes new residency restrictions on sex offenders
By Michelle Payne
Rocky River
Published Jan. 18, 2006

Rocky River City Council has passed new legislation that prohibits sex offenders from living within 1,000 feet of all daycares, preschools, public libraries and parks/pools.

Council unanimously approved the new legislation during its Jan. 9 meeting. The new ordinance will be in addition to House Bill 473, which prohibits offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school.

“I think that you have to do everything you can because there’s no one single solution to sex predators in the community. It comes down to education and awareness and using the tools available. This is one tool that can be used,” Mayor William Knoble said. “It still is not going to prevent some sex predator from driving or biking into the community and committing a crime, so that’s why it’s a tool for awareness.”

In October council and the administration, in cooperation with the police department, elected to have officers trained as part of the Ohio’s Internet Crimes Against Children Taskforce. It was at this time that Ward 1 Councilman Robert Frost introduced the legislation.

“I am pleased that we were able, in a relatively short period of time, to take it to new legislation in our city,” Frost said.

Frost also noted during the meeting that Ron Gottschalk from the city’s building department, the city’s safety committee and former Law Director David Matty also contributed to the ordinance’s successful passage. 

Ordinances such as this one have already been passed in other cities, including Fairview Park and North Canton, in an attempt to better safeguard other areas where offenders often congregate, according to Frost. And cities such as Euclid and Lakewood are also looking into passing similar legislation.

“I think ultimately it will get challenged, maybe not in Rocky River, but at some point its constitutionality will get challenged. I think it was important to deliberate on this so that it matches other cities’ legislation and I think council has done a good job on that,” Knoble said.

The new law will affect two of four convicted sex offenders living within the city. However Frost doesn’t believe there will be any difficulty enforcing the new law.

“Former Law Director Matty had researched, very thoroughly, when we started, this legislation. He actually did present council (in November) with the written opinion that the Supreme Court had handed down,” Frost said. “The court found that the law preventing sex offenders from living near a school is valid, so if we looked at that same criteria, and we didn’t go so broad that it would be impossible for person to maintain residence in city, then it would be a valid law so we proceeded forward with that.”

Ward 3 Councilman Frank Gollinger had also proposed including churches in the new ordinance; however Frost said the addition wasn’t necessary.

“What we found is that many churches have schools or daycares, so many were included,” Frost said. “It would be a little more tenuous of a connection because you could conceivably go so far as to include bus stops, convenience stores…or anywhere children might go, but the opinion of the Supreme Court was to go where the kids congregate, so that’s what we followed.”

To further ensure the constitutionality of the ordinance, Rocky River Law Director Andrew Bemer has also asked Rocky River resident and Cuyahoga County’s Assistant Prosecutor Brendan Sheehan to review the ordinance, which he has agreed to do.

Residents interested in finding out where in the vicinity sexual predators are living can log onto Cuyahoga County’s Web site at: www.cuyahogacounty.us/home/default.asp.