Margate solicitor advises rescinding sex offender ordinance

By SUZANNE MARINO
Staff Writer
MARGATE – City solicitor Mary Siracusa has recommended to the city commissioners that the ordinance passed in 2005 restricting where sex offenders can live be rescinded to avoid subjecting the city to any legal challenge.
“In light of the decision in Galloway Township to rescind their sex offender ordinance, I looked closely at our ordinance and read at length the decision of Judge Armstrong regarding Galloway,” Siracusa said. “I think she has proven at length that Megan’s Law supersedes any municipal ordinance on sex offenders.”
In short, Superior Court Judge Valerie Armstrong ruled that municipalities may not draft and approve ordinances that the state has already established, Siracusa explained.
Megan’s Law was signed into law by President Bill Clinton in 1994 and then ratified by the state. It specifies that convicted sex offenders must notify local police of their address, and that police may collect and keep information on the offender. Offenders are categorized as Tier 1, 2 or 3, depending on the severity of their crime and the likelihood of committing another offense. Offenders are required to notify police 70 days prior to moving. Megan’s Law also permitted the establishment of a sex offender registry that allows police to notify neighbors that a sex offender has moved into their community.
Like many other municipalities, Margate drafted and passed an ordinance in 2005 that restricted where convicted sex offenders could live in relation to city schools, parks or locations where children gather.
Legal challenges to the municipal ordinances have continued to mount statewide, and Siracusa said she has concerns that Margate could be drawn into an expensive legal battle that the city could not win if the local ordinance were challenged.
Siracusa said that the city commissioners plan to address rescinding the sex offender ordinance at the next City Commission meeting, scheduled for March 1.
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