Aronberg v. Gelber on sex offenders

Sen. Dave Aronberg, D-Greenacres, is back with his annual sex offender residency bill — which this year might become an issue in his Democratic primary for attorney general against Sen. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach. Aronberg’s bill would establish a minimum, statewide 1,000-foot buffer to prevent sex offenders and predators from living near schools, day care centers and the like. Communities could adopt their own rules extending that to 2,500 feet. Back in 2008, Aronberg almost got a similar bill through the Legislature. That version had one big difference: It would have pre-empted local rules and established a statewide 1,500-foot sex offender buffer. The proposal passed the Senate without opposition, but ran into an opponent in the House: then-Minority Leader Gelber. From a Tampa Tribune story in 2008: “Leading the charge against (Aronberg’s) bill was Rep. Dan Gelber, D-Miami Beach, a father of three children younger than 10 and a resident of Miami Beach, the first U.S. city to enact 2,500-foot buffers. “I imagine if the state of Florida could simply expel sex predators they would,” Gelber said. “I’ve always said on this issue, I think we should push the envelope and courts will push us back as appropriate.” “I still

believe you can’t just take away local control. You have to understand one size fits all has disparate effects on different communities.” When the 2008 session was winding down, Gelber got up on the House floor and asked about how the bill would affect local sex offender rules. In election year, that was enough to spook then-House Speaker Marco Rubio, who quickly shelved the idea. “I literally asked a single question,” Gelber said. “It was a little strange. Everybody ran for the hills.” Presenting his revised version to the Senate Criminal Justice Committee Tuesday, Aronberg took a subtle jab at Gelber’s position in 2008. “It got caught up because of politics in the House,” Aronberg informed his Senate colleagues. “Since then, a bad situation has gotten worse…The worst situation is to have colonies of homeless sex offenders roaming our streets” because they can’t find a place to live with the more restrictive standards. Gelber said he never even voted on the 2008 bill and his objection was overriding local rules. Aronberg’s bill no longer does that. “I totally support the safety zones,” he said. “I think that’s good policy.”

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Aronberg v. Gelber on sex offenders

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