Bylaw patrol fines teen over water balloon fight
Genevieve Lamy says she doesn’t think her children will play with the hose again this summer. Not after she got a $102 ticket from the town of Granby, Que., because her daughters wanted to have a water balloon fight.
On Tuesday, a member of the town’s “green patrol” happened upon Félycia Lamy, 13, with hose in hand. She was in the midst of filling up a water balloon when, for only a moment, the hose was aimed at the asphalt. The officer in training passed by in that moment. Her six-year-old sister was hiding behind a tree. The green patrol member, part of a Granby program which hires students to enforce municipal bylaws related to the environment, called Félycia “ma’am” and demanded that she give him her identification. But Félycia told him she is “not a lady, but a child.”
A little wet asphalt was enough to warrant a hefty fine since the city’s bylaws prohibits residents from washing or cleaning their driveways with potable water, according to the officer. After he learned that Félycia was a teenager, he gave the ticket to her mother.
“If it would have been me who was watering the driveway, I would have paid the ticket without saying anything,” Lamy said. “But it was my girls, who were just having fun.”
Lamy was so mad that she took to Facebook to lament her situation.
Part of the post read: “I go out to see what happened because I hear a stranger talking to my children, (and he explained) to me that he saw (her) watering the asphalt. If she would have been 14, she would have had a discount ticket, but given that she is 13, I am responsible for a full ticket.”
The post received more than 100 shares and 32 comments expressing anger and encouraging Lamy to fight the ticket.
Before she could, journalists from a local newspaper arrived at her home to ask her about the ticket.
About five hours after the visit from the journalists from Le Droit, Lamy received a call from the city of Granby.
Serge Drolet, the city’s environmental co-ordinator, told Lamy that the ticket was being withdrawn and that there was an error in judgment.
According to Gabriel Bruneau, city director of land management planning and Drolet’s direct superior, the green patrol member assumed the 13-year-old was an adolescent cleaning the driveway, and not just a kid enjoying a sunny June day, trying to cool off with her little sister.
Once Félycia clarified her age, Bruneau said the officer under training went to speak to her mother with the intention of fining her.
“He told the mother she was not allowed to use the water to clean the driveway and the mother just tried to explain, and for the patroller, (he) took the regulation by the book.”
When Lamy attempted to argue with the officer in training, she said he told her that if she did not identify herself, he would call the police and give her an additional fee on top of the ticket. As a single parent, Lamy wasn’t going to bother fighting at all, because she couldn’t afford to spend even more if she lost.
“It was not the proper way to treat this file because, first of all, that was a young lady that was playing with the hose and maybe she wasn’t aware of that type of regulation and the impact of her actions,” Bruneau told the Post.
“So that would have been the right case to (make judgment and) say, ‘Are you aware that, blah blah blah, and could you be aware and pay attention to how you use water.’ That’s how we progress in that manner.”
Lamy said she was simply taken aback by the whole situation of a $100 fine and the withdrawal that took place within less than six hours.
“For certain, in my point of view, there are rules to follow. That’s no problem. But there also has to be judgment made in regards to the fact that these are kids who are just having fun ... Things like this are unacceptable.”