MUKILTEO – Tim Eyman is marching forward with his plans to force a public vote before the city can use cameras to catch red-light runners and speeders.
Eyman is collecting signatures for an initiative to put the issue to a public vote even though the City Council on Monday put the brakes on its immediate plans for red-light and school speed-zone cameras along the Mukilteo Speedway.
The city will review nontraffic-camera options first, council President Randy Lord said.
“I believe there may be ways to resolve these problems without turning into another Lynnwood,” he told fellow council members Monday, referring to the neighboring city that uses red-light and school-zone cameras.
Eyman said he was pleased the council is holding off on the cameras.
Still, he said he wants a public vote.
A “yes” vote on his initiative would force the city to ask the public’s permission any time it wants to add red-light or speed-zone cameras. It also would reduce the infraction to the least expensive parking fine, which is $20.
“We want to do an initiative that doesn’t just take care of today, it takes care of the future too,” Eyman said. “Now, the red-light cameras are taken care of. What happens in the future if they decide, you know what, we’ve changed our minds, we want to put up traffic cameras?”
Eyman began collecting petition signatures last month for an initiative he hopes to get on the Nov. 2 ballot. His initial efforts were short 407 valid signatures, according Snohomish County elections manager Garth Fell. Eyman has until June 28 to collect the required 1,793 signatures.
The county must certify the petitions before the initiative can go to voters. Then Mukilteo’s council has three options. It can vote to put the initiative to a public vote, adopt the initiative as city law or take no action.
Eyman has set a Friday deadline for volunteers to finish collecting signatures.
“We think that if we do the 40-a-day goal we have, Friday is very doable for us,” Eyman said Tuesday.
At the Mukilteo Lodge Sports Grill, 7928 Mukilteo Speedway, customers have been signing petitions since May, co-owner Shawn Roten said.
“Everyone I talked to, they couldn’t wait to sign it,” Roten said.
Councilwoman Linda Grafer is one of three council members who voted in favor of the plan last month.
She said she’s happy the council decided to take more time to review options to hiring Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions to install and operate the cameras.
Still, she said she’s torn on whether she’ll support putting Eyman’s initiative to a public vote.
She said her first priority as a council member is to uphold the law.
“For me, when I see people running red lights and endangering children on our streets, it bothers me a great deal,” she said. “If we could afford to have a policeman on every corner, we would but we can’t.”
Councilman Kevin Stoltz said Tuesday he’s leaning toward allowing a vote.
“What I hope happens is that if they have the right number of signatures we’ll just vote to put it on the ballot,” he said.
Oscar Halpert: 425-339-3429; ohalpert@heraldnet.com.
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