Posted on 11/03/2010 11:23:21 PM PDT by smokingfrog
Although voters abolished Houston's red light camera system Tuesday, the 70 cameras have the green light to keep recording traffic violations for months as the city weighs a legal strategy for exiting its contract with the firm operating the cameras, city officials say.
Anti-camera activists slammed the delay Wednesday, insisting on immediately terminating the five-year contract — whatever the cost - with ATS, the Arizona firm that manages Houston's system. The May 2009 contract has a termination clause that requires the city to provide the company with a 120-day notice of cancellation, a period when the cameras will still be in full operation and civil fines issued, according to the city attorney.
"This issue is over, “ said attorney Paul Kubosh, who with brother Michael helped mount the successful campaign against the cameras. "This is not a legal issue, this is a political issue now. The voters don't care what the price of tea is in China. They don't care what the contract says. ... They want the cameras gone and just pay the damages.“
Paul Kubosh warned that City Council members who vote against immediately canceling the contract would be signing their "political death warrants“ and would face the ire of thousands of residents who receive tickets during the 120-day termination phase. He said if the termination clause in the existing contract is too expensive for the city to violate, those who made the bargain should be fired.
-- snip --
Houston City Attorney Dave Feldman said City Council must first canvass the vote by Nov. 15 to certify the accuracy of the Proposition 3 returns - which passed with 53 percent of the vote.
(Excerpt) Read more at chron.com ...
Break out some shotguns and go to town. Then start recalling some POS politicians!
An old tire, a quart of diesel, and a match.
A delegation just needs to go around town with a pellet gun, shooting out the camera lenses.
Seems to be just the latest example of local political bureaucrat types trying to usurp the will of local citizen voters. It’s also called being an arrogant politician who thinks voters don’t know what is good for them.
duct tape time
Looks like that needs a 20-gauge shotgun slug shot through it...
Nothing need be done.
The camera company gets paid when a fine is collected. After the first defendant declares the cameras to be illegal and the fines are the fruit of the poisoned tree, the fine will not be payable and the company will not get paid.
Once the people quit paying the company will leave.
70 cameras!
70 rounds of buckshot can fix the problem permanently.
Second, It's not the voters' fault. This contract was entered into without their approval, nor knowledge that it would be entered into. This was deceit by those in government. You cannot have due diligence when they do things like that.
Once the voters did know what was going on, they voted the cameras down. They did their part. Now it's time to break the contract that should not have been entered into without the voters' consent.
Houston ping
Culture of corruption in H-town PING
Culture of corruption in H-town PING
Instruct the police officers to not defend the tickets in court anymore.
This is a Bullstalin response. Then again Houston is police-state friendly. The chief of police issued a curfew on the citizens (extended beyond Mayor Bill White’s initial curfew) after Hurricane Ike even though he did not have the power to do so.
Bill White already did this when he cancelled the lease contracts on those who had booked the George R. Brown which he turned into lodging for Katrinicans. He said "I dare anyone to sue the city".
The deadly combination of “corrupt” and “stupid” continues at Houston City Hall.
The city fought the measure even being put to a public vote. Then they ran ads with bogus safety statistics.
Now they drag their heels.
City of Houston does not give a corrupt DemocRats donkey-ass what the public thinks. They also ran some ballot measure to compete with some other measure a few years back and Bill White claimed his measure superseded the public's measure.
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