Citizen digitalKaren Rolls through the Grass-Roots

I became part of a grass-roots campaign today when I signed a petition to stop the city of Scottsdale from paying for the installation of photo radar on the State Highway Loop 101 which runs through our city. It was only a month or two ago when I heard about this plan by Mayor Manross and her cronies to stop people from speeding on the freeway.

I opposed this move by the city and e-mailed the city council and mayor requesting them to not go through with this plan. The reasons why I oppose this plan are:

• This is a state-owned highway and is the responsibility of the State of Arizona not the City of Scottsdale.
• We’ll be spending nearly $700,000 to install photo radar and yet there is no guarantee that we will recoup any of the money through speeding tickets because the state could decide that they are the ones who should receive that money.
• Photo radar on a highway has not been done anywhere else in the country and the city would be liable for any lawsuits that arise because of flashes of light that hit drivers in the eye and cause an accident.

Obviously I don’t carry much weight with the city council or the mayor because they ignored my request along with a number of outspoken citizens who came to the city Council meeting on October 25. After hearing only one person in favor of the proposal and many people speak against it, the council voted 5 to 2 in favor of proceeding with the plan to spend nearly $700,000 to put photo radar on a section of a state-owned freeway that runs through our city. From what I understand, the section of the freeway that is the most dangerous (traffic fatalities) is not the section where they will put the photo radar. So much for what they said about trying to protect us!

When I signed the petition asking the council to put the decision of the photo radar to the vote of the citizens, I learned of an interesting web site www.ScottsdaleActivist.com. I’m glad to find out that such a web site exists so that I can learn more about what’s going on to fight City Hall! After reading this web site I discovered a few other reasons to oppose the city paying for photo radar on our freeway.

• The most dangerous portion of the Loop 101 is between the Route 202 and 90th St and that portion of the freeway will not and cannot be controlled by the photo radar system.
• Photo radar tickets are mailed to owners of the vehicle, not necessarily the driver, and they are not required to be paid unless they are served in person within 120 days of the ticket being issued. Since most of the people who drive our freeways during the winter season are snowbirds from out-of-state it is unlikely that the state will put money into serving tickets to out-of-state drivers. Thus residents of Arizona will be unfairly discriminated against simply because they can be served a ticket during the 120 day time limit.
• Citizens of Scottsdale will have to pay Redflex (the company installing the photo radar) if there are not enough fines collected from tickets to cover their costs. That can mean as high as $22 million coming out of taxpayer’s pockets.
• The state of Arizona owns this highway and yet they will not be putting any of the costs of installing the photo radar nor will there be any personnel costs accrued by them on the project.

If you live in Scottsdale please sign the petition so that this issue can be put on the ballot in March for the citizens of Scottsdale to decide. You can find out where the petitions are at the Scottsdale Activist web site.