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Thoughts on Shoveling Snow


Recently I read a post on social media comparing the penalty for speeding in a school zone to the possible maximum penalty for a resident pushing snow from their property into the street. Then someone in person asked me a similar question the other day, so I guess this idea is on people's minds. I don't know if the specific situation is in question here, or if the concern really has to do with some larger concepts of city ordinances and enforcement in general.

"Is the maximum penalty extreme?" is usually not the central question when examining or creating city code. Of course it is. That's what a maximum penalty is supposed to be. Instead, a central question to ask is "Could there ever be a situation in which the maximum penalty is appropriate and necessary?" And if we could imagine a scenario--unlikely, but readily possible--in which it would be good for the city to have a severe penalty for a code or ordinance infraction available in its tool kit for protecting the health and safety and rights of all residents, then having such a maximum penalty is appropriate.

And it seems smart to have various levels of penalties rather than only one level because the severity of the infractions vary. For example, if Mrs. Widow is out shoveling her snow, and she tosses a shovelful from her sidewalk into the street, we would not expect her to be immediately slapped with the maximum penalty. Instead, we would expect that our public officials would simply remind her not to throw snow into the street.

However, if a resident has been repeatedly reminded and warned, and he grows more and more defiant and continues to push or blow the snow from his property onto the street, there should be at the discretion of the public officials ways to match the penalty with the continued problem. If public officials didn't have this discretion and had only one level of response, the enforcement would be far too extreme on one end and possibly not extreme enough on the other. I imagine a similar principle is applied by law enforcement officers when they decide what their response should be in a given situation. Do they remind the person to obey the law? Do they issue a ticket or other official citation? Does the situation call for them to rachet up the response beyond these preliminary efforts?

I would be shocked to learn that in the entire history of Sugar City, any resident has ever spent time in jail because they pushed snow from their property into the street. We expect city officials and employees to use their good judgement and discretion. 

As for the comparison between penalties for speeding in a school zone and the maximum penalty for pushing snow into public streets, let me share how I might think about it. The fine or penalty for speeding in a school zone serves as a reminder to speeding drivers to slow down, as we don't want any children to be injured. The penalty is not designed as the punishment for actually hitting a child in a school zone. There is another much more severe level of potential punishments involved if a driver were to actually hit a child in a school zone. And, again, there is a lot of discretion because each situation may justify a less or more severe punishment. Was the driver following the laws and still a child got hit? Was the driver speeding and by how much? Had the driver been given multiple warnings and tickets for speeding through school zones in the past? What were the road conditions? Was the driver distracted using their phone or other device? How old and experienced was the driver? Was the driver breaking other laws directly or indirectly related to driving and/or speeding? For example, driving without a license, driving drunk, etc.

(I'm not sure how much of a fine it would take to get every driver to obey the speed limit in school zones. That might be anyone's guess, and it might not be possible no matter how large the fine.)

Well, in any case, for residents in Sugar City, we would like to think a simple reminder not to push snow into the streets is enough. And when reminding residents, we probably don't need to make the lettering bold and red and underlined in the city newsletter, as that may come across a bit threatening or insulting.

Finally, let me say that our city crew does a good job with our streets in the winter. It's not an easy task outsmarting Mother Nature and keeping the roads relatively clear and open.

Enjoy the season. (Shoveling snow saves me from paying for a gym membership in the winter, so I don't mind too much!)

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