Suffolk County plans to remove the shelter and instead provide offenders with $90 daily vouchers for food and lodging. But the county Legislature has stalled a vote to free up the petty cash needed to get that program up and running.
The county originally expected to remove the Riverside trailer, and a smaller one and Westhampton Beach, by Feb. 11 and institute the voucher program, said county Department of Social Services commissioner Greg Blass.
"Now, with petty cash at current levels, several months are anticipated," Mr. Blass said, adding that if the cash does not become available, it could change the county's plans altogether. Prolonging the use of the trailers is one possibility the county may have to consider, he said.
"It is possible that we will be subject to a lawsuit from the state or a reduction in state aid if the Legislature takes no action on the plan to provide the department with petty cash," Mr. Blass said.
Until the local law was passed last week, only county laws dictated where offenders could live in Riverhead, though other Long Island towns have put their own laws on the books.
Riverhead's new rules make it illegal for Level 2 or 3 registered sex offenders, deemed the most likely to re-offend, to live within a quarter-mile of any school, park, library, beach, playground, day camp or child day care center,
Assuming the county doesn't challenge the law, the town would essentially require the county to move the trailer outside the jail.
"Some of the West End legislators think it's a good idea to have this trailer on the East End, and we are trying to tighten up our code to stop that from happening," Riverhead Supervisor Sean Walter said of the new legislation when the board introduced it on Jan. 20.
The town law exempts sex offenders who established their residence before Oct. 31, 2005, or sex offenders who established their residence before the law took effect.
The law calls for fines of $2,500 per offense, with each week a person is in violation constituting a separate offense. The owner of the property housing a sex offender also faces fines of $2,500 per offense or up to six months in jail.
"The Suffolk County attorney's office is reviewing the law to determine if it is legal and enforceable," said Dan Aug, a spokesman for County Executive Steve Levy.
Suffolk probation director John Desmond was more direct.
"This kind of law, like others preceding it, creates homeless sex offenders," he said in a statement. "If this law is allowed to stand, sex offenders who are homeless will have essentially nowhere to live because they predominantly seek living space in hotels, motels and boarding houses.
"The exemption provision [in the town law] is clearly bogus in that it has the obvious effect of preventing sex offenders from living anywhere in town unless they buy a house."
Town attorney Dawn Thomas said the town is prepared to defend any challenges the county or state may file.
The plan to shut down the sex offender trailers was stalled at the Feb. 2 meeting of the county Legislature, when western lawmakers delayed a vote that would have provided the cash to close the facility by Feb. 11. Legislators voted 15-3 to table the measure, which would have allowed the social services department to increase its petty cash fund from $8,500 to $25,000, most of which is needed to hammer out a $90-per-night voucher system so offenders can find their own living spaces.
East End legislators Ed Romaine (R-Center Moriches) and Jay Schneiderman (I-Montauk) opposed tabling the resolution, as did Tom Barraga (R-West Islip).
Mr. Romaine said he supports the town law and is happy to see it include libraries, which were not included in the county law. The county Legislature had previously opposed a measure to include libraries in its law, Mr. Romaine said, because that would have required the trailers by the jail to be moved.
Mr. Romaine said the county attorney told a member of his staff that the town law is not enforceable because the trailer is outside Riverhead Town.
"The trailers were originally supposed to be gone by Feb. 11 and that hasn't happened," Mr. Romaine said. "Clearly, if it doesn't happen in a month, the East End is going to be heard again."
Mr. Romaine said only about three of approximately 26 sex offenders living in the trailer were from the East End, and the rest were from western Suffolk. Despite this, he said, western legislators made no secret of the fact that they opposed eliminating the trailers because they didn't want the sex offenders living in their districts.
"They don't want their West End sex offenders living in the West End," Mr. Romaine said.
Mr. Blass said the county has begun issuing cash payments to Level 1 sex offenders as part of the program's trial run.
"We remind you that this situation emanates from New York State's decision to release sex offenders without requiring that these individuals have a valid address," Mr. Blass said.
tgannon@timesreview.com