The Way I See It!

Video from the State Senate Judiciary Committee public hearing held a today in Madison on Senate Bill 548

Posted by Randy Hollenbeck on April 1, 2010

Cudahy, Safety, Wisconsin, Madison

Watch the Wisconsin State Video here.

Here is my final testimony speech for the Madison Senate Public Hearing

Madam Chairperson,

I cannot speak for all of Cudahy, but I come before you to speak for myself as a Cudahy resident.  Cudahy’s Municipal Home Rule is under siege.

I have no problem with the current Cudahy Sex Offender Ordinance, that has a part on residency attached, which boils down to we will take back our own and help them find a place in Cudahy to live.  If they committed the crime as a Cudahy resident, they should be allowed to come back to Cudahy.  It is our municipal home rule.  It is right.  It is fair.

What isn’t our municipal home rule.  Isn’t right.  Isn’t fair is Senate Bill 548 that would nullify not only Cudahy’s sex offender ordinance, but those ordnances passed by other local communities restricting the residences and whereabouts of released sex offenders.

What isn’t our municipal home rule.  Isn’t right.  Isn’t fair is having the Department of Corrections just arbitrarily pick where theses people will live.  Safety over shadowed by people that don’t live in the community making decisions for the community regardless of the communities home rule.

The one-size fits all, will not work and will result in a watered down ordnance.

I have heard from some people that putting the residency restrictions limits what the city of Milwaukee can do with all of their sex offenders.  They can adopt the same resolution and ordnance that many other communities have.  I know this will not satisfy them.  I don’t think Cudahy needs to be a dumping ground for Milwaukee.  The city of Milwaukee is so massive one could get lost in the city or never meet everyone that lives there. 

Unless related, the argument of the victim could run into the offender is weak. 

First, the crime would have to be committed in the same city as the offender’s residence.

Second, the placement of the offender is done by the city and that can be a helping factor in where in the city they can live.  A city as massive as Milwaukee even makes it less possible.

We need to stop looking at and for false answers and deal with the harsh reality of things!

The residency clause was put in to make the City of Cudahy safer and I strongly encourage other communities to pass such ordnances in their communities.

I implore you to do the right think and kill this bill and send a message back to the cities that don’t have any Sex Offender Ordinance’s or ones that don’t contain residency restrictions to get them in.  The welfare of the community is at stake. 

Let us not just close our eyes and allow someone to blindly lead us down a hasty path that is the wrong one.  Walk, not run, with eyes open wide, down the right path. 

I am trying to respect the process, now it is your turn to respect municipal home rule.

Do the right thing and kill this bill and up hold municipal Home Rule and look out for the safety of the residents.

Thank you,

Randy Hollenbeck