(A) Prohibition. No person registered with the State of North Carolina and/or any other state or federal agency as a registered sex offender, including, but not limited to, the sex offender registry established pursuant to G.S. § 14-27A, shall enter into or upon any public park or recreation facility owned, operated or maintained by the city.
(B) Definitions. For the purpose of this section, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
OFFICIAL MEETING. A meeting that is required to be open to the public by the Open Meetings Law, G.S. Chapter 143, Art. 33C.
PUBLIC PARK. Any publicly owned, leased, operated or maintained property that is designated as a park by the city, including any adjacent public parking area as well as the driveway, entrance way or pedestrian walkway used by the public to access the public park or recreation facility.
RECREATION FACILITY. Any publicly owned, leased, operated or maintained property that is designated as a recreation facility by the city, including any adjacent public parking area as well as the driveway, entrance way or pedestrian walkway used by the public to access the recreation facility.
REGISTERED SEX OFFENDER. An individual who is registered by any state or federal agency as a sex offender and/or whose name is published or required to be published on any state or federal sex offender registry, including, but not limited to, the North Carolina Sex Offender and Public Protection Registry established pursuant to G.S. § 14-27A.
(C) Limited exceptions.
(1) Official meetings.
(a) A registered sex offender who has the right to be present at an official meeting shall have the limited privilege of entering on and into a park or recreation facility for such time as is necessary to attend the meeting or function, but any form of loitering or lingering shall be a violation of this section.
(b) The privilege shall only extend to those parts of the park and/or recreation facility that are commonplace for meetings of that kind and any registered sex offender found outside of those parts shall be punished as outlined in § 96.99(B).
(2) Polling place. When such recreation facility is used as a polling place for an election, the registered sex offender may enter the facility for the limited purpose of voting if he or she qualifies to do so at the polling place.
(Ord. passed - -)