The City of Gainesville is considering rolling back the sex offender residency restrictions to the State Statute (1,000 feet) from its current 2500 feet. FAC supports this move and we ask our members to share their support with the city commission.
Please click on the link below. If you scroll down to “O.2” and “O.3”, you can click on the title and it takes you to a link that allows you to see the proposed amended ordinance and a 1000 foot map and 2500 map. This link also allows you to post a comment to the proposed ordinance.
Please share your comments or contact the city commissioners directly (https://www.gainesvillefl.gov/City-Commission)
The time has come! The Gainesville City Commissioners will be meeting this Thursday November 17, 2022, for the second reading of the amended ordinance. Please click the link below to leave a public comment in support of the amendment. The agenda item number is N.2. Click the paperclip icon. The city mayor has indicated that there has not been any opposition to the amendment. Thanks for all the support.
https://pub-cityofgainesville.escribemeetings.com/Meeting.aspx?Id=881e4b96-6114-4eef-850e-8abbe3588f9e&Agenda=Agenda&lang=English&Item=60&Tab=attachments
Emailed all commisssioners. Some people think this is useless, and a waste of time, but you know what’s really useless and a waste of time..DOING NOTHING. I have a politician family member and he tells me that they may not be able to, or want to do what the emailer is refering to, but ALL politicians notice movement, Emails show there is concern and movement for a particular issue, THAT they notice.
Done and emailed each commissioner. Hope others are chiming in. Real chance that they would hear from more of us victimized by the restrictions than those who aren’t, just out of lack of general population interest in commission meetings.
Done. Thanks!
Thank you to FAC for posting this. I live in Alachua County (but not in Gainesville) and missed this, even though I try to keep up on local stuff. I do not know yet if I have off from work that day, but if I do, I think I will attend the meeting if it is open to the public.
The way the current rules read, it nearly prohibits the entire city limits as off limits, with only a few small areas that are “good”.
Mark, please do all you can to attend. If you cannot, definitely submit your comments.
Mark, according to the meeting agenda, the proposed amendment will be addressed by the commission last; probably around 3:30 pm or so. Then, at 4:30-5:30, there is a dinner break. At 6 pm, the public can be heard. The meeting can last until 10 p.m. So, if you can be there between 6 and 7 pm., you should have a good chance to be heard.
So they are changing it because they are being sued and don’t want to fight it. Interesting. I would expect the community will be upset at their lying down at the mere threat of a lawsuit so yes, let’s definitely give them some good things to say in response.
Things like:
Recidivism is actually NOT high as we first thought in 2005. In fact residency restrictions have been proven to be ineffective because it actually forces people out of their homes, away from family and services thereby increasing the chance of recidivism. However we are bound to the State’s law of 1000 ft and its purpose is not to punish or banish people from the city. The purpose is to create a safe community and the 1000 ft rule does that more effectively than the 2500 ft rule. Homelessness is a major unintended consequence of residency restrictions and the 2500 ft rule only serves to increase the homeless -population.