Council Eases The Towing Procedure
Prince George, B.C.- Council for the City of Prince George wants to tow vehicles which are in violation of parking regulations. That means, too close to a fire hydrant, in a bus zone, or had not paid a ticket for a previous infraction. Council has agreed to give violators a bit of a break.
The way the policy reads, Councillor Cameron Stolz felt it was too assertive, too aggressive. The policy reads that if there was one outstanding ticket, and a vehcile was found to be in violation for a second time, the vehicle could be towed. Stolz says he supports a “third strike” and you’re out scenario. Councillor Murry Krause also feels the towing policy is too “punitive” , that the intent should be to have people “buy in” to the idea of paying their tickets.
But the idea of the policy is to get people to pay their tickets “promptly” as in previous years, there has been a great deal of money lost through fines which have never been paid. Councillor Lyn Hall says he wants to ensure the policy isn’t “leaving any money on the table”. The way the policy reads, a violator would only have to pay the towing and storage fee, without having to pay the outstanding tickets as well. Hall would like to see the fines tied to the towing and storage fees. The towing company would be collecting the towing and impound costs, plus a $50 administrative fee that would be turned over to the City, which could make up for dollars lost in unpaid tickets.
Legally, the City cannot “hold a vehicle for ransom” i.e. the unpaid tickets, the City can only collect for the infraction which caused the vehicle to be towed.
Councillor Brian Skakun wanted to know if vehicles parked too close to a fire hydrant will be towed in the winter, a time when it is difficult to see the different colour painting on the curb that advises a driver of the “fire hydrant” zone. The answer is yes, towing or violations will be noted, regardless of the season.
Councillor Dave Wilbur would like to see the City be allowed to adopt the same policy as the Province in that when it comes time to renew a license plate , renewal would include the outstanding fines before the plate can be renewed. That is an issue that will have to be put before the Union of BC Municipalities to have the UBCM press the Province for change to allow that practice.
Council amended the procedure so that a person would have to have two outstanding tickets, and have their vehicle found to be in parking violation for a third time in order for the vehicle to be towed. Make no mistake, the vehicle will be towed if those factors are in play.
Councillor Albert Koehler was the only councillor to oppose the change to the policy.
Comments
What a Joke!! Talk about micro managing….time for Councilors to step out of the way of the people that are trained to do this stuff i.e The Manager of Bylaws Guy Gusdal. Why is council having this guy prepare reports on everything from paid parking downtown to the “new” towing policy…only to overturn and debate and waffle endlessly as EVERY Councilor weighs in on what THEY think should be this way or that…..right There is the major problem with the City of PG, too many cooks in the kitchen who were ELECTED not listening to the staff that gets paid and has the education & knows what the hell their talking about!
Imagine Stolz even mentioning three strikes and your out. Could that include property taxes?
I hate to break it to you but that is called politics and it is how the system works or doesn’t. Staff are tasked to propose and our politicians can adopt ,reject or modify. God help us if we did what ever a bureaucrat proposed all the time.
CrysBaron writes:time for Councilors to step out of the way of the people that are trained to do this stuff i.e The Manager of Bylaws Guy Gusdal.
That is the problem! He does so at his “Own Discretion” Time to get rid of the old boys club running city hall!
Tell me you cannot think of a time when you have not seen bylaws do the job you know should be done?
Have you ever wondered why some trucks/trucks in this town get hounded and others do not when they are parked at their homes?
Have you ever wondered why the piece of property out west with all the old trucks and trailers near the Shell is allowed to have all this decapitated equipment parked on AGRICULTURE LAND? This one piece of property has had numerous complaints even about their lagoon system and still nothing gets done by “by-laws”
Are you aware that bylaws will do nothing about it and any run off from any leakage of the equipment etc goes right into Parkridge Creek?
What about the “other” numerous complaints put into bylaws”
I could go on and on about this by-law department but how about lets see someone else come up with what the “People are trained” to do in this city administration.
And no, they have not hounded me for anything.
With the parking changes it is just another day…This city has gone this route before – just going in circles….
“God help us if we did what ever a bureaucrat proposed all the time.”
That’s exactly the problem…in this City WE do what the bureaucrat’s propose ALL the time, why pay Staff then….we’ll just let Brian Skakum or that Moron Cameron Stoltz decide on whats best for streets, utilitys, bylaws, etc etc. Hell we may as well fire Bill Gaul, Guy Gusdal….hell lets fire Rae Ann Emery the head of Human Resources and let Mayor and Council hire who they want for staff…..Oh wait, Shari Green did that already :)
“Are you aware that bylaws will do nothing about it and any run off from any leakage of the equipment etc goes right into Parkridge Creek?”
As for this just so you know, THIS would not be a Bylaw matter, more for the Provincial Environment I would think…as for Bylaws there just like the Cops, dammed if they do and dammed if they don’t! If they enforce too much….people bitch, if they don’t enforce enough….people bitch! Its a thankless Job and AGAIN my point is that there hindered by the twits in Council. Use this TOWING PROCEDURE as a perfect example….I can just Imagine the Bylaw Officers going….”Ok…so are we towing this….not now?….what was the policy this morning?!”
“Tell me you cannot think of a time when you have not seen bylaws do the job you know should be done.”
Actually my Sister called Bylaw this summer for a scumbag partier who moved into the rental next door, I was on her patio and you could here it word for word, and they attended that evening and it stopped….it started again next day so she called again and the Bylaw guy phoned her personally and stated it was going to end, and it did! She hasn’t heard a peep since so there you have at least ONE example. Again U couldn’t pay me enough $ to do that job! Look at towing etc….People call into Bylaw cuz THERE street didn’t get plowed properly cuz of to many vehicles parked on it, so Bylaw shows up and tows them so the grader can clear it…..then what happens, the folks who got there cars towed HATE Bylaw lol So U have one happy person and one pissed off person. Kudos to them, everyone bitches about em so my guess is you must have thick skin to do that job! Council needs to stay out of it.
Oh great, lets ease up on those people that park all day downtown on the streets for free while they increase the price of monthly parking for those of us in the off-street lots.
Nice.
CrysBaron google bureaucrat.
Elected or not I believe there are some key people in city hall that should retire.
“Hell we may as well fire Bill Gaul, Guy Gusdal….hell lets fire Rae Ann Emery the head of Human Resources and let Mayor and Council hire who they want for staff…..Oh wait, Shari Green did that already :)
Now you are getting the picture. :)
Thumbs up guesswhat
Do your homework Crysbaron.It was Rob Whitwham on this one.
Respectfully submitted:
_____________________________
Rob Whitwham, Director
Public Safety and Civic Facilities
Forgot to put in Beth James signature on it also.
Would it be that Beth James directed Whitwham and it had to pass her before going to council????
They can start towing vehicles up and down my street soon enough ive driven down logging roads that were deactivated 10 yrs ago that are smoother and safer. Had to laugh at my neighbour holding up his garbage can waiting for the truck coming down the street cause its so bad he cant find a spot to put the can without it falling over due to the ruts.
Apply it to property taxes and tow Stolz’s vehicle!
question, do parking tickets at the college and univ count? if i get a ticket on private property does that count as well?
I say lets bring out Ford from Ontario and let him clean this small town circus into a cirque de soleil…..just saying …Iam so fricking speechless right now…but as Green puts it “If I dont like it, move out of the city”. wow what a well, swell mayor. May she rest in peace.
She will start taxing us to pee and poop,, Then I come back to my youth….Pee three flush, poo flush right away, as I was on a septic system growing,, yup….this is where this mess of a city is going.
If it’s yellow let mellow.. LOL.
Towing people after one ticket is really unfair. People don’t always even know that they have received a ticket. Sometimes they blow off, or the person driving the vehicle at the time takes the ticket and doesn’t pay it, leaving the owner of the vehicle in the lurch.
The cure is don’t park where they can tow you. Boycott the downtown core.
Do your homework Crysbaron.It was Rob Whitwham on this one.
Respectfully submitted:
_____________________________
Rob Whitwham, Director
Public Safety and Civic Facilities
guesswhat….maybe YOU should do YOUR Homework as that was prepared by Gusdal and SUBMITTED by his boss Rob Whitwam. Theres such thing as delegation and the reports related to Bylaw come from Gusdal and he hands them to Whitwam.
By a bureaucrat one way or the other.
I believe Cameron is right on this one with a 3 strike rule but I think this should also apply to years of taxes and he should be thrown out ;-)
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