Thank you to the Canton City Council members who stood up to Mayor Healy and Redflex. You refused to give in to Mayor Healy after he sold his soul to Redflex for the small price of $250. You did what elected officials are supposed to do, listen to those who elected you and vote for your constituents. Your constituents wanted you to vote against these red light cameras, and you made it know that you would. You stood up to the violations of due process that these red light cameras and Redflex bring.
Every member of Council that stated their intentions to vote against these red light camera ticket generating machines was a Democrat. I am a Republican, but you see I can give credit where credit is due. I will not be switching parties based on this issue, as it was also a Democrat that took political bribes to propose these cameras in the first place. Mary Cirelli deserves a special thank you, as she has been against these red light cameras and speed cameras since the first day they were mentioned.
Hopefully the mayor and council will not waste months of time again discussing this dead issue. If these cameras are ever installed, the petitions to remove them will be close behind, along with the petitions to remove any politician who votes for them.
Way to go Canton City Council!!! Thank you for doing what is right!!!
March 20th, 2009 at 4:30 am
I really don’t think that the $250 in donations had anything to do with Redflex being awarded the contract. The fact that the money was donated after the Mayor had won the election, makes it look more like a bribe, but it’s not. It’s completely legal.
Redflex is THE largest photo-enforcement company in the U.S. if not the world, and regardless of the numerous problems and legal challenges they face, I’m not surprised the City of Canton chose them.
The red light camera systems themselves are flawed, dangerous, and illegal.
The prospect of an almost unimaginable sum of money, STOLEN from motorists, is the main attraction for these types of schemes. If the money had rolled in, and the Mayor increased the police force and balanced the budget, he would have been hailed as Canton’s hero. By all those who never drive in Canton. But the expense of these dangerous taxation devices would be his undoing. Every person ticketed immediately becomes anti-camera, especially when they do even cursory research into the subject and find out that Ohio cities have been violating the law (not timing the lights with a full extra second of yellow).
Hopefully, any council person reelected, or winning a seat in the coming election will continue the opposition to the red light and speeding cameras. Healy himself has stated that he wants to try again to get these stupid things put in, once he can be sure he’s got the council stacked against the wishes of the citizens. The same citizens who will be vehemently opposed to him in his next election unless he somehow fixes all of Canton’s problems before voting day. I will remain vigilant and fully ready to help stop these cameras no matter when or where they threaten to crop up around here.