ZEN AND THE ART OF MUNICIPAL DRIVEWAY WIDENING

BEING A CITY COUNCILLOR NECESSARILY MEANS CLEANING UP MESSES, SAYS JOHN STEWART

As all those starry-eyed would-be councillors out there reviewed their nomination forms, and dreamt of the fiery city hall speeches they're going to deliver on fighting climate change, providing affordable housing and bringing complete communities to the masses, I hope they tuned in to council to get some reality therapy from Mississauga's senior politician.

Pat Saito, who's completing term number nine (matching the ward she serves), had an inquiry at the end of the last council session.

With many such official inquiries, she was not seeking an actual answer, but airing frustrations at a situation over which she feels powerless.

A constituent in her ward, who accommodates what the councillor termed "multiple families" in his residence, widened his driveway without permission to provide tenant parking. Neighbours complained of the illegal manoeuvre.

The owner applied to the Committee of Adjustment for approval to amend the normal regulations, which limits driveway width. He was turned down. No appeal was filed.

The bylaw department issued a notice of violation to the owner, who subsequently made another, slightly different, request for relief from the rules.

That application has yet to be heard. Saito says the owner told a bylaw officer he has no intention of returning his driveway to the approved dimensions.

"What measures can we take to deal with issues like this?" asked the retiring councillor, first elected in 1991, the same year her fellow Councillor Matt Mahoney's mother Katie was elected.

Not much. Which wasn't the actual reply, of course.

It was, however, the obvious conclusion to be reached after staff explained there are escalating legal measures to be taken, which are lengthy and largely ineffective especially when offenders have deep pockets.

There's also legal recourse for civil injunctive relief — another long, expensive procedure, to which courts are not particularly receptive.

A justice of the peace can ultimately impose fines on those flouting the bylaw, but fines are relatively modest, especially where an ordinary citizen offender and not a corporation is involved.

"So someone can basically thumb their nose at the bylaw," Saito told the jury, having completed her cross-examination.

The hardest part of a councillor's job is often explaining the inexplicable to ratepayers: how trees can be slaughtered before applications are made, huge houses can be started — and continue to be constructed without permits — and yes, how the City can't seem to limit asphalt migration on front lawns.

When council recently discussed long-awaited tougher measures against homeowners and developers who ignore property standards, abandon houses to weeds and leave plazas sitting unkempt for years surrounded by hoardings that attract graffiti and vandals, Councillor George Carlson slammed the pathology of "the small percentage of people who are just bloody pigs and don't care if they get in trouble over and over again."

The "waste of bloody time" for everyone involved is next to criminal, said Carlson, who admitted he's gone out several times to clean up problem properties himself.

A week later, they've usually returned to disaster.

Never underestimate the joys of being a "handson councillor."