Fresno is moving forward with a plan to regulate group homes that house sex offenders due to a growing influx of recently-paroled predators eyeing Fresno County. <\/p>\n
The Fresno City Council voted 6-0 on Thursday to direct staff to study the proposed Sex Offender Housing Inspection, Enforcement, Licensing and Disclosure (SHIELD) Act. Councilman Tyler Maxwell was absent.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Driving the news: Fresno City Councilman Mike Karbassi proposed the SHIELD Act after the attempted release of convicted child kidnapper and serial molester David Allen Funston.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Ahead of the attempted release, Funston said he planned to live at a transitional home in Fresno. The Board of Parole Hearings found him suitable for release in September 2025 under the state\u2019s Elderly Parole Program. <\/p>\n
Ultimately, Placer County prosecutors brought previously-dismissed child sexual abuse charges against him that date back to 1996, keeping him in custody.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The big picture: While the council was not voting on the actual SHIELD Act on Thursday, it directed the City Attorney\u2019s Office and city staff to conduct a study for a licensing program for landlords of sex offender housing facilities, often referred to as transitional homes.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The City Attorney\u2019s Office will craft an ordinance that will create a licensing program for sex offender housing.<\/p>\n
The ordinance will restrict the number of licenses to a maximum of one per city council district and will have buffer zones for sensitive areas, such as schools, day cares and parks.<\/p>\n
Landlords that violate the eventual ordinance would face criminal and financial penalties.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What we\u2019re watching: The City Attorney\u2019s Office will return to the council with the SHIELD Act within 60 days.\u00a0<\/p>\n
What they\u2019re saying: Karbassi said there is a cottage industry in Fresno with companies buying homes and turning them into transitional housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s not about people here,\u201d Karbassi said. \u201cIt\u2019s about them importing people here, and we have no idea where they\u2019re going, because you can allow Megan\u2019s Law all you want, but that\u2019s kind of an honor system to a degree. We need to know where they are, where they\u2019re housed.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Karbassi said the city will push the envelope with the SHIELD Act and challenge the system, saying he is happy to get sued over it.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is what we are looking to do in our city of Fresno, because we are unfortunately the victims of a system that protects these people,\u201d Karbassi said. \u201cAnd they\u2019re not people. People like David Allen Funston cannot be rehabilitated. They can\u2019t. They were intended to stay in prison, and they are being released because of weak state laws. I\u2019m not comfortable saying, \u2018OK Sacramento, we\u2019ll just take it.\u2019 No, I can\u2019t do that.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Councilwoman Annalisa Perea said she is a big supporter of the SHIELD Act and wishes the council could pass it immediately, adding that it is worth the risk of any lawsuits the city may face over the proposed ordinance.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI commend people for being rehabilitated, but we don\u2019t talk often enough about the victims and the fact that they have to live the rest of their lives never having the chance to get rehabilitated,\u201d Perea said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Councilman Nick Richardson said he likes the idea and the measure of accountability, but is concerned about potential litigation against the city given state law that he ran up against when looking into regulating senior citizen group homes in his district.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think this is going to pass,\u201d Richardson said. \u201cI would be surprised if it passed legal scrutiny, and I wouldn\u2019t see this at any future readings coming back with a positive result for one reason or another. And if we do, yes, it will become one of those things in closed session we talk about how much we want to settle for using taxpayer money.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Karbassi responded, \u201cAppreciate the support \u2013 not sure how supportive you actually are.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Karbassi added that he thinks there is a big difference between regulating sex offender housing and senior citizen housing.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI think getting sued when it comes to a violent sexual predator is worth the risk,\u201d Karbassi said. \u201cA grandma not so much. So it is not quite apples to apples.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fresno is moving forward with a plan to regulate group homes that house sex offenders due to a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504982,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113,7999],"class_list":["post-504981","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news","tag-highlight"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504981","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504981"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504981\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504981"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504981"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504981"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}