LEWISTON – Tammy Johnson had an appointment to interview prospective parents at her day care last week.

They never showed up. She suspects they saw the signs around Orange Street, the ones that warn of a convicted sex offender in the neighborhood, and kept on driving.

It’s happened before.

No law prevents people on Maine’s sex offender registry from living next door to day cares or elementary schools or playgrounds. Legislation that would have kept “sexually violent predators” at least 500 feet away died in committee last session.

But the issue has been given new life. The Commission to Improve Community Safety and Sex Offender Accountability met for the first time this week, inundated with statistics and studies.

Its 17-member panel represents law enforcement, government, victim’s rights and the Maine Civil Liberties Union. The charge: define standards for notifying communities about a sex offenders’ presence, look at risk assessment tools and the need for prerelease plans and report back to the Legislature by Dec. 3 with one or two bills in mind.

Co-chairman Sen. Pamela Henderson Hatch, D-Skowhegan, said for now there are just lots of questions.

How are probation officers expected to keep track of 100 or 125 people? And, when it comes to sentencing, “why did somebody get two years and somebody (else) get 20?”

“They really gave us an open-ended commission,” Hatch said.

Sen. Peggy Rotundo, D-Lewiston, said she and other local legislators started exploring the issue last winter after it became public that a high number of sex offenders released from prison were choosing to live in Lewiston.

She and Rep. William Walcott, also a Lewiston Democrat, co-sponsored a bill that would have shortened the period of time sex offenders have to notify police after moving from 10 days to 48 hours.

That bill was carried over to the next session. Rotundo, who is not on the new commission, said she thought her bill was likely something the group would look at.

For Tammy Johnson, whatever measures are taken will be too late. She said she’s decided to sell Orange Blossoms day care. She’d already been thinking about it before the man moved two doors down in July.

“That was the final straw,” she said.

A public hearing will be held during the commission’s next meeting from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. Oct. 27.

“I thought it would just be nice to get some public input,” said Hatch. “Not that I want to bring it up close and personal, but people do have ideas.”

[email protected]