—–Original Message—–
From: Pete Lewis [mailto:plewis@auburnwa.gov]
Sent: Friday, August 29, 2008 1:45 PM
To: Tim Eyman
Subject: RE: Eyman to red light camera cities: a formal request for information
The city of Auburn along with Lakewood was the original supporters of this life saving measure. We went to the state legislature with a particular focus in mind. We wanted to stop deaths and serious injuries caused by people running red lights. In addition we were concerned with the increasing speeds seen around our schools and our children’s safety.
Part of the new state law required us to put up a sign at every intersection with the Photo-safe device. When the legislation passed the City of Auburn put up a sign at every signal controlled intersection in the City of Auburn proudly proclaiming this was a photo safe community.
City Council was adamant that this was for the safety of our citizens and for that reason set the fines at the state minimum.
Since that date we have seen a forty percent reduction of accidents at photo-safe and school zone covered intersections.
Year to date 2008 there have been 7,062 citations issued. The system went live June 30,2006 and the total citations through the end of that year was 7,354. Citations for 2007 totaled 12,796.
Year to date 2008 receipts are $634,670 which includes $374,990 to the provider company for cost of continuing the service, $30,250 for costs of additional court staff, $23,896 for additional judge(s), $31,249 for additional legal department and $6639 for additional officer time,
$58,378 for additional administrative work leaving a net to the citizens of Auburn of $109,268.
That would mean an expected 2008 funds after costs of service would be approximately $165,000 actually available for use.
Last year the Auburn City Council approved moving all net red light enforcement funds for local traffic calming improvements. Fund balance at that time had not been appropriated for any other use and stood at $480,379.
In 2007 City Council approved neighborhood traffic calming projects totaling $131,217. Year to date Council has approved and we have completed $106,130 in local traffic calming projects and have two more pedestrian light projects to install before the end of the year for an additional $100,000 bringing the 2008 total to $206,130.
The draft 2009-2010 budget shows about $200,000 a year per year in local traffic calming projects from Photo-Safe including remaining fund balance.
There are no other sources of funds for local traffic calming in our cities.
There are no county funds.
There are no state funds.
There are no federal funds.
There are no other sources for neighborhood traffic calming at this time except in emergencies.
Removal of these funds from the local community will have a direct and immediate effect upon our neighborhoods and our citizens awaiting traffic calming improvements in their neighborhoods.
—–Original Message—–
From: Tim Eyman [mailto:tim@permanent-offense.org]
Sent: Wednesday, August 27, 2008 9:06 AM
To: ‘Tim Eyman’
Subject: Eyman to red light camera cities: a formal request for information
August 27, 2008
To: Mayors and City Council members for the cities with red light camera profit centers (Seattle, Puyallup, Lakewood, Lynnwood, Spokane, Aberdeen, Wenatchee, Bremerton, Vancouver, Lake Forest Park, Renton, Auburn, Sammamish, Lacey, Federal Way, Tacoma, SeaTac, Issaquah, Mountlake Terrace, Bellevue, Everett, Longview, Monroe, Moses Lake, and Burien)
A complete list of elected officials and their email addresses who were sent this email appear at the bottom
From: Tim Eyman, co-sponsor of Initiative 985, the “Reduce Traffic Congestion Initiative”
cc: All local and statewide media outlets (newspapers, radio, TV), house & senate members, Governor
RE: Eyman to red light camera cities: please identify how much money you’ll lose
Gregoire’s budget office was lazy when doing their fiscal analysis of
I-985 — they didn’t actually identify all the individual cities that have red-light-camera/speeding-camera programs nor did they contact each of you to determine how much money you’ll lose should voters approve I-985.
So please forward this formal request for information to the “budget people” for your city and have them calculate the expected revenue that’ll be deposited in the “Reduce Traffic Congestion Account” from your city’s red light camera/speeding-camera program should voters approve I-985 in November.
Initiatives become law 30 days after being approved by voters, so, should the voters approve I-985, the effective date for its policies is December 4th, 2008. So revenue that comes in after that date will not longer go into your city’s general fund. On that day, the profit motive for having these cameras stops.
Tell your budget analysts that the initiative text amends RCW 46.63.110 and adds the following sentence: “Revenue to be deposited into the county or city current expense fund from infractions issued under RCW 46.63.170 shall instead be dedicated to reducing traffic congestion and be deposited in the Reduce Traffic Congestion Account created in section 10 of this act.”
RCW 46.63.110 is a lengthy statute and it outlines the various governments and numerous government programs that receive a piece of those
$124 tickets. After all of them get paid off, there’s leftover revenue that, under current law (prior to December 4th), goes into your city’s general fund (the statute reads: “The balance of the revenue received by the county or city treasurer under this subsection must be deposited into the county or city current expense fund.”). Again, that leftover revenue, the profit, will instead go to a dedicated fund used to pay for I-985’s traffic congestion relief policies, including fully-funding cities’
traffic
light synchronization programs required by the measure (a key recommendation from Auditor Sonntag’s performance audit).
Please process this formal request for information with the appropriate budget department/budget agency in your city and ask them to respond as expeditiously as possible. We want voters to know, well in advance of the election, the accurate amount of revenue we’re talking about
here.
Regards, Tim Eyman, ph: 425-493-9127, email: tim_eyman@comcast.net
nice report
It would be great to see Renton provide a similar tally.
Re: nice report
Yes, I think we should. The program has only been in place for a few months, but we are getting some initial data back. I will encourage the staff to provide such a tally if they are not already planning it. I know Mayor Law shared some initial data with us a few weeks ago, so he is likely already looking into this.
Red light cameras also cause tail end collisions as folks slam on the brakes with the yellow light. I trust that is being tracked too, right?
If it were about safety, a marked police cruiser with lights on/flashing would also serve the purpose but with zero profit so no, it isn’t about safety, it’s about money.