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7/20/2016 Minnesota cities rush to restrict where sex offenders live - StarTribune.com Rep. Tony Cornish, R -Vernon Center, said during a hearing that people worried about their property values and children walking to the playground do not pay attention to statistics of recidivism. "You folks aren't doing a bang-up job right now of placing these people," he told Roy. And he criticized the move of a black rapist last year to Minnesota Lake, "a totally white, Anglo town.... All of a sudden you've got all eyes on this poor person down there." The city about 100 miles south of the Twin Cities swiftly passed an ordinance stating that it was unlawful for sex offenders to live within 2,000 feet of a school, child care center, public park, church, library or bus stop — a move that walled off much of the city's 2 square miles. Sharon Grunzke, the city clerk, said residents were petrified about the first registered sex offender moving in. But the man has caused no problems after all, she said: "We hardly ever see him." In December, Columbia Heights passed a one-year moratorium on any more sex offenders moving in while it studies whether to enact a permanent ordinance. Mayor Gary Peterson said the city had no concerns about the measure's legalities. "You can't have sex offenders all over the place, and there are other communities that have none.... We just wanted to stop it before it got to the point where it was really uncontrollable," he said. Suburb fights back North Minneapolis has accumulated a high concentration of sex offenders, prompting pleas from its representatives to spread the burden around the metro area. Hennepin County stopped allowing offenders there a few years ago, a policy that Brooklyn Center has blamed for more convicted sexual predators spilling into its borders to the north. Brooklyn Center officials testified in favor of the legislation the day after the city passed a law banning sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of a school, playground or child care center. "If the legislation passes, now we've got something we can point to and say, 'the state specifically says we can do that,"' said Brooklyn Center Mayor Tim Willson. Rep. Joe Mullery, a DFLer who represents north Minneapolis, derided the legislation as "a very bad proposal.... State law cannot override the U.S. Constitution." He said the protests by Brooklyn Center over having just six sex offenders is "ridiculous," and he called for more suburbs to take their fair share. Last year, New York's appeals court determined that state laws overrode local prohibitions on where sex offenders could live. Roy, the corrections commissioner, noted that courts in other states had been overturning residency restrictions on rapists and that Minnesota would have to address the matter soon. "We can expect the courts to weigh in on this one, for sure," Roy told legislators. maya.rao@startribune.com 651-925-5043 http://www.startribune.com/where-do-offenders-live-cities-scramble/374566221/ 2/2