In a move that was considered to be a thought constructed outside of the box, the Colonie Town Board voted unanimously to approve a law that would require hotel or motel owners who house sex offenders to pay an annual licensing fee as well as restrict the number of registered sex offenders that can live in a hotel or motel at a Town Board meeting Thursday, Aug. 6.
The fee associated with the license depends on the number of units at the establishment: for an establishment 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.
The fees for the license are only a fraction of what the hotel and motel owners who make a business out of taking sex offenders make in one month, according to Town Attorney Michael Magguilli, who said that Albany County pays $45 per day to the establishments who take sex offenders.
The second part of the law involves limiting the number of sex offenders that can live at each establishment based on a points system. The sex offenders are given a number of points based on the level of their offenses as assigned by their sentencing judges.
For instance, a Level 1 sex offender would carry with them one point; a Level 2, two points; and a Level 3, three points.
An establishment that has 50 or fewer units would be allowed six points of sex offenders and are able to divide that however they choose, whether it be six Level 1 offenders, three Level 2 offenders, two Level 3 offenders, or some other combination.
An establishment with 51 units is permitted to have nine points of sex offenders.
Town officials have been looking into enacting a more defined sex offender law this past year since the sex offender population has doubled to more than 150. They were also looking for a way to spread out the sex offenders from the over concentration that currently exists on the western part of town, primarily on Central Avenue.
Only one person spoke in opposition of the law to the nearly ten, all hailing from the same neighborhood right near the hotels, who spoke in favor of it. Melanie Trimble, chapter director for the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the law could make many sex offenders `go off the radar,` and not register. She also said that by spreading the sex offenders out they can be more likely to commit dangerous crimes.
`Sex offenders who share a residence may be less likely to re-offend than those living on their own,` she said. `Furthermore, such concentration can facilitate monitoring by law enforcement.`
But Supervisor Paula Mahan said the town has already spent too much money on additional law enforcement in these areas.
Trimble left the meeting before the board voted and passed the law.
Of the several people who spoke in favor of the law, one was 16-year-old Lauren Motto, a student at Colonie Central High School, who urged the importance of laws that keep sex offenders away from her, her friends and her family. Motto said that it was unfortunate that this issue was `still stuck in a board meeting, saying this needs to be changed.`
Immediately following the vote, Councilman Tom With asked that residents go home and take a look at the law and if there is anything that needs to be altered that they bring it to the attention of the board.
For more on this story, check back at www.spotlightnews.com, or read the Wednesday, Aug. 12 print edition of the Colonie Spotlight.
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