Snowed By Sanitation

When Susie Kim of Staten Island woke up to almost a foot of snow last Monday, March 2nd, she immediately got to work shovelling her sideway. It took her an hour and a half to do finish amd then she headed to her 12-hour shift as a nurse. When she came home to a ticket from the Department of Sanitation, for not having her sidewalk cleared, she called Help Me Howard.

Being a nurse, Susie knows what could happen if somebody got hurt. "I start at 5:30AM," said Mrs. Kim, "It's almost taking one and a half hours to finish that, my steps and my sidewalk, everything, then after this I go to work."

Work is at nearby Staten Island Hospital where she volunteered to be on duty that day knowing she'd be able to get in because she can walk there. Everybody else was facing commuting in the snow.

And did we mention this was for a 12-hour shift? She works from 7:00AM 'til 7:00PM.

"Next day also," said Mrs. Kim, "Same shift, 12 hours, 7:00AM to 7:00PM and I come home and my son says, Ma, you got a ticket and I say, what do you mean I got a ticket?"

Her son, Eugene, had seen it slapped on their front door. "I went outside," he said, "and I looked at the sidewalk to see if what the ticket said was true, saying that it wasn't shovelled, or sanded or salted and I saw that there was some snow on the sidewalk.

"The wind blew back on it," explained Mrs. Kim, "but it's not my fault with the wind, I cannot shovel when I'm working..and then I got the ticket."

Her son can't shovel after recent back surgery but he did go out and take pictures, proof his Mom had shovelled. "It shows a little bit of snow and ice but that's expected after shovelling the sidewalk so early in the morning, my poor mother," said Eugene.

And the ticket's expensive..it's a 100 dollar fine.

"A 100 dollars, it's hard to make money," offered Mrs. Kim, "a hundred dollars and I also think it's not fair, I look at the ticket, on the back and the hearing date they gave me is April 8th. That week the court is not even open so here I am I have to take a day off that day, go to the city or Brooklyn or Queens for me to go to court. Help Me Howard!"

We asked the Santitation Department about it and got nowhere. Sanitation Department spokesman Matt Lipani tells us,

"The Department of Sanitation does not adjudicate its own tickets nor are we allowed to void our own summonses. Whatever evidence to the contrary the respondent has, they must go before the Environmental Control Board to plead their case."

Mrs. Kim must call the Environmental Control Board to get her court date changed if she plans to fight her ticket in person in her own borough OR she can MAIL IN proof. Her proof is her photos, and a letter from her neighbor who shovelled along with her. She should enclose a detailed explanation too.

The ECB assures us that disputing the ticket by mail will get her just as strong a hearing as going before a judge.

Quite a hassle for a hard working New Yorker doing everything right.