January 2004

The Town Council will take up the Red Light Camera issue on Monday. Half of the Council seems squarely and enthusiastically in the pocket of the company that runs the system, in fact they recently held a "forum" in which several of this company's lobbyists were given the Town's bully pulpit to advocate for their client/sponsor, ACS.

Fortunately, Council Member Mark Kleinschmidt has petitioned the Council to return to due process for red-light runners. And the Chapel Hill News weighs in with an editorial in favor of eliminating the program:

There are numerous problems with the concept — technological flaws, incursions on privacy, conflict with state public records law — but the basic issue stems from introducing commercial, for-profit enterprise into a basic governmental law-enforcement responsibility.

Hey all you civically engaged readers, here's a public service announcement for you. (Heads up, students.) There are a number of openings on Chapel Hill's advisory boards. I know the County is seeking someone who lives in the ETJ for the Chapel Hill Planning Board, as well a bunch of other positions on boards and commisions. Hillsborough lists their boards and you can see their recent agendas.

Of course Carrboro has openings as well. (Ooops, looks like their site is due for an update. It says "The Town of Carrboro is now accepting applications for its advisory boards for terms expiring in February 2003.") You can even help expand free wireless Internet access all over town!

Here is my recap of tonight's Council meeting. There were jillions of people speaking on Red Light Cameras (RLCs), mostly in favor, including the paid and volunteer lobbyists from the ACS family. Many Council members made a point of saying how glad they were to be able to discuss this heated issue in a reasonable way in the past few weeks. Then after about two hours of hearing citizens and making speeches, they voted in favor of Mark Kleinschmidt's petition to terminate the RLC contract!

I would like to present the following awards:

Most righteous indignation: Edith Wiggins (Red Light Cameras, agenda item # 7)
Runners-up: Dorothy Verkerk, Mark Kleinschmidt, Jim Ward (in that order) .

Why does Edith seem to feel that this issue is such a personal affront to her? She & Cam Hill didn't impress by reading from prepared statements. This let the citizens who took the time to contact them or to come to the meeting in the snow know that their input was not a part of their decision-making process. (Although that was actually the case for the entire Council anyway.)