The Town of Colonie has set a public hearing in early August for a law that could limit the number of sex offenders residing in town, and, in the meantime, is gathering information for a possible lawsuit against the state to address its over-concentration of offenders.
Town Attorney Michael Magguilli said the town has requested, under the Freedom of Information Act, information from the state departments of parole, probation and social services to ensure that each sex-offender placement has been looked at in accordance with the law.
Our position is that the state ignores its own statutes and places these people where it is convenient for them to place them, said Magguilli at the Thursday, July 16, Town Board meeting. `What I’m trying to do in preparation for a possible Article 78 is find out what, if anything, they have done to make this analysis as required by statute.`
Magguilli’s comments came after Lonnie Clar, president of the Coalition of Colonie Neighborhood Associations, said the town should be preparing an Article 78 lawsuit in conjunction with new legislation that would assign sex offenders a system of points and collect licensing fees from hotels, motels and residences that house sex offenders.
Clar said the state law that controls the housing of sex offenders, Chapter 568 of the Laws of 2008, specifically requires both state and the county social services departments and parole boards to specifically determine whether there is a concentration of registered sex offenders in a certain residential area or municipality and determine the number of sex offenders residing at a particular property.
`That requirement, that they look at those two elements when they are placing sex offenders, has obviously not been followed,` he said. `It seems to me that, if nothing else you have to bring an Article 78 [lawsuit] to make the state comply with its own law and make the county comply with the law imposed on it by the state. And that should be considered in addition to the legislation.`
Albany County Legislator Patty Lockhart, R-Albany, said Colonie’s growing sex-offender population is the result of state and county problems.
`It really is a county and a state problem,` she told those assembled at the July 16 Colonie Town Board meeting. Lockhart said the county is having a difficult time satisfying the state laws, and Albany County has become a `dumping ground` for the state’s sex offenders.
Frank Blake lives near the so-called sex-offender hot spots on Central Avenue west of Route 155.
`My sympathy goes to any victim. It does not go to any sexual offender,` he said.
Blake said he has noticed an increase in crime in that area, something Mahan said she agreed with.
`It is not just the problem of an over-concentration of sex offenders,` said Mahan. `It’s the overlying problem of an area that’s deteriorating. I think revitalization is a wonderful idea, but in the interim, the only defense it sounds like we have, would be financial. And since these places do put an extreme stress on law enforcement, and with the potential incidents is there anything the town can do to burden these motels and these proposed properties to obviously help the police force financially to prevent further victims?`
Mahan said the proposed law would do just that.
The two-fold proposal would require housing establishments that take in sex offenders through referrals, placements and payments on behalf of the government to apply for an annual license at the town clerk’s office.
The fee associated with the license depends on the number of units at the establishment: for an establishments with 50 units or fewer, the licensing fee would be $1,500 per year, and for an establishment with 51 or more units, the fee would be $3,000 per year.
A public hearing on the law is scheduled for the Thursday, Aug. 6, Town Board meeting, at 7 p.m.
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