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Salmon Arm  

Salmon Arm council agreed to review bylaw, reimburse residents after trail users ticketed

Snow zone tickets revisited

Salmon Arm council promised to reimburse residents who were ticketed for parking in a snow clearing zone near Foreshore Trail after receiving a letter from a local woman about the matter.

At its Jan. 13 meeting, council received a letter from resident Anne Kirkpatrick who requested changes to the snow and ice removal bylaw. Kirkpatrick explained she had received a ticket for parking in a snow removal zone, even though there wasn't any snow on the ground at the time.

Coun. Sylvia Lindgren said it might be time for a review of the bylaw.

“Ordinarily, this time of year, that makes complete sense there. The snow would either be piled up there, or would be needing to be removed. …But I suspect that we are going to have more winters like this in the future,” Lindgren said.

“It might be time to look at adjusting our expectations for snow clearing when there's clearly no snow.”

Mayor Alan Harrison also agreed with the letter.

“I think Ms. Kirkpatrick's letter is absolutely accurate,” Harrison said. “Most winters in the past, that trail is so slippery you can't walk on it, but not this year, because I walk and run on it all the time along with many other people.

“The problem she's identifying is real."

Harrison asked city staff what kind of solution could be offered for the problem.

Erin Jackson, chief administrative officer, told council that bylaw officers could use more discretion around tickets for parking in snow removal zones when there is no snow on the ground.

The mayor asked about changing the language on the signs to better convey that parking is not allowed when snow clearing needs to take place or when snow is forecast.

Jackson suggested it would make more sense to review the bylaw, since the language currently on the signs accurately reflects the bylaw as it is written.

“Instead of just disregarding the language in the bylaw, I would like to make it align with what council is saying, and then we can communicate differently going forward,” Jackson said.

Some councillors were interested in how many people paid tickets for similar situations, and if it would be possible to reimburse them.

“I'm wondering how many people actually got tickets, and how many paid them, and whether or not there's a way to reimburse people who were ticketed that day,” Lindgren asked.

Jackson replied that she didn't know exactly how easy it would be to find out who paid and sort out reimbursements, and suggested the city send out a message saying it would not be collecting on other tickets issued in the same vein.

“I'm just concerned it could incur a significant amount of staff time to attempt to locate folks and reimburse,” she said.

Harrison suggested simply advising the public that the city would reimburse anyone who paid a ticket for parking in a snow zone at the foreshore trail on Dec. 31.

“It seems to me, if we communicated just out generally said, 'Hey, we made a mistake here,' and when I say we, I'm talking about council, I'm not talking about the staff person. We authorized that bylaw, so we have to take responsibility there,” he said.

“But if we said, 'Hey we're going to use some discretion here. If you paid your $25 fine, you may come back into the city and get reimbursed,' because we should have their ticket.”

The CAO said she liked the idea, but wasn’t sure exactly what kind of records the city has showing who has paid a ticket.

“I want to say, 'Yes, Your Worship, it is possible,'” Jackson said. “I just don't know what kind of records we have kept in terms of the ticketing.”

Jackson said there might be some logistics issues, but she was "completely open to making it happen."

“I just don't have all of the information about how we've kept records," she said.

Another councillor chimed in to reiterate that the issue is council’s fault, and not the fault of the bylaw officer.

“I will chime in and support anything that can be done. One, to fix the bylaw, and two, to reimburse if we can, or at least, not have people pay that come in,” said Coun. Kevin Flynn, adding ultimately, he felt council should look at its bylaw.

“The bylaw person is just doing their job. It's our bylaw. It needs to be revisited. …But I don't think our bylaw person can use discretion. That's not in their job. We need to fix it.”

Flynn's statement caused another councillor to want to clarify the matter.

“I don't want to give the impression that, okay, the bylaw is going to be changed tomorrow, I think that we've got to be clear that we're talking about next winter,” said Coun. Tim Lavery.

“And I do think discretion is always in play, Your Worship, but certainly in the next little while, I think discretion would be important to have.”

Lavery said he does appreciate the value of consistency in a bylaw, and believes council should ensure there is a consistent bylaw by next winter.

In the end, council agreed to review the bylaw in the future, instruct bylaw officers to use discretion when handing out tickets for parking in snow zones, and have staff attempt to reimburse anyone that paid a ticket they received that day.

“I apologize to those people who got tickets on a very nice day when they were walking on the trail, and as councillors, we need to try to correct that,” Harrison said.



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