Tim Ryan, tryan@wolfrivermedia.com
The state Department of Corrections on Friday dodged questions about what tighter sex offender residency restrictions in Shawano might mean for a temporary placement facility due to open in October.
Milwaukee-based Matt Talbot Recovery Services has contracted with the DOC to operate a six-bed facility for recently released felons at 118 S. Union St. Some of the facility’s residents are likely to be convicted sex offenders.
The Shawano Common Council on Wednesday added further restrictions to a city ordinance that makes an exception to its residency rules for sex offenders if they are placed in a DOC Temporary Living Placement (TLP) facility.
The new rules require sex offenders to be approved by the Shawano Sexual Predator Ordinance Committee and will require the facility to have an on-site supervisor living at the residence.
Talbot had not been planning to have live-in supervisory staff. The company’s plan called for residents at the TLP to be checked on three times a day.
Talbot did not return calls seeking comment Friday.
The live-in supervision requirement would only apply to sex offenders. The facility wouldn’t require live-in supervision for other types of offenders.
DOC officials were asked what this could mean for Talbot’s contract with the state, given that the bid Talbot submitted did not account for the expense of full-time, live-in staff at the facility.
Questions were directed to Joy Staab, director of public affairs, who responded with the following email statement: “The Department of Corrections will review the local ordinance changes and the impact they may have on department operations and local resources available to assist individuals on community supervision who are transitioning back into their community.”
Talbot was one of four vendors that submitted bids for the operation of a TLP in Shawano.
The bidders included New Era House, 105 E. Richmond St., which the DOC had been using as its contracted TLP facility until last year when new bids were put out as mandated by state law.
The DOC has continued to use the New Era House since then, even without a contract, on a “pay-as-you-go” basis.
Talbot emerged as the low bidder for the TLP services, with a bid of $27.69 per bed, for an estimated annual cost of $60,641.
New Era House submitted a bid of $30 per bed, for an annual cost of $65,700.
The other bidders were Attic Correctional Services Inc., of Madison, at $33.92 per bed and $74,284.80 annually, and Trinteam Inc., of Eau Claire, at $28.30 and $61,977 annually.
Neighborhood uproar over the TLP location moved city officials to tighten their TLP exception to sex offender residency rules.
The city restricts convicted sex offenders from living within 1,500 feet of any facility where children are likely to congregate, including any facility used for or that supports a school for children, licensed day care center, library, park, recreational trail, playground or place of worship.
Under the old rules, an exception kicked in if the convicted sex offender “has been placed in a temporary living center by the Department of Corrections under electronic monitoring and said person meets with the Sexual Predator Ordinance Committee as requested.”
Though that exception was tightened Wednesday to add committee approval and on-site supervision, there is no state law requiring the city to make any exception for a DOC facility.
Legally, the city could have applied its sex offender residency rules to the TLP and barred sex offenders from living there.
However, that possibility was not presented to the Common Council because it was not the recommended option, City Administrator Brian Knapp said.
“Part of the problem was, if the DOC maintains a relationship with the New Era House, a blanket prohibition would have eliminated that option, too,” he said.
City officials had been hoping the DOC would continue its contract with the New Era House, which Shawano police said has been working well.
Knapp also said that while the city could have done away with exceptions for TLP’s, it wasn’t presented to council because an exception was already in the city code.
“The starting point was the existing rule,” he said. “Our recommendation to address community concerns was to strengthen the ordinance.”
Not all council members were aware that the city wasn’t required to make an exception to its sex offender residency rules for a DOC facility.
Council members Sandy Steinke and Bob Kurkiewicz said Friday they were under the impression that a DOC exception was required under state law.
“I thought it was a state mandate, the way it was presented to us,” Kurkiewicz said.
However, Kurkiewicz said, he still would have supported the exception because repealing it would also have applied to the New Era House and kept sex offenders from being placed there.
“Everyone is satisfied with the New Era House,” he said.
Council President Woody Davis, who cast the sole no vote against the new exception language Wednesday, said he was aware that an exception isn’t mandated.
He said his opposition was not directed at a TLP facility, but at its location in a residential area.
“If it was at the New Era House, there wouldn’t be a problem,” he said.