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Mission homeowner fined $5,200 for growing cucumbers

Citizens planning class-action suit over municipal grow-op
inspections

By Sam Cooper, The Province January 10, 2011

Story

Photos ( 1 )

Len Gratto on his property in Mission on Saturday, January
08, 2011. Len Gratto is ready to join an "imminent class action" law suit
against Mission, for hitting him with a 5,200 grow op inspection fee. The 67
year old says he and his wife were growing cucumbers in the basement, he never
grew pot, and he and many other Mission residents are being unfairly searched
and fined.

Photograph by: Les Bazso, PNG

There’s no way Len Gratto is paying a $5,200 fine to Mission city hall for
growing cucumbers in his basement.

Gratto — a 67-year-old who has lived for 30 years with his wife in their
Mission home — says he’s raring to join an imminent class-action lawsuit
attacking the municipality’s grow-op bylaw inspections.

A number of citizens, led by Mission man Stacy Gowanlock, will allege their
homes were illegally searched for pot grow-ops and they were slapped with fees
and repair orders costing upward of $10,000 — all on questionable evidence.

Gratto says he’s never grown pot, but “laughable” evidence against him
consists of pictures of some “dirt” on the basement wall and “a furnace pipe
going up into the chimney, where it should be.”

“It’s upsetting they can do this,” Gratto said. “We were growing cucumbers in
the basement because they wouldn’t take outside.”

Gowanlock said he was searched in 2009 and hit with thousands in fees and
repair orders despite never growing pot in his home. A lawyer could be filing
his civil suit within days, he said.

“I’m going to be the one that steps forward,” he said. “It’s the whole
process. You’re violating people’s rights.”

And in a move that could potentially alter the landscape of drug enforcement
in B.C., the B.C. Civil Liberties Association says it will join the battle
against Mission but widen the focus into a region-wide challenge to “home
grow-op bylaws.”

Grow-op bylaw programs, which are based on provincial legislation, allow
municipal inspectors to enter homes with abnormally high hydro usage — about 93
kilowatts per day or more — and look for evidence of illegal marijuana grow-ops
for public safety reasons. Inspectors don’t have to find grow-ops, but if they
find supposed residual evidence, such as high mould readings, they levy search
fees and order repairs. If homeowners don’t comply, homes are tagged under the
bylaw and effectively condemned as unsafe, and unsellable.

According to proponents, the bylaws have been phenomenally successful in
driving pot production out of the Lower Mainland.

In mid-December, the BCCLA’s Micheal Vonn led a delegation to Mission’s
council, warning grounds for a class-action suit are strong, and searches are
“putting innocent people under horrible duress.”

David Eby of the BCCLA says council was not receptive and has not responded.
Even if the promised citizen-led action against Mission fell apart, the BCCLA
would then likely initiate its own case.

“Our concern is the program is very poorly run, and there is no due process
around these massive fines,” Eby said.

Mission chief administrative officer Glen Robertson said he would not comment
on the allegations or threat of litigation.

Documents released to The Province under freedom of information law show
Mission has drawn $1.43 million in revenue from Public Safety Inspection Team
searches since 2008. From 2008 to 2010, there were 362 searches. In 177 cases,
residents were found in contravention of the bylaw. Additionally, there were 98
RCMP grow-op inspections.

Including both RCMP and PSIT searches, inspection fees of $5,200 were levied
275 times. Mission says its inspection program is revenue neutral, and paid back
its startup costs by Dec. 31, 2009. Fees include funding for the RCMP, who
monitor searches from the sidelines.

Critics such as Gowanlock claim Mission’s inspection funding scheme amounts
to a “cash grab.”

Coun. Jenny Stevens says she initially supported the program, but now
believes about half of homeowners inspected are innocent.

“My biggest worry is about 50 per cent of these people were subjected to
embarrassment and innuendo,” she said. “I’m very concerned about the threat of
litigation . . .”

Mission Mayor James Atebe was unavailable for comment but told The Province
in a report on this subject last November that he strongly supported the
inspection program but was willing to improve it.

“I don’t want to lose the tool because it’s imperfect,” Atebe said. “Also, I
don’t want to keep the tool if it’s encroaching on people’s rights.”

Another current class-action suit against municipal grow-op bylaws is
unfolding in Coquitlam.

One of the litigants, Drew Smith, told The Province he is innocent, and his
story is almost identical to the complaints made in Mission. His home was
searched, no grow-op evidence was found, fees and repair orders were levied and
an allegedly innocent person suffered a damaged reputation.

“I had to get sedatives because I couldn’t sleep at night with the stress and
embarrassment in the neighbourhood,” Smith said.

“Financially, I don’t care if I get a dime [in the Coquitlam class-action
suit],” he said. “I told my lawyer I don’t want to sue anyone but this is not a
just process, and it has to stop.”

[email-masked]

© Copyright (c) The Province

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Related Stories from Around the Web

B.C. homeowner fined $5,200
for growing cucumbers, plans suit

Edmonton Journal,
Canada

Monday, January 10,
2011

Len Gratto on his property in Mission on Saturday,
January 08, 2011. Len Gratto is ready to join an "imminent class action" law
suit against Mission, for hitting him with a 5,200 grow op inspection fee. The
67 year old says he and his wife were growing cucumbers in the basement, he
never grew pot, and he and many other Mission residents are being unfairly
searched and fined.

Photograph by: Les Bazso, PNG

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