In an earlier post, I expressed my frustration with my local municipal licensing watchdogs.
Having had some time to think, I’m less angry, but am still shocked by their approach. Particularly, the non-diplomatic nature of it.
Immediately after receiving the complaint, I communicated with my city councillor, added a note to my web-site clearly stating that I don’t do paid work in Edmonton out of respect for the local pros, and removed an angry post from my flickr page. They backed down.
Some questions have surfaced that would be nice to have answered… did some local pro photographer complain, or do they have staff that are looking for these kinds of situations? If the city has staff that is watching, they sure didn’t do any “background” on this investigation. Coincidentally, in our neighborhood this winter, The City issued warnings to a number of neighbors on our block (including us) for failing to shovel the sidewalks. It’s the first time I’ve heard of this happening since we’ve lived here (about 15 years), and the neighbors in question (and we too) are pretty diligent about snow removal. Again, do they have people out looking for infractions, or did they receive a complaint.
I don’t even want to start on the road snow clearing issue… this city has failed miserably year after year to clear snow properly from our urban neighborhood’s streets.
So, either our city is trying to pad it’s wallet unfairly, or there are some fiendish rats lurking around.