Is it me, I asked Lynn Taborsak, or do Danbury's public officials just not have enough to do?

First there was the city's misguided jihad against illegal immigrants. Now it's their misdirected plan to make children safe by running off convicted sex offenders from city-run parks and recreation areas.

It was the mayor's idea, said a deflated Taborsak, the only council member objecting to the proposal.

Of course it was, I thought. All roads to the ridiculous in this town seem to lead to city hall.

This new get-tough policy for sex offenders? A warning for the first offense. A $100 fine for the second. And barely a mention on how to enforce the ordinance, expected to be adopted next week. What, are the cops going to walk around with mug shots of Danbury's 42 registered sex offenders?

So off to Mayor Mark Boughton's office I went.

It's about sending a message that we care about our children, said Boughton, who curiously suggested we converse in Spanish. He speaks Spanish, he said. I speak Spanish. So let's habla español together.

Puzzling, considering this was the man who wanted to deputize state police to crack down on undocumented immigrants. But he did remind me of something.

This latest brainchild of his sounded a lot like his failed battle to deal with the influx of immigrants in town - you know, a big idea that raises big issues without resolving much of anything.

Absolutely not, Boughton said, sounding insulted at my assessment of his past endeavors. It's another tool to deal with a very real concern, he said.

No question. All over the country, cities are concocting creative ways to keep kids safe from sex offenders: Miami established a Halloween Sexual Predator hot line, on the theory that children are especially vulnerable to perverts with candy on Halloween. A flasher in Wilmington, Del., was ordered to wear a T-shirt that proclaims, "I am a registered sex offender." And last week, in West Hartford, school officials sent home a warning letter informing parents about a pedophile on Farmington Avenue. No mention of the other 25 registered in town.

"I think anyone with a kid is interested in ideas that might keep their kids safe," said Sandy Boluch, who was watching her 2-year-old son play at Rogers Park on Tuesday afternoon.

True - but shouldn't the ideas actually work?

"What would you have us do, nothing?" Boughton said. "If this saves only one child, it's worth it."

Here we go... Whenever someone pushing a program or idea hits you with the "If just one person" line, it usually means that's one more than the number of people it will ever affect.

But the real problem is it distracts from the reality: It isn't the clichéd pervert in the park that poses the real threat to children. Danbury need only look at its own history to see that. In 2002, a 25-year-old man strangled a 13-year-old after arranging online to meet her for sex. Fact is, kids are more often sexually abused by someone known or related to them.

And it's that false sense of security that really bothers Taborsak.

"This shouldn't give parents any peace of mind," she said. "The only thing that will really keep a child safe is a parent's own vigilance."

Boluch agrees with that. She actually likes the town's idea; she's open to anything that might keep a pedophile from her child. What parent wouldn't be? But even she knows it's her job first to keep her son safe.

"I don't let him out of my sight," she said, her eyes fixed on the little blond boy climbing up the slide.