The priority list for cops in Fife looks something like this: robberies, prostitution, car crashes … and somewhere down the list, riding lawn mowers.
When parks workers want to cut the grass in Dacca Park, they can’t just drive the mower a few blocks from the maintenance building.
They have to load it up on a trailer, or they have to arrange a police escort, as if they were riding their Skag zero-turn-radius mower in a state funeral.
That’s the law.
“That’s really dumb,” says Rep. Joyce McDonald, R-Puyallup.
At the urging of Fife leaders, McDonald wants to change it.
Her bill would exempt park maintenance equipment from licensing requirements. That way, workers could move their riding mowers without the flashing lights of Fife police.
Assistant city manager Jim Reinbold, who contacted McDonald about the problem, said it’s ridiculous to have police escorting the city’s riding mower, tractor or Bobcat skid-steer loader.
“It just doesn’t make sense to be calling them out,” Reinbold said. “They’ve got more important things to do.”
In the pantheon of dumb laws, this one might not rank as one of the dumbest. Top honors might go to the no-fishing-in-your-pajamas law in Chicago. Or the ban on bear wrestling matches in Alabama.
But it’s dumb enough to annoy Fife.
The law dates to 1929 and applies to all Washington cities, though it’s unknown whether anyone else has bothered to follow it. Fife is the only city to complain.
It takes a cut out of workers’ time and productivity. Say, 10 minutes each time a worker has to load or unload a mower or tractor from a city trailer, said Kurt Reuter, director of parks, recreation and community services. That’s 40 minutes round-trip.
Two years ago, parks workers tried driving a John Deere utility vehicle on city streets, but Fife police warned it was illegal, Reuter said. It’s a gross misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail and a minimum fine of $529.
Reinbold said the city is concerned about safety and liability in the event of a mower-car crash. Even if the law is changed, the city would use parks vehicles as escorts for safety, he said.
After the police warning, parks workers started asking for escorts — three or four times a week in the spring and summer, Reuter said.
Police responded when they could, using their amber lights, Reinbold said. Other times, they were too busy handling emergencies. Parks workers twiddled their thumbs waiting for a cruiser.
“It’s a low priority” for police, Reuter said. “We certainly understood where we were on the pecking order.”
For the past year, the city has used licensed trailers to move its equipment to nearby parks. It’s a needless step in a compact, 4-square-mile city with six parks and a fast-growing population of 7,180.
Workers could easily ride a mower or tractor to Dacca Park and Wedge Park from where they’re stored, Reuter said.
A hearing on the proposed exemption, co-sponsored by Rep. Dennis Flannigan, D-Tacoma, is scheduled Monday in Olympia. Fife leaders plan to show up in force.
McDonald said the intent of the law — keeping unlicensed vehicles off the street — is good. But when it comes to park maintenance, it’s impractical.
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