Red Light Camera News Eyman: Longview's lawmakers are lawbreakers
http://tdn.com/news/opinion/article_84445796-8974-11e0-b56f-001cc4c03286.html
Eyman: Longview's lawmakers are lawbreakers
Commentary by Tim Eyman / For The Daily News The Daily News Online | Posted: Sunday, May 29, 2011 12:40 am |
Last Wednesday, the Longview Mayor and City Council went rogue.
Two days earlier, on Monday, longtime Longview residents Tim Sutinen, Josh Sutinen and Mike Wallin turned in a record number of voter signatures endorsing Longview Initiative No. 1. It's a proposed ballot measure which puts various limits on Longview's automatic ticketing cameras (red-light cameras and ticketing speed cameras). By law, the petitioners needed to collect 2,766 voter signatures and they found a whopping 3,628 Longview voters eager to sign on to getting this first-ever city initiative qualified for a public vote. They met and exceeded the required threshold.
State law mandates that the city transfer those petitions to the Cowlitz County auditor for signature verification. The Mayor and City Council refused.
Instead, they held an executive session which the public and press were prohibited from attending. For 30 minutes, in a back room all by themselves, they plotted how to block your right to vote.
When they came out for the public hearing portion to listen to regular citizens, their minds were already made up, the fix was in, and their pre-hatched scheme was unveiled. The Mayor and City Council voted to dismiss the initiative entirely and refused to process it.
That is totally illegal. On behalf of the 3,628 Longview citizens who signed petitions, Tim, Josh and Mike will initiate a lawsuit this Tuesday to force the city to follow the law.
The citizens of Longview cannot let the Mayor and City Council get away with such blatant lawlessness.
In 15 years of doing citizen initiatives, I've never seen anything like it.
This is no longer about ticketing cameras in Longview — it is about the people's fundamental right to initiative, their right to petition their government guaranteed by the First Amendment, their right to participate and vote and be heard. It is about whether the citizens of Longview are going to let the Mayor and City Council get away with flagrantly violating the law. If the people don't fight to protect Longview Initiative No. 1, the Mayor and City Council will assume everyone is OK with their betrayal.
Longview has had an initiative process in its city charter for 30 years. In all that time, no one has succeeded in collecting enough voter signatures to qualify a citywide initiative for the ballot. Tim, Josh, and Mike's initiative letting the people decide on automatic ticketing cameras is the first. And if the Mayor and City Council get away with squashing it, it will be the last.
The obstruction and lawlessness of Longview's Mayor and City Council can be explained very simply: they are protecting their millions of dollars of profits from ticketing cameras. It's all about the money.
By violating the law, they've forced Longview citizens to sue their own city government in order to secure rights that are supposed to be guaranteed. When push came to shove, the Mayor and City Council sided with an out-of-state, for-profit red-light camera company rather than the citizens who elected them.
In an effort to calm the masses and give themselves political cover during their re-election campaigns, the Mayor and City Council are "allowing" a vote but making it non-binding so they can ignore it. Worse still, their separate-but-equal advisory vote won't necessarily be on the policies specified in Initiative No. 1 that 3,628 citizens supported. Even when throwing crumbs to the peasants, the Mayor and City Council can't avoid cheating.
What the Mayor and City Council are doing is despicable — I urge voters to fire every single one of them in November. Because if they get re-elected, they'll believe they got away with it. And that would be a tragedy.
Make sure they pay a price for their arrogant disregard of the citizens of Longview.
Ballot inititiative activist Tim Eyman of Mukilteo has allied with Longview residents Tim Sutinen, Josh Sutinen and Michael Wallin in support of Longview Initiative No. 1. More information on their efforts is available by emailing This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or calling 360-270-5670.
Editor's note: Representatives of the city of Longview have been invited to submit a commentary on this issue. Should they choose to do so, it will be published on this page at the first opportunity.
Subscribe to this comment's feed
Articles Menu
Find Info
Latest Comments
Member Login
