08-11-2021 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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STAFF REPORT TO: Mayor Keis and Members of the City Council FROM: Chris Heineman, City Administrator Heidi Heller, City Clerk/HR Manager DATE: August 11, 2021 RE: Consider Amendments to City Code Chapter 2204, Exclusion Zones & Prohibition of Certain Employment-Related Activities ACTION TO BE CONSIDERED: Discuss amending City Code Chapter 2204, Exclusion Zones & Prohibition of Certain Employment-Related Activities BACKGROUND: In 2006, Taylors Falls was the first city in Minnesota to adopt an ordinance putting restrictions on predatory offenders on where they could live in the city. Many other cities across the state have since also adopted similar ordinances. This is a sensitive subject and cities that choose to adopt restrictions must balance protecting their residents against not violating the rights of designated predatory offenders who have served their sentences and been released. In March 2016, Little Canada adopted an ordinance creating City Code Chapter 2204, which established “exclusion zones.” These are areas where any individual that is required to register as a predatory offender cannot be present or live in the city. These exclusion zones are a 500-foot radius around any school, school bus stop, church or place of worship, public park or city easement or public wooded or open space or any public trails or fishing piers, or a child care facility. This ordinance also includes language prohibiting predatory offenders from operating, managing, being employed by, acting as a contractor or volunteer, or attending in any public or private fair or carnival (including Canadian Days, LC ice cream social, etc.). The offenders also cannot operate, manage, be employed by or act as a contractor or volunteer at any school, school bus stop, church or place of worship, public park or city easement or public wooded or open space or any public trails or fishing piers. West St. Paul adopted a predatory offender ordinance in 2016, and was sued the following year by a registered offender who had been living in the city and was informed they could not be in that location per the adopted ordinance. This lawsuit resulted in an $84,000 settlement paid by the city after the judge agreed with the offender’s argument that West St. Paul’s ordinance was too broad and unconstitutional because it imposed retroactive punishment by banishing the offender from almost all of the city. West St. Paul amended their ordinance in 2018 to narrow the scope of who is considered an offender, and removed state licensed residential care facilities and housing with services facilities from the prohibited residences.