North Olmsted mulls sex offender law
By Jeff Gallatin
North Olmsted
Published Feb. 22, 2006

City council was set last night to begin consideration of legislation to become the latest Westshore community regulating where registered sex offenders may live.

At-large Councilman Paul Miller said he began working on the legislation several weeks ago.

“It’s something that I’ve thought for a while we should have in some form, and then I observed the legislation going forward in Rocky River and Fairview and thought that we should probably get ours set up with some enforcement clauses so we could act upon them if necessary,” Miller said.

In Miller’s proposal, registered sex offenders would not be allowed to live within 2,000 feet in the city of any elementary or secondary (public or private) school or any library or childcare facility. The proposed law has a grandfather clause which would not apply to any home bought by a registered offender or for the first year of a written lease signed by the offender prior to the effective date of the ordinance going into effect.

It also prohibits any registered offender from entering any park or recreation facility except to attend a public meeting.

If  an offender violated the laws, the city law director would be able to seek civil relief and evict the offender. In addition, the proposal also said an offender would be guilty of a fourth degree misdemeanor and would be fined $100 per day for the first five days of  violating the law and $250 for each day afterwards.

Miller, who works in security for Cuyahoga County Juvenile Court and handles special projects for it, said these kinds of laws are necessary for communities now.

“When I checked the state Web site for registered sex offenders a few days ago in North Olmsted, I counted 25,” Miller said. “We have to have something in place which would give us the means to deal with any potential problems in this area.”

Miller said he asked the city law department to review different potential ordinances and related cases to come up with the proposed legislation for council.

In addition to the proposal regulating where sex offenders may live in the city, Miller also is sponsoring a resolution which urges the state legislature to pass state laws which provide a state penalty for registered sex offenders violating state residency requirements.

“You want laws which can be enforced at all levels in this type of situation,” Miller said. “You don’t want laws which can’t be enforced by law enforcement and the governmental bodies.”

Larry Orlowski, chairman of city council’s safety committee, said he supports Miller’s proposal.

“You need to have some way of enforcing laws with some of these people,” Orlowski said. “It’s unfortunate but some of these people are repeat offenders, and you don’t want them to be a potential threat to children and other people.”

Orlowski said he anticipates having council members review the matter thoroughly.

“It’s something you want to make sure is done right so it can stand up to any potential challenges,” he said.