BELLINGHAM - City Council member Seth Fleetwood didn't just vote against allowing traffic-enforcement cameras, he signed a petition for a local initiative restricting them.
So did the candidate challenging him, Larry Farr, who says he opposes the red-light cameras and school-zone speed cameras.
Their names were among thousands on petitions for the anti-camera initiative, which is on the Nov. 8 general election ballot in Bellingham. The 6,775 names on the petitions were released to The Bellingham Herald by the Whatcom County Auditor's Office and the city of Bellingham. The Herald filed public disclosure requests seeking them.
To see lists of the names, read the links below.
Other signers who are candidates for Bellingham and Whatcom County seats this fall: Kelli Linville, who is running for mayor against incumbent Dan Pike, and Steve Harris, who is running for sheriff against incumbent Bill Elfo.
A state court of appeals has ruled that the anti-camera measure doesn't hold the force of law but can remain on the ballot, making it essentially an advisory vote. Camera opponents have appealed to the state Supreme Court.
The initiative, backed by the group Transportation Safety Coalition, asks voters if they want to remove any cameras that have been installed and require council and voter approval before re-installing any of them. It also asks them if they want to limit the fines imposed under the camera program.
Bellingham has signed a contract with an Arizona company for four red-light and two school-zone cameras, but they haven't been installed yet.
SIGNATURES RELEASED
The initiative signatures were collected by volunteers from the community, including students, business people and others from all political parties. No professional gatherers were involved, according to a statement from Transportation Safety Coalition.
At the time, some signers who asked were told that their names wouldn't be shared or sold by the coalition. The coalition's statement says it kept that promise.
Under state public records law, the coalition can't prevent the signatures from being released by local governments.
In a June 2010 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court said that, in general, disclosing names of signers does not violate their First Amendment rights. The case involved signatures for Washington's Referendum 71, which sought to overturn the state's Everything But Marriage law. Voters rejected R-71, thus upholding the law. Backers of R-71 sued to prevent the state from releasing names of signers.
Before the decision, the state had been releasing signatures for state initiatives because it is required under state records law, said Anne Egeler, deputy solicitor general for the Attorney General's Office. The decision confirmed they're releasable. The decision also applied to local governments, which release records under state records law, she said.
Locally, the Whatcom County Auditor's Office since 2005 has had a legal opinion stating they're releasable, but it hasn't been an issue because it doesn't appear anybody has requested them, said Debbie Adelstein, chief deputy auditor.
"All of our election records, with the exception of a few minor things, are public record," said Pete Griffin, elections supervisor at the county.
Bellingham Assistant City Attorney James Erb, who coordinates public disclosure requests, said he didn't consider the U.S. Supreme Court decision when responding to The Herald's request. If state law doesn't provide an exemption, then the records must be released, he said, and he doesn't know of any applicable exemption.
Griffin said there's no legal requirement that petitions state the pages are subject to release under public records law. But requiring that disclosure language might be a good idea, he said.
Auditor Shirley Forslof said that signing a petition is proposing a law.
"Instead of the Legislature, it's the citizens that are proposing a law," she said.
She thinks the state may want to get involved and require disclosure language.
SEE THE SIGNATURES
To see the names on the anti-traffic camera petitions, click on the links below.
The Auditor's Office provided an Excel spreadsheet with names it processed. It is searchable. The office stopped processing names once it reached the required minimum of valid signatures, plus a few extra, to qualify the initiative for the ballot.
The remaining signatures were provided on copies of the original petition forms by the city of Bellingham.
• Excel database with the majority of signatures, released by the Whatcom
County Auditor's Office.
• Copies of some of the signatures on the anti-traffic camera initiative
released by the city of Bellingham (PDF file).
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