Nanaimo Coun. Gord Fuller will fight a $187 city fine.
“It was ludicrous,” said Fuller, who was slapped with a bylaw ticket two days after attending a protest in Colliery Dam Park. “It adds to the stupidity of this whole issue from the get go.”
Fuller is the second city councillor and among 13 ticketed by the City of Nanaimo for refusing to leave Colliery Dam Park when construction crews were scheduled to begin auxiliary spillway work Tuesday. Coun. Jim Kipp also received a ticket Tuesday.
Another four tickets are expected to be issued to those who were also on site, according to Randy Churchill, the city's manager of bylaw services, who says the city has has six months to lay a ticket for a summary conviction offense.
Fuller was “there protesting and in that exclusion zone and was subject to ticketing,” Churchill said, adding the city councillor had been approached for ticketing but Fuller got on the phone, got busy and turned away. The bylaw officer recorded that Fuller was contacted for ticketing and gave it to him two days later when Fuller showed up at the fence outside the Colliery Dam Park exclusion zone.
Fuller, however, said he left after a bylaw officer told him he'd be ticketed if he didn't leave and has a witness. He plans to fight the $187 ticket and has “no doubt” he'll win.