(A) The Council finds that many sex offenders pose a significant risk to the health and safety of inhabitants of the City of Albuquerque. The Council finds that public safety will be improved if employers know that current employees or prospective employees are probationary convicted sex offenders. The Council finds that approximately half of the convicted sex offenders who will re-offend will do so during the first five years after they have been released from incarceration or convicted and that five years is a typical probationary period. The Council further finds that this article is a remedial article designed to protect occupants of the City of Albuquerque. The Council further finds this article is the most narrowly tailored means of furthering compelling governmental interests.
(B) The Council finds that the protection of the victims and potential victims of sex offenders in Albuquerque is a matter of unique local concern not fully and adequately addressed by state law. The Council finds that statewide offenders move to Albuquerque from smaller towns and rural areas in New Mexico to seek the relative anonymity and employment opportunities available in a larger city. The Council finds that there is an influx of sex offenders into the City of Albuquerque which in part, may result from the fact that treatment opportunities are available in Albuquerque which may not be available in other parts of the state. The Council finds that the disclosure required hereunder provides the employer with information not currently available pursuant to registration under state law and information that will assist the employer in protecting children who may be in the proximity of a sex offender in the scope of employment.
(C) The Council finds that probation is a privilege and not a right, and that the State of New Mexico exercises continuing jurisdiction over probationers and requires probationers to comply with any and all existing laws including municipal ordinances. The Council finds that probationers have adequate existing opportunities to challenge conditions of probation imposed by courts or probation officers, and that the State of New Mexico provides adequate due process before a sex offender probationer is tasked with or ordered to obey any condition pertaining to that probationer's access to children.
(D) The Council's decision to require sex offenders to notify employers as required under this article is based on the enhanced public safety that will result if employers know that a probationary sex offender is not supposed to have access to children at work and otherwise. The City of Albuquerque has not assessed the specific risk of reoffense of any particular individual sex offender or class of sex offenders and has made no determination regarding the current dangerousness or degree of dangerousness of any individual sex offender or class of sex offenders. The City Council does not intend for any person to use the information required by this article to harm any sex offender and recognizes the value of employment to the reintegration of sex offenders into society.
(Ord. 36-2003)