Cunningham calls for hiring of an additional By-Law officer

Councillor Barry Cunningham suggested
that the city should consider the
hiring of a second bylaw officer

Councillor Barry Cunningham called attention to a few concerns that he has over the state of the city of late, noting for Council on Monday evening that there appears to be a need to better enforce the range of Bylaws that the city has.

He started his list with some notes on the volume of backyard burning that is taking place in the city, observing for council that the city's Fire Department was spending too much time explaining what is and isn't allowed for burning and responding to complaints related to larger scale burns of residential items related to renovations and such activities.

He offered up the solution of a community burning pit, or to allow residents to take those items to the dump for disposal, asking that city staff investigate those options to address the issue.

He also noted for Council that with only one bylaw enforcement officer a number of other issues are starting to become more common, stating that parts of the city are looking like war zones and pointed to such things as abandoned vehicles, dogs running loose and unsightly premises.

"We've got a lot of problems and one bylaw officer is not enough to enforce it, it's useless having bylaws if there's no teeth to them and one bylaw officer can't do the job" -- Councillor Barry Cunningham on the need for a second bylaw officer for the city

While acknowledging that the City is in a budget crunch, he observed for Council that this is one of those situations where a Second By-law officer could pay for itself and offered up the recommendation that the City should make it a priority for next years budget to hire an additional person for next year.

You can review his list of concerns and the discussion around them from the City's Video Archive, it starts at the 1 hour ten minute mark.




For more items related to Monday's Council session see our Council Timeline.

Further background on City Council issues can be found on our Council Discussion archive.

Cross posted from the North Coast Review