Millstone officials hold sex offender ordinance

By Geoffrey Wertime, Staff Writer
   MILLSTONE — Township Committee has carried an ordinance rescinding restrictions on where sex offenders can live, delaying the vote until its Dec. 3 meeting.
   The committee voted 4-1 at its Sept. 17 meeting to wait on the measure on the advice of Township Attorney Duane Davison. Councilman Elias Abilheira voted against the decision.
   A three-judge panel of the state Superior Court Appellate Division ruled in July that New Jersey’s Megan’s Law, which requires convicted sex offenders to register with the state, is all-encompassing and that ordinances enforcing residency limits conflict with the law’s intent.
   The ruling was handed down in a case involving ordinances in Cherry Hill and Galloway townships in Camden and Atlantic counties that banned convicted sex offenders from living within 2,500 feet of schools, parks, playgrounds or day-care centers in the townships.
   Millstone’s ordinance does just that, and also includes libraries in the list. A sex offender who violates the prohibition could face fines up to $1,250, imprisonment for up to 90 days, and 90 days of community service.
   ”While (the appeal) is sorting itself out, my recommendation is that this ordinance be carried,” Mr. Davison said at the meeting. “I don’t want to see it die. I like it in the position where it’s been introduced and it’s pending.”
   Mayor Nancy Grbelja said Friday that she disagrees with the appellate court’s decision.
   ”I think we should be able to monitor what happens within our own municipality, and I think we do have a responsibility to the residents to protect our children to the best of our ability.
   ”Really you can’t wait for the state to enforce it, it has to be on a local level where you’re more intimate with the residents and more aware of what’s happening within the parameters of the municipality… The state would never have the ability or manpower to monitor where sex offenders live,” she said.
   She continued that if the state Supreme Court does not hear the appeal, the town would rescind its law.
   ”There’s no reason for us to go through a legal challenge and waste the money if it’s not something that we can support legally,” she said.
   Should a sex offender try to move into a restricted area before Dec. 3, Mayor Grbelja said “it would be a waste of time and money” to try to enforce the township’s ordinance.
   The State Police Sex Offender Internet Registry, at state.nj.us/njsp/info/reg_sexoffend.html, does not claim on its Web site to be a complete and comprehensive listing of every person who has ever committed any sex offense in New Jersey, but includes offenders registered in accordance with Megan’s Law. The list makes available information about Tier 2 and 3, moderate- and high-risk offenders, including the offender’s name, address, age and weight. Millstone has two residents — and their aliases— listed on the site.
   Other local municipalities have taken a different approach to the issue. Officials in Upper Freehold, Plumsted and Robbinsville have expressed displeasure with the court’s decision, and Mayor Steve Alexander of Upper Freehold and Mayor Ron Dancer of Plumsted have both said the townships would face litigation rather than rescind their ordinances. Robbinsville passed a resolution asking state Legislature to enact laws that enforce residency limits “to protect the health, safety and welfare of children.”