|
Dave Capps
Different Strokes
| |
01/13/06 Red-Light
Cameras are Great! Towing Uninsured Drivers will be Better!
The council is willing to install cameras at
intersections to catch dangerous morons who kill people with their egos and
stupidity. The council is considering towing cars driven by uninsured
motorists who ought to be arrested on the spot. The council has the City
Attorney studying whether dead beats can serve on boards and commissions.
 |
|
It's
interesting that the council seems to be on the same track for red-light
cameras when they are split on towing cars of uninsured motorists.
Both are important tools for controlling problem drivers.
|
If you have a spread of 1000
acres or so with private roads running through it, it might be OK to drive a
vehicle at any speed with or without a car insurance -- so long as you don't hit
someone while you have some flashback to your teens. When you drive
on public streets, you are exercising a privilege the COMMUNITY has granted you
provided you follow the restrictions of that privilege -- like stopping at stop
signs and red lights and driving with car insurance in force.
 |
Red-light cameras in Dallas a go;
Devices' use on rise across country; foes cite drivers'
rights
Thursday,
January 12, 2006 by
EMILY RAMSHAW / The Dallas Morning News |
... Five years and four legislative sessions after
first considering cameras to catch red-light runners, the Dallas City
Council is giving the program the green light.
Council members will meet next week
to authorize bidding for the cameras, which ? although the subject of
numerous lawsuits ? have been installed at crossroads across the country.
They could start recording Dallas' traffic infractions as early as August.
... Locally, Frisco, Plano and Richardson are
debuting red-light cameras. Denton and Rowlett have plans for them.
Garland ? which in 2001 became the
first city in Texas to use them ? has reported a 21 percent decrease in
red-light violations since installing the cameras. Houston's trial run began
in November.
Dallas' red-light cameras will work
like this: A private company will install them at intersections selected by
the city, at no cost to the city. The cameras
will collect images of vehicles that run red lights. Civil citations will be
sent by mail to the registered owner of the vehicle. The camera company will
get a portion of each $75 fine.
The cameras have incited outrage and
legal challenges from groups such as the American
Civil Liberties Union, which contend that they violate due process
... In Florida, the state attorney general
ruled against them. In Virginia, the state General Assembly ended the
program after several years.
... Chicago, San Francisco and Washington, D.C.,
all use cameras at their intersections. So do Minneapolis, Toledo
... When Dallas City Council members first
discussed installing red-light cameras in 1999, the city attorney's office
cautioned against it,
... By 2001, red-light cameras were the city's top
legislative priority. ... The bill died.
... At the end of the 2003 legislative session, a
provision appeared on a state transportation bill that seemed to open the
door for the red-light cameras. Garland and a few other Texas cities
interpreted the provision as a loophole and moved forward with plans to
install them.
... But the Dallas city attorney's office still
wasn't on board. It warned the council that of all the cities considering
the cameras, Dallas had the deepest pockets ? and therefore was most likely
to be sued in a class-action suit.
... In the 2005 legislative session, a state
representative introduced a repeal bill intended to close the loophole and
ban red-light cameras. His effort failed.
... Mayor Laura Miller said she is thrilled that
the city is proceeding with plans to install the cameras.
... Once the council authorizes the city staff to
seek bids for the cameras, City Manager Mary Suhm will start determining
which intersections to target. The Police Department is on board too, Chief
David Kunkle said.
... "We think red-light cameras would enhance
public safety."
... police Capt. Jack Bragg said one red-light
grant that the Police Department received last year from the Texas
Department of Transportation resulted in 10,387 tickets at hazardous
intersections. ... |
| |
| I'm thrilled the council is
doing this, but I still cannot understand the opposition to towing cars driven
by uninsured motorists. Did you notice that ace reporter Ramshaw did not
quote Dr. Elba (I'm only a dentist) Garcia about red-light cameras? Dr.
Garcia was very vocal against towing cars of criminal drivers. Hopefully,
she has come to her senses since that outburst. She is normally sensible,
except when Ray Hunt wants the council to give him more of our money (or at
least not pay his share of property taxes). |
|
|
John Willis:
After talking with various sitting and former Garland
council members and attending a few council work
sessions and meetings, it is clear state
legislators bluntly told the council members they
don't like red-light cameras and threaten to take
the revenue generated by those systems away from
municipalities.
It is unclear if there are enough votes in the legislature
to pass such a measure, but it is a real
possibility. That's why using revenue
from these systems for any ongoing expense is
foolish as the funding is far from certain.
Don't underestimate the ability of
the Texas legislature to make poor decisions. |
|
Channel 11's Sarah Dodd broke the story last week that several members of city
boards and commissions owe back property taxes or code enforcement fines or
unpaid traffic tickets. (See
Sarah Dodd).
The monies were owed when the deadbeats were appointed to their respective board
or commission. The City Charter prohibits serving on city boards or
commissions when you owe the city money. That was bad enough, but Dodd
also reported the City Secretary had arbitrarily decided the deadbeats were
eligible to serve if they set up payment plans, which several of them have not
honored (as in not made the agreed payments).
Councilman Salazar appointed me to the Board of Adjustment (BOA), and
DallasArena.com readers may be assured that my taxes are paid, I have no code
enforcement fines and no outstanding traffic tickets.
Just before Christmas, Jim Schutze wrote a really heart-breaking story about the
BOA terminating the grandfathered land use of a mobile home court near White
Rock Lake. (See
Board of Scrooges.)
At least one member of that BOA panel is on Dodd's list of deadbeats. Can
you imagine the nerve of a deadbeat voting to turn people out of their homes?
Why does the council need the City Attorney to tell them that a procedure made
up by the City Secretary overrides the clear language of the City Charter?
Board
appointees must
not be in arrears on any
city taxes, water service charges, or other obligations owed the city.
Pretty clear to me. Not surprisingly, the FBI's favorite target Don Hill
thinks it's OK for deadbeats to serve on city boards and commissions. He
certainly demonstrated that by appointing D'Angelo Lee to the Plan Commission
and then refusing to remove him when all the scandal broke.
Councilman Fantroy told Sarah Dodd "we need to set the example". I was
really proud of him for taking that stand. How in the world can we expect
citizens to pay their taxes and other municipal obligations if elected and
appointed officials at City Hall do not?
Letting deadbeats serve on city boards makes as much sense as practically giving
Southwest Airlines free landing privileges at Love Field, only to have them come
back and stab us in the back so they can expand their monopoly.
 |
|
Southwest has been crowing over successive
profitable years when other lines were going under or operating at a loss.
It turns out Dallas taxpayers have been subsidizing Herb Kelleher, while
Love Field was going broke in the process. Of course, there's that
Dallas precedent of subsidizing billionaires when we can't afford to staff
our Police Department. |
I don't know if he's still a
major stockholder, but that Son of a Bigamist Ray Hunt was one of the original
investors in Southwest Airlines. It's pretty weird how everything is so
connected in this town. Wherever there's a chance to stick it to honest
Dallas taxpayers (homeowners and business owners), you can bet Ray Hunt is in
the mix for his cut.
All in all, we are starting 2006 on a better foot. The council recognizes
there's a problem at Love Field and Executive. We should shut them both
down and sell the land.
Dr. Bernard Weinstein has been saying for years that we would have more tax
revenue by closing Love Field and selling the land for development. That
would not set well with Our Downtown Betters (the ODB). They prefer for
you and me to subsidize their airports.
A very smart DallasArena.com reader says:
The fact that Love Field loses $10 million a year for the City is a pretty
strong argument for what Prof. Bernard Weinstein proposed years ago =
closing Love Field down and selling the land.
Since the City owns most of the hangers and all of the land, the only
property tax we get is off the personal property
stored there.
At almost 1,200 acres, it would be a windfall to the City, both in terms of
sales price and the property and sales tax that would result in an upscale
mixed used development. (1,200 acres
x 42,560 sq ft per acre x
$5 sq ft)
Dallas has provided SW with a subsidized base since Day 1. Still does.
Total up all tax revenues from those hangers, plus
what the City nets from operations = never more than zero = by law
any profit goes into reserves for bond service.
City gets next to nothing = the personal
property tax on the permanent fleet.
Compare that to the sales price of the land + property taxes and retail
taxes.
Dr. Weinstein figured this out years ago, when he advocated building a new
cargo airport out by Hutchins, but Perot beat the
City to it with Alliance.
Welcome to Chinatown. |
We know this council will let
Southwest off with as much as they can and still hit us with another property
tax increase. At least it's out in the open. We aren't getting raped
in the dark by a stranger. No, Herb Kelleher and his investors are doing
us right out in the open, in broad daylight with an audience.
Truth be told, it kills me that Kelleher and Southwest have gotten a free ride
for two decades and now they've stuck a fatal hole in the Wright Amendment.
I spent a lot of years attending meetings and doing all the stuff we thought
would protect neighborhoods near Love Field from the pollution and noise we
endured before DFW. Please don't tell me the new commercial planes are
S-O-O-O quiet.
There are many more people living in Oak Lawn and Uptown now than when Love
Field was full blast. A good number of the new people weren't out of
diapers then and have no idea of what's coming at them in their fancy high rises
and expensive apartments and condos. Oh, well!
Still, we have the council
agreeing to make Kelleher and Southwest share a pittance of their profits with
us, since we have been subsidizing them for so long. What you want to bet,
Kelleher asks for a tax abatement on the personal property taxes on his planes?
And gets it?
| And, the council has agreed to go with red-light cameras. If they would
designate the revenue from the cameras for new police hires (as James Northrup
has suggested), that would be even better. What you want to bet, they
figure out a way to give some or all of the red-light camera revenue to Ray Hunt
or Herb Kelleher? |
|
|
1/13/06 Stan
Aten:
There are problems with red-light
cameras.
Houston is
testing the system, and they
can only identify 1 in 5 license plates. The
city only gets a few dollars of the $75 charge. Another
example of privatizing police enforcement.
Also, several cities have spent a
fortune on lawsuits (San Diego & Washington D.C.) due to
faulty camera equipment, faulty traffic signals etc. |
|
| |
 |
|
Actually, it
doesn't matter to me if we make any money on the cameras. I just want
them to catch the red light runners. If the city council does the
right thing and decides to begin towing cars of uninsured motors, it might
be a much safer new year than we could have ever expected. |
We may not be getting all we
need from City Hall, but red-light cameras and confiscated illegally driven cars
is a start in the right direction for 2006.
sb
| |
|
