As reported in this week’s paper, the town of Niagara-on-the-Lake was forced to backtrack on 134 wrongly issued tickets given out during Family Day weekend.

That’s the majority of the 187 tickets given to residents of Niagara on the Green during that weekend — 239 were given in total across NOTL.

It seems obvious that there is a problem here. A problem with bylaw enforcement being unaware of the town’s laws, and a problem with public education surrounding snow removal and parking restrictions.

Yet, our “trust the process” lord mayor Gary Zalepa took the opportunity to comment that since this is being corrected, it shows the “process is working.”

Uh, what? That’s a new one, even for a town that by now expects nonsensical statements from its part-time manager — who seems to be completely in his own lane, residents be damned.

“Hey, you know that totally unnecessary error we made? It really shows things are working, doesn’t it?”

Baffling.

Back in reality, it shows a need for the town to educate its bylaw staff, and to educate the public on how and when to park when snow plows are operating.

Perhaps a live interactive map showing exactly when parking prohibitions are in place would stop residents like Daniel St-Jean from cussing the town out?

It’s still not quite as baffling as the recent boxing matches Zalepa hosted between himself and residents, in which he essentially told people their opinions don’t really matter, callously joked about what “listening” means, and told others that if they didn’t like the job he was doing they should run for lord mayor.

While we normally applaud efforts to engage with residents, his execution left a lot to be desired.

To say his method of engaging residents is strange, is a vast understatement.

Maybe killing your goodwill in the community is somehow a positive to him, given that erroneous parking tickets indicate a healthy process?

It’s logic we don’t expect you to understand. Because we certainly don’t.

Maybe it’s the same logic that causes him to somehow imagine the majority of people agree with him on issues like the roundabout? (They overwhelmingly don’t).

We can call it “opposite logic,” in that it sounds false, and is false. But it makes Zalepa feel like a leader.

It’s about time for him to put that rhetoric aside and listen to the people.

editor@niagaranow.com