To the Editor:
Here we go again. A little background. I was one of the original group of around 8 individuals that collected signatures to force a binding vote on cameras. As it turned out, the City of Monroe refused to even allow a vote on camera use and spent several hundred thousand dollars in court costs. Ultimately the city prevailed.
Sometime later, the city spent even more money running two advisory votes on camera use. Both were voted down by around a 2-to-1 margin.
Fast forward to today. The current mayor and several other high-placed city employees have told me that now the residents of Monroe have seen the light and enthusiastically endorse red light and speed cameras. Sound familiar to what I was told around a decade or so ago?
So now, instead of having an advisory vote of the citizens on red light and speed camera use as required by Monroe statutes, the city is poised to vote to eliminate the advisory vote requirement. Why, you might ask? What are our local politicians afraid of? A wildly popular vote in their favor? No. The City Council and Mayor want to paint the illusion that cameras are now wildly popular and simultaneously beat their chests and say that an advisory vote is a waste of money.
Don’t let these fast talkers get away with this. Call the council and demand a vote. Show up at Council meetings and demand accountability.
Brian Kohn
Monroe area
(Editor's note: The council voted 5-2 to eliminate the advisory vote requirement on cameras. See Oct. 30 Tribune, page 6.)
