At the request of the President of AVCA, I attended a public forum presented by the Megan's Law Task Force on November 16, 2005, at Trace Elementary School.  There are links below to several handouts given to the attendees at this meeting.

Attendees Included:  Cindy Chavez, San Jose Vice Mayor;  Ken Yeager, San Jose City Councilman;  Rob Davis, San Jose Chief of Police;  members of the San Jose Police Department 290 Code Enforcement Unit;  Parole Board Department Chief;  18 members of the Megan's Law Task Force;  at least 4 school PTA groups;  and about 50 members of the public.  I was the only community association member who identified himself and spoke.

Summary:  The City of San Jose has set up a Task Force to monitor sex offender activity in the city, to have a place where the citizens can learn how much they are at risk and to help citizens keep their neighborhoods actively involved in keeping the city safe.

We learned that the purpose of Megan's Law is to inform the public of danger in the community, but it is not to be used to harass the offenders.  In order to better inform the community, the Task Force wants community associations to take a role in informing their own neighborhoods about what might be a growing problem.

Recommendations to the Board:  As a result of what I have learned, the AVCA has the opportunity to assist the citizens of Almaden Valley in making our neighborhoods even safer.  I suggest that the AVCA consider the following actions:

1. Register officially with the San Jose Task Force so that the association is informed when a high risk sex offender moves into Almaden Valley.
2. Create flyers containing information about sex offenders in our community and make them available for viewing by all members of the community at all our meetings and events.
3. Continue to meet with the San Jose Task Force and other community leaders to provide community input about regulations and laws that need to be enacted or enforced.
4. Send a representative of the AVCA to the City Council meeting where recommendations of the Task Force will be discussed and possibly voted on.

Sincerely,
Art Boudreault

• The San Jose Police Department is one of very few departments in the nation which has a unit solely devoted to 290-code enforcement.  290 is the code that regulates sex offenders.
• It is difficult to let the public know where sex offenders live due to their rights to privacy after their parole is completed.
• Over 2,300 sex offenders live in 95110, 95112, and 95113 zip codes areas (downtown San Jose, near San Jose State University).
• When placed on parole, the law requires that the parole board place parolees who are sex offenders in housing no closer than ¼ mile to schools.  This parole board attemps to place them at least ½ mile away.  Their plan is to place offenders throughout the city rather than allowing them to be concentrated downtown.
• The task force has a plan to identify locations where children congregate, such as boys and girls clubs and day care centers, so that the parole board can know other locations to avoid.
• The task force will be making recommendations to the City Council on December 13^th of this year (2005). This agenda will be made available prior to that day.
• Once a person is no longer on parole, sex offenders are required to continue to notify the police department where they live, but there are no legal restrictions on where sex offenders do live.
• The new Megan's Law became effective on October 7^th (2005).  This new law further restricts what is posted on the Internet.  Previously every sex offender's address was posted.  Now the law has been changed, and there are three classifications of sex offender:  a) Full Address, b) Zip Code Only, and c) No Post.
• No one could explain [at the meeting] how the Department of Justice decides when a sex offender qualifies for each category, though presumably those in Full Address are the most serious offenders.  No Post means that "minor" sex offenders are not listed on the Web site, but are available to the police department.
• When the 290-code enforcement officers deem it necessary, they prepare flyers and go door-to-door to let the community know when a serious offender is living with ¼ mile of a person's address.  (One member of the public who lives in zip code area 95112 stated that she was assaulted twice near her home and was concerned that she had never received a notification.)    [There are four 290-code enforcement officers.]
• The 290-code enforcement officers are proactive. The 290 code enforcement officers are allowed to notify community associations so that they can place this information in their newsletters.
• It is against the law to post information received from the 290-code enforcement officers on the Internet, but community associations can have a binder available for members of the community to review at association meetings.
• One way a community association could keep informed is to subscribe to the Web site www.scanusa.com.  This Web site will notify anyone of changes to the status of the Megan's Law for up to five Zip Codes.  This will only say that a change has occurred.
• Offenders have a lifetime requirement to register. 95% of those listed were convicted in our community.
• The task force is planning a meeting of neighborhood associations.  The task force claims to have a listing of the community associations and each one's contact person.  The police chief personally asked me to leave my AVCA contact name and address with the task force, and I did.

• I registered with the Web site www.scanusa.com.  It provides for eighteen (18) types of emergency, including sex offender notices.
• I examined the Megan's Law Web site, www.meganslaw.ca.gov .  This statement is part of the agreement to use the Web site: "The information on this Web site is made available solely to protect the public.  Anyone who uses this information to commit a crime or to harass an offender or his or her family is subject to criminal prosecution and civil liability.""
• I searched the Megan's Law Web site for Zip Code 95120 and for my address [within zip code 95120]. In contrast to the 2,300 offenders in zip code 95110, etc., there are four sex offenders listed for all of zip code 95120.  Three are Full Address, and one of them is Zip code only."
• I spoke with Officer Jeremy Bowers.  He said that individuals have the right of free expression, so that if someone found an offender close by, it would not be illegal to notify the neighbors.  It, however, is illegal to harass, threaten, or create an environment that brings harm to the offender.

Public Notification Working Group (Purpose, Background, Process)
Public Notification Working Group, First Meeting Notes, Oct 31, 2005
Megan's Law Taskforce, Housing Working Group
County of Santa Clara, Probation Department Report, Nov 1, 2005