11-14-2016 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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"It's tough. No one wants them to relocate to their community. The U.S. Constitution requires it. They have paid their debt and are no longer an immediate threat. Courts have ruled they can be back in the community." Hennepin County does more than its share, Thompson said, because outstate offenders relocate there to be near treatment options. He said Brooklyn Center's actions were disheartening. There's no plot to load up any city or neighborhood with offenders, Thompson said. But offenders, who have some say in where they live, tend to select cities with affordable housing and access to transportation, he said. State corrections officials denounced Brooklyn Center's ordinance. "While well -intended, city ordinances interfere with the effective supervision of sex offenders and do not improve public safety," said spokeswoman Sarah Latuseck. "Public safety is increased when offenders have stable housing and a support system in place when they re-enter the community." Gannon said the city won't evict the offenders already living there, but he said efforts should be made to spread the population to other suburbs. Brooklyn Center Mayor Tim Willson said his city is tired of the "greater good speech" because the burden — whether it is sex offenders or affordable housing — always seems to fall on Brooklyn Center and Brooklyn Park, Minnesota's two most racially diverse cities. "I am not a conspiracy theorist," Willson said, "but more and more it looks like the metro has determined the northwest corner is where all the stuff is going to go that nobody else wants. I haven't noticed any Level 3s in Edina." Not about NIMBY Columbia Heights Police Chief Scott Nadeau said this is not about NIMBY — the Not -in -My -Backyard syndrome — but about ensuring a more equitable distribution. There's one predatory offender for every 0.7 square miles of Columbia Heights and Hilltop, compared to one offender for every 74 square miles in the rest of Anoka County, Nadeau said. "We have an obligation, like other communities, to be a part of the solution. We want to make sure we are not the only solution," Nadeau said. Gannon and Nadeau said that more candid discussions about offender placement are needed. "I do think it's time we get the partners at the table from the Minnesota Department of Corrections, community corrections and local elected officials to start to have a discussion," Nadeau said. Thompson agreed. "This has to be a statewide solution," he said.