Residents drive bylaw officer away

Peachland’s seasonal bylaw officer took so much guff trying to enforce town rules this past summer that he up and quit.

Many people responded poorly when told they had to better control their dogs or obey parking regulations.

“The verbal harassment was so great, he decided he didn’t want to work in Peachland anymore,” Mayor Cindy Fortin said Monday. “He withdrew his services before his contract was over. It’s a really unfortunate situation that doesn’t reÁect well on Peachland.”

Partly as a result of the experience, town council is moving back to a less confrontational style of bylaw enforcement.

Dubbed “voluntary compliance”, the approach is said to stress measures such as more public education about town bylaws, issuance of warnings rather than fines, and the possible use of mediation to resolve neighbourhood disputes instead of prosecution through the courts.

“Voluntary compliance can be a cost-effective way to address bylaw enforcement, but it is still important we take enforcement action when necessary,” town administrator Elsie Lemke writes in a report to council.

Town ofÀcials hope the new approach will help them hire a new seasonal bylaw enforcement ofÀcer next summer.

In the meantime, the town does have a fulltime, year-round building inspector who doubles as a bylaw ofÀcer.

But Fortin said she hopes people will take more personal responsibility for solving neighbourhood disputes.

“It’d be nice if people tried to work things out themselves Àrst,” she said.

“But of course we would never want anyone to put themselves in an uncomfortable situation, and the bylaw ofÀcer will always have to respond when they’re called.”