Several months ago we received a citations notice for two violations because: a) our outdoor garbage cans didn’t have the lids on, and b) the greenery along our back fence was ‘obstructing’ the alley and therefore presented a safety hazard to the public.

Months ago a big deal was made in our city when new rules regarding garbage came out, and there was a lot of community resistance.   A community official was quoted in a local publication explaining that because too many people put out bags of garbage (ie not in cans) and it attracts rodents, they’re going to be very strict about any garbage left out without a can, but that new rules about garbage cans without lids and quantity of garbage aren’t the focus and won’t be prosecuted.

I have lids for my garbage cans and never, never have left any garbage outside of a can.  I also recycle more than everyone on the block put together (literally – and that doesn’t include all the food scraps I compost), so even though I have a much larger family than just about everyone, I don’t generate a huge amount of waste and I can still fit our garbage into the new smaller requirements.  But I found the clarification of the official reassuring since it’s hard to keep the lids on all the time – in the evening I usually send a child out to be sure the lids are on, but during the day they are often off.  Maybe a child takes garbage out and doesn’t put the lid on firmly after he puts the bag in, sometimes a wind blows and it flies down the alley – that kind of stuff.    When the lid of one garbage can disappeared, I made sure the garbage can was covered each night with a board so that it wasn’t open to cats or rodents.  It was upsetting to get a fine for something technical when we’re not contributing to the problem that the fine is supposed to be addressing.

To add to that was a second fine for vines that had been substantially trimmed less than a month before and couldn’t possibly obstruct the alley.  When I got this in the mail, it left me feeling like there was no way to avoid some kind of fine for something, no matter how hard you try.  I was quite frustrated since it often feels like the city officials are looking for technicalities to catch people on, small violations in the letter of the law even when the spirit of the law is being respected.  It reminds me of when policemen sit at quiet streets with obscured stop signs to ticket people so they can meet their quotas – technically the drivers are in the wrong but it’s not stopping dangerous driving or purposeful wrongdoing.

There is an appeals process, but our past experience didn’t leave us with an optimistic feeling about it. Nevertheless, I wasn’t discouraged enough to pay the fines without trying to appeal them, so I asked dh to file the appeals (something he was reluctant to waste time with after seeing the inner workings of the process two years ago).  Once you file an appeal, all action on your case is supposed to be halted until your case is heard.  Months went by and our case was finally scheduled for today (though we never got the official letter notifying us about it – it’s good dh was on top of it and kept calling them).  In the last months, we repeatedly received reminders about our fines (when dh called the official told him to ignore these since they didn’t apply to us- so why did they continue sending them??), got a threatening letter telling us we were in contempt of something or other since we ignored three reminder letters (called again and official told us to ignore that also, that it didn’t apply to us).  You know the saying ‘the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand does’?  It must have been written with these government offices in mind.

Last night dh told me he had very little hope for the appeals process, since the facts don’t really seem to matter nor how you present your case.  This morning he waited two hours for his hearing, and listened to all the other people there talk about what they were fined for and why.  Everyone seemed to be there for ‘overgrown grass’ and garbage can lids.  Like the person who was cited for ‘overgrown grass’ when the yard was covered with five inches of snow and no grass was visible, another woman whose small yard was covered with gravel and flowers and cited for overgrown grass, and yet another person cited for overgrown grass (it was 4″ long and has to be 8″ or 8.5″ to be legally a problem).  At least I’m not the only one who got fined for things that make no sense (like the game table we had in the backyard that was the source of our fine two years ago).  And the overall sentiment was that no matter what you do, the appeals process in our city almost never works in favor of the person appealing.  Not encouraging.

Anyway, dh finally got in and was shown the first picture of our violation – they take pictures at the time they note the violation and then later show it on a large screen to you.  As the judge read off the citation, she realized the officer who cited us wrote the wrong citation number, so she dismissed that violation.  That was a technicality that worked in our favor and I’m grateful for it!  Then she went on to the next citation, and as she read it and looked at picture of our fence with the ivy growing out about two inches, it was very obvious to even the most casual glance that there was no danger or even anything unattractive or unkempt.  The judge immediately said ‘photograph fails to show danger to public’ and dismissed that also.  Yippee!

We’re so grateful that it worked out so well.  I think it really is dependent on the judge – I don’t think all judges would have responded as this one did.  Almost everyone we’ve spoken to has said they’ve never had a fine waived, and I feel very fortunate.  I’m glad to have a reason to be more hopeful about how our city government operates!

Avivah