City closer to adding language to sex offender residency ordinance that would further restrict placement options

MILWAUKEE -- In many cities and counties in Wisconsin, there are rules that restrict who can move into those communities, as it relates to convicted sex offenders. The city of Milwaukee is one step closer to having that rule in place as well.

Recently, an ordinance was implemented in Fond du Lac County that says the only way a sex offender can be placed in the county is if he or she lived in the county when the crimes were committed.

Officials in the city of Milwaukee have been trying to get a similar ordinance adopted for more than a year -- and some city leaders say they're now closer than ever to making that a reality.

It has been a back-and-forth between members of Milwaukee's Common Council and legal counsel for about a year.

"This law would bar them, just as 14 other suburbs do, from living in our city and to return to where they came from or somewhere else," Milwaukee Alderman Terry Witkowski said.

There is already a sex offender residency ordinance in the city of Milwaukee -- but city leaders are now moving to add language to that ordinance that would require that sex offenders can only return to Milwaukee after they finish their sentence if they lived in Milwaukee when they committed their crime.

"We don`t want somebody who is a sex offender in another community coming to Milwaukee and being placed in Milwaukee. We don`t think that`s fair or that`s right," Alderman Tony Zielinski said.

The ordinance went into effect in Fond du Lac County after a Milwaukee-based sex offender was ordered to be placed in the Town of Eldorado.

That man, Clint Rhymes, has since been required to live somewhere in Milwaukee County.

But as Milwaukee Alderman Tony Zielinski pointed out on Thursday, January 7th during a hearing of Milwaukee's Public Safety Committee, the task of finding homes for these convicted sex offenders is no longer as simple as it may seem.

"Because nobody wants them. We don`t want them in our district. We don`t think it's right that he's placed in our district and that`s why this game of hot potato is going on. Given the fact that the city of Milwaukee and every municipality in the county has serious residency restriction ordinances, the state Department of Human Services is having a difficult time trying to find suitable locations to place these individuals,"

Zielinski says he's currently working on a plan to increase the number of places to put sex offenders in the area, but in such a way that they're not in densely populated areas.