Bill overrides counties on sex predators

REBECCA COOK, THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Originally published Saturday, March 9, 2002

OLYMPIA -- Six populous counties would be powerless to fight off sex predator housing, under a bill passed by the state House.

Senate Bill 6594, passed 55-41 by the House on Friday, would let the Department of Social and Health Services "pre-empt" counties and place sex offender housing regardless of environmental regulations and local land-use laws.

The targeted counties are King, Snohomish, Thurston, Clark, Kitsap and Spokane. They were chosen because five or more sex offenders in the Special Commitment Center come from those six counties.

The state is under court order to find transitional housing for sex offenders released from the Special Commitment Center on McNeil Island. Predictably, neighbor- hoods across the state have strongly resisted having former sex offenders move in.

"No one likes sex offenders," said Rep. Ida Ballasiotes, R-Mercer Island. "But there's a bigger issue here. If we do not come up with this scheme, there's a chance of losing the entire community protection law."

In 1990, the state Legislature passed the Community Protection Act, which allows the state to civilly commit sexually violent predators after they've served their prison time.

A federal court ruled in 1994 that the state can't use the Special Commitment Center to lock up sex predators indefinitely; it must provide treatment, including the chance for offenders to live in less restrictive housing in the community. Since 1999 the court has been fining the state $50 a day for each sex predator in the center. Fines now total about $4 million, but the judge has suspended payment as long as progress continues.

Washington is under the gun to find transitional housing for sex predators. The Department of Social and Health Services backed off from efforts to put sex predator homes in Walla Walla and Thurston County after neighbors protested.

But, as the bill's supporters noted, the sex predators must go somewhere or the whole Special Commitment Center program could be put at risk.

"We have to face some serious responsibilities," said Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Lake Forest Park. "Communities are not stepping forward, and we must proceed with the siting of these facilities."

Some lawmakers said giving the Department of Social and Health Services the power to overrule environmental rules and counties' regulations is a bad idea.

"We're saying the state government, Olympia, is going to be the one to make the decision on where the sex predators are going to be," said Rep. Dave Mastin, R-Walla Walla.

"At the local level, you don't have any say."

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