Kromer: Sex Offender Park Ban Could Reach Council by Early June

An ordinance that would ban registered sex offenders from Fountain Valley's parks could be ready for review by city officials within two weeks, City Manager Ray Kromer said this week.

The council's next meeting will be held May 15, so the ordinance likely wouldn't be discussed publicly until at least June. The council met with Orange County District Attorney Tony Rackauckas in a special study session April 18 to discuss the potential need for the ordinance and how it might be implemented if passed.

There are 35 registered sex offenders living in Fountain Valley, 18 of whom are listed on the state's sex offender website. The remaining 17 are in the undisclosed category, and are registered with law enforcement even though they don't appear on the public view site.

On a base level, Kromer said, the city needs to decide between an ordinance like the county's that would allow the city's police chief to grant park access to registered sex offenders on a case-by-case basis, or to draft an outright ban llike the one that was passed in Huntington Beach, where the chief of police made it clear he didn't want the responsibility of deciding who stays and who goes.

"You can develop criteria and stuff like that, but that's going to be a little difficult," Kromer said. "From a staff recommendation standpoint, do we really want to put the chief in that position? Probably not."

Compounding the city's dilemma is to which option it should choose, Kromer said, is the situation at Mile Square Park. The city's 80-acre sports park is directly adjacent to Mile Square Park, which is a county park, so a certain degree of consistency with the county's ordinance would be practical.