California, Washington: Residents To Vote On Banning Red Light Cameras

Residents of Mukilteo, Washington and Anaheim, California will vote this November on whether to ban red light cameras and speed cameras. Washington initiative guru Tim Eyman joined representatives from BanCams.com and the Campaign for Liberty yesterday in announcing that the required number of signatures had been collected to force an anti-camera initiative onto the next ballot. A total of 1909 signed in a matter of just two weeks.

“We’ve shattered the Mukilteo record on the fastest amount of time gathering signatures,” Eyman told TheNewspaper jokingly.

The city has had only one other successful initiative petition, but Eyman credits the speed of collection to the strength of Initiative Petition No. 2’s message, namely that voters should decide whether or not to ban automated enforcement ( view initiative). Eyman hopes to have the petition certified and brought before the city council in time for its next meeting on June 21.

Eyman pointed out that Councilman Kevin Stoltz provided the 1909th signature on the petition. Stoltz had been out of town when Mayor Joe Marine cast the deciding vote to enact a red light camera ordinance. Had Stoltz been present, the motion would have failed. Initiative organizers plan to continue going door-to-door to collect more signatures and educate the public about their measure.

No signatures were needed in Anaheim as Mayor Curt Pringle pushed a city charter amendment banning red light cameras onto the November 2 ballot with the unanimous support of his colleagues on Tuesday.

“Neither the city council, nor any officer or employee of the city when acting in his or her official capacity, shall take any action which would directly or indirectly result in the authorization, approval or installation of any red light camera or other automated traffic enforcement system in the city of Anaheim,” the proposed charter amendment states.

Anaheim has no red light cameras, but Pringle wants to make sure that no future city administration attempts to install them without public consent after he steps down at the end of the year.

“I believe many red light cameras that are placed around this county or around the state are done for the purpose of local government’s revenue collection as opposed to traffic safety,” Pringle explained in April.

While ten cities have enacted similar initiatives prohibiting automated ticketing machines, Anaheim’s would be the first placed on the ballot at the request of a city council. Once on the ballot, no photo enforcement program has ever survived a public vote. The full text of the Anaheim initiative is available in a 45k PDF file at the source link below.

Proposed amendment: Measure No. 1 – Red light cameras (City of Anaheim, California, 6/10/2010)

[Courtesy: Thenewspaper.com]