Councilors want access to offender names

If a Sisters resident wants to know the names and addresses of registered local sex offenders, he must call the state police and listen to a list of countywide names.

City council members met with Becky Jackson, Deschutes County Adult Parole and Probation officer on Thursday, October 2, to discuss options to give residents easier access to such information.

After considering options including listing names on the Internet, notifying newspapers, and keeping a list at city hall, the council agreed to meet with Jackson and other interested parties in a public hearing at the end of October.

The meeting is tentatively slated for 6 p.m. on October 23 at City Hall.

Councilor Lon Kellstrom pointed out that residents who appear to be the least likely candidates have actually committed sex offenses.

"I think that is all the more reason we should invite them (county officials) back (for the October hearing)," Kellstrom said. "The Catholic priest is the poster example of that (unlikely criminal)."

Stein said the city or any public service would be taking on a delicate and dangerous risk by publicizing the names of sex offenders.

"The devil is in the details," Stein said. "What if John Doe is a sex offender and he lives over there and then he moves and everyone thinks the new resident is the sex offender? It sounds like a noble cause, but there are a lot of details and people to consider."

In other business, the City Council took the first step to build a new city hall. City Council unanimously approved the purchase of 132,400 square feet of the northeast corner of the old middle school property for $291,600 ($9 per square foot) from the Sisters School District (see related story).

The city has been looking for nearly a decade for a location for a new city hall.

Stein said no designs have been configured for the city hall, but it will have to meet city code requirements, such as representing a Western theme.

In other business, the City Council unanimously agreed to sign a resolution of the City of Sisters which proclaims its support of providing open access to the public on the Lower Deschutes River.

Sisters has now joined the cities of Maupin, Madras and The Dalles in signing a resolution which opposes plans by the Bureau of Land Management to implement a permit system which would limit public access to the river between Warm Springs and the river's mouth at the Columbia River.