Divided Beaconsfield council refunds vine lady

A divided audience watched as an equally divided new Beaconsfield council chose to partially refund Pointe Claire resident Claire Sargent on the approximately $2,000 fine she incurred after cutting some vine overgrowth at the Beaconsfield Lawn Bowling Club annex in 2006 at a council meeting yesterday night. "I don't think the way she was treated, and refunding her the money for anything but the cost of the plants, the planting of those pots, will send a message to anyone who wants to do damage that they can get away with it," said the city's new Mayor David Pollock, before council passed a resolution to go through with the measure despite some opposition.

Wade Staddon and Roy Baird, veteran councillors who had backed Pollock's predecessor Bob Benedetti for mayor on the Nov. 1 municipal election, both voted against the move. "I still think she deserved a fine and she deserved the cost of the damages," Staddon said, even as he admitted she was owed an apology for the previous administration's repeated delay in answering her multiple letters. Some in the audience clapped and egged him on and others booed.

Baird said he would have liked to see Sargent refunded about $1,000 instead of the $2,085 she will be getting back. "She cut down sixty feet," shouted local resident Derrick Pounds from the audience as council approved the motion. "The sign is no bigger than that," he said, pointing to a painting mounted on a wall behind the council members, in reference to a parking sign that Sargent said had been blocked off by the vine.

After Sargent was fined, she was told much of the amount would go toward replacing the vines, but that was not done as parts of the plant slowly began t grow on their own and she started sending council letters asking for her money back. The city only undertook any replacement once Sargent went to local media with her story.

Many of those in the audience who rose to speak against the measure Monday night were council candidates who had supported Benedetti's re-election campaign and lost.

Pierre Demers, who had run in District 6, recalled asking for a permit to cut down a tree on public property. "Why did I go to all that trouble?" He asked. "Why didn't I just cut down that tree? Take the chance of a fine, and if I do get fined, I'll get paid back, right?"

Former District 2 councillor Karen Messier, also a Benedetti supporter, criticized Pollock for announcing the refund to media prior to the resolution passing Monday night, since it was still unofficial.

However, Pollock defended his actions, stating his sense from caucus meetings was that the resolution would have been passed. "We wouldn't be having this discussion right now," Pollock said to the audience, if the vines had been replaced in a timely fashion rather than the work being delayed.

Some of the audience members who spoke for or against the measure had not been directly involved in the campaigns. "I think if the vine lady were not a very sweet, 70-year-old woman but a 15-year-old boy, we might not be making that apology and paying $2,000," said Lindsay Warden.

Renate Heidersdorf, another resident, defended the resolution. "She could have come at midnight, or at three o' clock in the morning. She did it during the day," she said, insisting it could hardly be called vandalism.

Cries such as "sore loser," "sit down," and even words that cannot be reproduced here from the audience showed a clear division in the room. Last night, the council also chose not to appeal a recent ruling by the Superior Court ordering them not to open up James-Shaw Street in Beaconsfield to allow traffic through Gérard Guindon in Kirkland.

The city had fought a legal battle against some James-Shaw residents who wanted to keep their cul-de-sac that is estimated to have cost taxpayers $400,000. "All these people complaining about $2,000? Where were they when Benedetti spent $400,000 fighting the lawsuit against us?" Asked one resident of the street, Moneeb Khalid, at the meeting.

Hela Labene, who had run for mayor against Pollock, showed up at the meeting as well, and asked to have the full legal costs of the battle publicized, which Pollock said he would look into.

In answer to a second question by Warden about possible pay cuts to the council and mayor's salaries following Pollock's vote against an unpopular 10 per cent raise in 2007, the mayor said it would be discussed at a caucus meeting. "We've only been sworn in for 14 days," he reminded the audience.

A possible tax hike due to agglomeration expenses was also briefly mentioned Monday night in the mayor's report on the city's financial state.

A budget consultation meeting with the public is scheduled for Dec. 7.