WESTFIELD – The City Council’s Legislative & Ordinance Committee will discuss a course of action tonight at 6:15 p.m. session to act on the Law Department’s recommendation that the city’s sex offender ordinance be eliminated.
L&O Chairman Ralph Figy said this morning that he will request the committee to vote to kept the motion to delete the ordinance in committee until the Oct. 15, 2015 session of the City Council.
“I’d like to leave it in committee to give people time to discuss this issue,” Figy said. “The Law Department made its recommendation based on the recent SJC decision.”
The Supreme Judicial Court in an Aug. 28 decision, upheld a lower court decision ruling that a local law restricting where sex offenders can live in the city of Lynn exceeds the city’s authority to regulate where registered sex offenders can reside, a ruling that could have broad implications for about 40 other communities, including Westfield.
The court found that the laws approved by the Legislature pertaining to sex offenders and where they reside, through the sex offender registration, comprehensive and that it was the intent of the Legislature to protect residents of the commonwealth.
The SJC found that the ordinance, adopted by the City of Lynn, basically effects a wholesale displacement of sex offenders from their residences, and that it frustrates the purpose of the registry law and, therefore, is inconsistent and invalid under the home rule provisions.
Westfield is one of those communities which set restrictions of where sex offenders can live or even go under Chapter 10, Article III of the City Code of Ordinances adopted on Jan. 20, 2011.
The ordinance prohibits a registered sex offender from “establishing a permanent residence or temporary residence” with 1,000 feet of a school and establishes “child safety zones” which includes schools, parks, both public and private, and playgrounds.
Registered sex offenders “shall not loiter on of within 1,000 feet of any property on which there is a school, park or any private or public recreational facility.”
Figy said that two special permit issues will be referred to the council’s License Committee for further consideration.
The L&O will vote on a recommendation to the full City Council at the Thursday night meeting (which will start at 8 p.m. because of Westfield Day at the Big E) to remove three handicapped parking spaces on King Street Extension next to Bullens Field.
“The Traffic Commission has recommended that we amend the ordinance to eliminate those three spaces because of the renovation to Bullens Field which includes an ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) handicapped ramp from the Parking Lot to the ball field,” Figy said.
“The ramp from the parking lot is being constructed as we speak, the contractor is getting ready to pour the concrete,” Figy said. “It will look real nice and allows us to eliminate all on-street parking by the ball field.”
