Penticton panhandler settles for plea deal
Months-long case that cost local taxpayers about $30,000 ends with man having to pay $145 in fines
After almost a year of legal wrangling that cost Penticton taxpayers in the range of $30,000, a wellknown panhandler pleaded guilty to eight bylaw offences Wednesday at what was to have been the start of a three-day trial in provincial court.
Paul Braun admitted to contravening the Good Neighbour Bylaw by panhandling within 10 metres of a downtown alcove on the 200 block of Main Street between June and October 2017.
Under the terms of his plea agreement, he will pay fines and restitution totalling $145, plus perform 60 hours of community service. He also agreed to stay off the 200 block of Main Street for one year.
The deal is similar to one offered by the city in May, which Braun rejected at the time.
He told reporters Wednesday the threat of jail time if convicted at trial finally convinced him to take the deal.
“If I go to jail, I’d come out and be homeless again, so the whole cycle starts over again,” said Braun.
Penticton lawyer Paul Varga, who represented Braun pro bono, cautioned against pinning the city’s legal costs entirely on his client.
“Those costs were entirely determined by city hall. They’re the ones who chose to start this prosecution . . . . You have to ask them why they chose to spend so much on this prosecution,” he said.
Varga also suggested the city wasn’t serious about settling the matter early because it set out to insult Braun — in one instance placing garbage cans over his usual spots — in hopes he would then balk at taking a deal.
City lawyer Jarrett Plonka described Varga’s assertion as “rubbish.”
“The idea that the city attempted to sabotage any negotiations is simply not true,” said Plonka, a municipal law specialist based in Victoria.
Plonka also claimed the public had been misled about the purpose of the case.
“One of the misconceptions in the media is that this has been about trying to collect fines from Mr. Braun,” he said. “It’s never been about collecting money; it’s about achieving compliance, and one of the ways of achieving compliance is making sure Mr. Braun doesn’t return to the regular spot.”
Mayor Andrew Jakubeit, who’s in Whistler this week for the Union of B.C. Municipalities conference, couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday.
Braun, who has lived in a social housing complex for about a year now while collecting a disability pension, believes he was targeted by city staff because he was too visible.
“If I was on the other side of the breezeway in the back alley with my hat out and my sign, I’m sure they wouldn’t have bothered me at all. But this perception that Penticton might have a homeless problem or poverty . . . they want to hide that,” he said.
City spokesman Philip Cooper said Braun’s case had cost taxpayers $26,000 as of July, but an updated figure wasn’t available Wednesday.