A few months ago, the Town of Sylva passed an ordinance to prevent business owners and employees from parking on two main streets. Those who disobeyed were given $50 tickets. Dodie Allen, a candidate for state house, got one of the tickets on her campaign van and turned the situation into a publicity stunt. Researching Allen’s claims, Steve Gray, owner of the Sylva Herald, discovered the very language for which the ordinance was written had inadvertently fallen by the wayside in a crockpot of legalese. To make matters worse, the town commissioners spoke in politically-correct gobbledygook, avoiding identifying nouns, when they had to officially set a public hearing date for a revised ordinance. To make matters better, Town Attorney Eric Ridenour offered to pay all tickets issued without the law out of his own pocket.
My compliments to Quintin Ellison for another fine article.
