CHICO — For the most part, Chico City Council meetings have settled into a predictable rhythm recently. Councilors move through the agenda, be it brief or lengthy, at a brisk pace. Citizens, be they few or many, slip away over the course of the proceedings — most without addressing the council. The majority of votes are unanimous; split votes bring different combinations or dissenters.
Once in a while, a dramatic moment arises. Such was the case Tuesday night, in the midst of a lengthy list of items, when five councilors decided to pump the brakes on red-light cameras and the technology’s most vocal champion expressed his opposition pointedly.
Councilor Tom van Overbeek put forward a motion that the city start the process of procuring traffic cams by seeking bids from vendors. Colleague Sean Morgan, springboarding off an assessment from the Chico Police Department, made a substitute motion to hold off for a year or until police expressed readiness to roll out a system.
Van Overbeek responded by declaring, “council member Morgan proposes to let four people die before dealing with this” — referencing the number of fatalities in Chico from collisions at intersections this year. Morgan took offense, and Mayor Andrew Coolidge chastised van Overbeek for the remark, declaring it “out of order.”
The council approved Morgan’s motion with van Overbeek and Addison Winslow (who’d seconded the original motion) in dissent.
Coolidge, consistently opposed to red-light cameras since the first of several discussions, said afterward that van Overbeek’s take “certainly was not what’s being weighed. Some of our decisions have major consequences — but doing that was out of line, and that’s why I drew attention to the fact that it was out of line.”
Responses
Morgan still felt stung the next morning. He said he made “what I thought was a perfectly respectable substitute motion” given that police Capt. Greg Keeney said the department needed time to ramp up staffing for officers to review citations without impacting other priorities. Morgan supports red-light cameras, he stressed, just on a timetable driven by professionals instead of policy-makers.
“Given council member van Overbeek’s skill and success in the private sector, his lack of respect and inability to build coalitions with his colleagues is frightening,” Morgan said.
In the morning, van Overbeek stood by what he said, elaborating that the city could work on a camera contract and police staffing “in parallel.” City Manager Mark Sorensen estimated a timeline of four to six months to complete the former — by which time, van Overbeek said, Chico police may have resolved the latter given the compensation package approved with this year’s budget.
“My statement that people would die if the red-light camera system was delayed was not intended to be a personal comment; it’s just a provable statement of fact,” he said, adding that he “got completely blindsided” by Morgan’s counterproposal.
“It’s not a lack of respect. … Morgan is literally a guy who saved the city from bankruptcy when he first went on the council (11 years ago). So if he doesn’t agree with me on everything, then that’s OK.
“The red-light thing was a bit of a disappointment, but it’s not dead; it’s going to happen.”
Other actions
With four public hearings and 10 items of regular business, open session lasted 3½ hours — longer than recent meetings but with a 30-minute cushion before the council’s 10 p.m. curfew.
Multiple matters for which van Overbeek advocated moved ahead, such as nuisance abatement for properties that will include derelict buildings downtown; lifting the city-imposed limit on bar licenses in downtown’s northern part; and holding future discussions about removing parking requirements for small downtown developments and prohibiting panhandling citywide. He also lauded the agreement approved for Chico State to restore, maintain and operate Bidwell Bowl, for which councilors also sought university policing.
Winslow supported all but one of those actions, code enforcement on properties, not as a concept but over concerns that subjective interpretation drove several aspects. He, along with Morgan, also opposed classifying stray shopping carts as a public nuisance that their owners (i.e., retailers) must reclaim or pay fines.
Winslow had no allies when he requested future discussion of a managed campground; his motion died for lack of a second.
Multiple councilors requested additional information on short-term rentals (i.e., Airbnb and Vrbo) after a report from Administrative Service Director Barbara Martin. Chico has about 300 units registered — six-tenths of a percent of housing in Chico. Councilors asked for a more detailed breakdown, though they split on learning more about adding regulations for this sector of the lodging industry.
“There seemed to be consensus on a lot of things and a lot of 5-2s in weird formats,” Coolidge observed. “But I think everything moved smoothly, and there was a lot of good discussion on the dais, too, on a lot of these issues, even if the public wasn’t in the room. Most of all our early items had public speaking on them, but I would say our lack of public input has to do more with the calm tone that these meetings have taken and less controversial subjects being discussed.”
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