City Council Meeting 02/26/07

The Overland City Council Meeting scheduled for February 26th, 2007 at the Community Center was unable to take place due to a lack of a quorum. When I told a friend this I was asked "So was it 4 or 3 that didn't show up?". Actually, it was 2, Councilman Corcoran and Councilman O'Connell (i've not heard why). Though the meeting did not take place some interesting things did happen.

The Localite came out earlier that day and many residents in attendance were upset about some of the claims made several of the ads that appeared in it. In his ad (and later the letter he allegedly circulated in Ward 3 (thanks for posting that OVCC)) Councilman Owensby suggests that people who support the Recall are actually a "hate group". After the meeting ended one resident confronted Councilman Owensby on this, asking why he would say she was a member of a hate group. First he told her he did not, but when she pointed to his ad in the Localite and said she supports the recall of Mayor Purzner he said to her "then you are" and suggested she review her bible.

Councilman Owensby should consider following his own advice as there are some good lessons in there. There's the concept that we should treat our neighbors as we would want to be treated, and the idea that he who is without out sin should cast the first stone. There's a lot Councilman Owensby could learn from his bible.

Normally I don't report on incidents such as this. Unnamed sources and the like have never been my style. However, after seeing Councilman Knode's ad in the Localite where he claims his opponent Eedie Cuminale said something to "a resident" (unnamed of course), I assume this sort of thing is OK. After all, who am I to argue with a deacon about what is ethical or moral?

Towards the end of the evening Councilman Sellers announced that the traffic committee would be meeting the following night to discuss red light cameras and their possible use in Overland. Unfortunately, I was unable to attend that meeting so if anyone was there and can tell us more about please feel free let us know in the comments section at the bottom of this article.

I never gave much thought to red light cameras or other types of automated traffic enforcement. After my daughter was born I magically transformed into a seatbelt wearing, speedometer watching, model driver. However, after hearing some concerns from a friend I decided to look into the issue further. Here's what I've come across so far:

• The National Motorist Association has some info here.
• CBS did an interesting piece you can see here.
• They make mistakes, more mistakes and even more mistakes
  
• Studies suggest they increase accident rates.
• They can be abused.
• They are the subject of a numerous lawsuits.
• At least one class action suit succeeded against them.
  
• They are easily defeated.
• They even ticket police officers on emergency calls.
• They may be unconstitutional.
  

A casual search suggests that this would be a bad more by Overland, and would create a host of problems for the Residents and City Hall alike. The City, and the company seeking to bring their service into Overland will need to show how all of these various issues listed above are not a problem before we should seriously consider entering into a contract for this service. I would not like to see Overland stuck with the same legal bills and damage awards that the City of Steubenville, Ohio was hit with.