The Colonie Town Board voted unanimously Thursday, Aug. 6, to approve a law that would require motels that house sex offenders to pay an annual licensing fee and restrict the number of sex offenders that can live in the same hotel or motel.
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.
Town Attorney Michael Magguilli said the fees for the license are only a fraction of what the hotel and motel owners who make a business out of taking in sex offenders make in one month, with Albany County paying $45 per day for each registered sex offender living at the establishments.
The second part of the law limits the number of sex offenders that can live at each establishment based on a point system. Sex offenders are assigned points based on the level of their offenses, with a Level 1 sex offender having one assigned point; a Level 2, two points; and a Level 3, three points.
An establishment that has 50 or fewer units would be allowed to house six points worth of sex offenders in any combination. An establishment with 51 or more units is permitted to have nine points.
Town officials had been looking into enacting a more defined sex offender law as the sex offender population in Colonie doubled to more than 150 in the past 18 months.
They were also looking for a way to limit the over concentration of sex offenders in 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 force 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 those areas.
Magguilli said the town also spends money every time a sex offender moves into the town because officials have to send out notifications to all of the neighbors.
Trimble left the meeting before the board voted in favor of the law.
Many who spoke at the meeting expressed gratitude to the town for considering any measure that would take at least some sex offenders out of their neighborhood.
Joyce Bard said she moved back to her hometown after being away for many years and was astonished to find the area filled with prostitutes, drug dealers and sex offenders.
`Our whole community is changing,` she said. `I’m embarrassed to say I live in South Colonie. We’re the ghetto.`
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 the 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 they believe there is anything that needs to be altered that they bring it to the attention of the board.
Town considers lawsuit against state
In an interview after the Aug. 6 meeting, Magguilli discussed a potential lawsuit between the Town of Colonie and New York State regarding the overconcentration of sex offenders in Colonie.
Magguilli said his office filed a Freedom of Information Law request to the state parole office looking into whether the state is complying with its own law that promises to monitor how many sex offenders reside in a particular location.
`I don’t think they are,` Magguilli said of the state’s compliance.
While the state has not answered the FOIL request, Magguilli said his office has received notification that the state has received the request.
Should the town discover the state is not complying with its own law, Magguilli said the town would be considering a Section 78 lawsuit.
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