Councillors Dave Austin, Yvonne Harris, Mel Stehelin and Dave Stockdale aren't letting a little 'ole defeated motion stand in their way.

The four councillors have agreed to reimburse cyclists who were handed tickets on June 2 Clean Air Day for breaking the bicycle bylaw on Two Mile Hill.

The decision came after a 3-3 vote at the June 14 council meeting defeated Stockdale's motion that council reimburse the cyclists who pay their tickets through council's public relations fund.

Any tie vote is automatically defeated. Austin was absent from the meeting, with Stockdale, Harris and Stehelin voting in favour of reimbursing the tickets.

City manager Bill Newell said this morning Austin, Harris and Stockdale have instructed administration to reimburse ticket payers through each of their discretionary funds.

Stehelin also said in an interview this morning he will put part of his discretionary fund toward reimbursing the cyclists.

'I've been in favour of fixing the problem,' Stehelin point out.

Each councillor is allotted $300 per year to go toward a cause of their choice, Newell explained. Because they don't need the approval of council to spend the money, the issue didn't come forward for a vote.

For the annual Clean Air Day, the city encourages residents to reduce greenhouse gases by walking, cycling, using buses or other forms of transportation. The city also hosts a pancake breakfast at city hall for the event each year and offers free transit.

This year, after receiving complaints about cyclists using the sidewalk on Two Mile Hill, the bylaw department began a campaign to have cyclists comply with the bicycle bylaw. The enforcement campaign began June 2.

Stehelin noted that even the report which came to council on the matter states there was bad communication between city departments with the bylaw department not recognizing June 2 was Clean Air Day.

At previous council meetings, Stockdale has noted the bylaw department likely wouldn't have begun the enforcement on Clean Air Day had it realized what other city departments were doing.

The situation was a 'PR boondoggle', Stehelin said.

While reimbursing the tickets paid is a good start, cyclist Bengt Petterson, who was ticketed $15, believes the city should be rescinding the tickets.

'It certainly sounds like a nice gesture,' he said this morning of the four councillors reimbursing cyclists.

To him though, the issue isn't the $15-fine, but the principle of the matter.

'It was like an entrapment,' he said of riding his bike downtown on Clean Air Day only to find bylaw officers waiting to ticket him and other cyclists at the bottom of Two Mile Hill.

Until today, Petterson hadn't planned to pay his ticket. Now he's unsure what direction he'll take with it.

'I haven't had too much time to think about it,' he said.

Stehelin said the tickets, ranging from $10 to $25 for various transgressions, come to a total of $340.

Stockdale noted this afternoon that while a motion could have been brought back for reconsideration to council to reimburse the tickets from the public relations fund, this seemed to be a better way to get it done.

Bringing it back would have taken longer because of the time it takes to discuss a matter and take a second vote.

'I think this is a good solution,' he said, adding that it's seemed 'obvious' to him from the start that the tickets should be reimbursed.