Court of Appeals has denied a last-ditch attempt to block a public vote on an initiative

BELLINGHAM - The Washington Court of Appeals has denied a last-ditch attempt to block a public vote on an initiative sponsored by opponents of traffic enforcement cameras.
On Thursday, Sept. 8, a three-judge appeals panel rejected an emergency motion for reconsideration filed by an attorney for American Traffic Solutions Inc., without additional comments.
ATS attorney Vanessa Soriano Power had argued that since the court had already agreed with ATS that the anti-traffic camera initiative would not be legally binding on the city, the court should issue an injunction ordering Whatcom County officials to remove it from the November ballot.

But the appeals court declined to take that step in their original Tuesday, Sept. 6, ruling, and they did not change their minds on Thursday.
"We're disappointed in this order but overall pleased that the court has affirmed that the initiative is invalid," ATS spokesman Charles Territo said.

Also on Thursday, the City Council held a 15-minute closed session to discuss the legal situation. They emerged from that meeting to announce that they would follow the recommendation of City Attorney Joan Hoisington and continue to take no action in the lawsuit that ATS had filed to block the initiative.

Although the city was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, city attorneys stayed out of the case and let ATS attorneys battle Stephen Pidgeon, attorney for the Transportation Safety Coalition, the group that had launched the successful signature drive to get the initiative on the ballot.
On Tuesday, initiative backers said they were pleased that the public will get a chance to weigh in on the traffic camera issue. They believe that an overwhelming vote for the initiative - and against the cameras - will put pressure on the city to curtail their use.

At this point, the city appears to have a contractual obligation with ATS to operate the cameras for at least one year, but city officials could drop the arrangement after that.
Among other things, the contract would obligate Bellingham to pay Arizona-based American Traffic Solutions $4,750 per month for each traffic-enforcement camera, a total of about $342,000 per year for the six cameras envisioned, according to the contract the city signed on May 6, 2011.

Traffic ticket revenues from the cameras were expected to be well over that amount, and Mayor Dan Pike and a majority of council members initially contended that the deal with ATS would provide much-needed revenue for the city while improving traffic safety. Opponents argued, among other things, that motorist reaction to the cameras would cause more accidents, and the cameras would have no way of detecting who was driving an offending car. 0 && apregistry.story.credit.islocal=>0 -->
Reach JOHN STARK at 715-2274 or john.stark@bellinghamherald.com .
http://www.bellinghamherald.com/2011/09/08/2175815/final-effort-to-block-bellingham.html