Last Night at the Mukilteo City council meeting the council discussed traffic cameras. The topic of traffic cameras was the last item on the docket, even though many people attended so they could speak against the cameras. When they finally got their turn to speak (2 hours later), only one person had anything favorable to say about the cameras. After the citizens spoke, Randy Lord, the council president, stated that they should have considered other options and they should have included the Transportation Committee in the review of the camera proposal before agreeing to install the cameras. And the council voted unanimously to rescind its decision to give the Mayor, Joe Marine, the authority to sign a contract with American Traffic Solutions (ATS). The cameras will NOT be going up in Mukilteo!
But this doesn’t stop the council from changing their minds later and going ahead with cameras, since as Randy Lord stated last night: “If we find that the polite Mukilteo approach doesn’t work, we will be a little more aggressive.” So that is why we are still going through with our initiative and the people will get to decide, whether they want Automatic Ticketing Machines, now or in the future. We think the over whelming response in petition signatures is a great indicator that the people do want to decide.
Here’s a great editorial that the Seattle Times just posted about this:
In Mukilteo and elsewhere, folks are taking the initiative to get traffic cameras out of their lives
Seattle Times editorial columnist Bruce Ramsey turns a skeptical eye on traffic cameras — in Mukilteo, in Arizona and everywhere.
By Bruce Ramsey
Seattle Times editorial columnistOn Monday night, Mukilteo reversed its decision to set up traffic cameras.
A number of cities around here have cameras, including Seattle, Bellevue and Tacoma. Mukilteo, however, has Tim Eyman, the state’s generalissimo of anti-tax initiatives — and to Eyman, using a camera to spit out traffic tickets is government “treating the citizens like an ATM.”
Joining with activists at BanCams.com and Campaign for Liberty, Eyman set out to convince 15 percent of registered voters to back Mukilteo Initiative 2. Their success in collecting signatures is why the Mukilteo council has canceled the cameras.
“All initiatives are lobbying,” Eyman says — and here is an instance of it.
If voters approve it in November, Initiative 2 will require a public vote before Mukilteo authorizes traffic cameras. Initiative 2 will also limit any traffic-camera tickets to the cost of the cheapest parking ticket. State law now limits them to the most-costly parking ticket… Read More
If you would like to watch the city council meeting you can do so here:
https://mukilteo-wa.granicus.com/MediaPlayer.php?view_id=2&clip_id=89
Start at 14:00 minutes to hear a couple minutes by Tim Eyman on the initiative process
Fast forward to 01:49:00 through 02:10:15 to listen to discussion on cameras by the City Council.
Start at 02:10:15 through 02:34:00 to listen to citizen testimony.
Start at 02:34:00 to listen to Randy Lord make the motion to rescind the contract with the red-light camera company. Discussion continues from there and ends at the 03:00:00 hour mark.
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