By Adam Swift
A motion that could have paved the way for the school district to allow the installation of cameras on school buses to ticket safety violations failed to gain a majority at last week’s town council meeting.
Councilor-at-Large Roberto Jimenez Rivera introduced the motion requesting the council adopt a new general law authorizing the city to accept a new state law allowing the installation and operation of a school bus monitoring system that could enforce fines.
“Right now, until we do this, there is no way for the district or city or anyone to install cameras in the city of Chelsea to enforce traffic violations,” said Rivera. “So if a bus is pulled over, has its stop sign out and somebody runs that stop sign, there is no way now to enforce that violation unless there is an officer that sees it happen. This would eventually allow for the use of camera equipment to send that person a fine and allows us to better protect our children and better protect our pedestrians.”
However, several councilors requested the motion be sent to a subcommittee on conference. That motion failed, but with three councilors absent at the end of last week’s meeting, the main motion also failed.
Councilors Todd Taylor, Leo Robinson, and Calvin Brown all stated they wanted further discussion of the motion in subcommittee and voted against the main motion. Councilors Giovanni Recupero, Manuel Teshe, and Melinda Vega were absent for the vote, and with five votes in favor, the motion failed to capture a majority of 11 councilors.
“We have a bus company, and we have no authority to ask them to put cameras on their equipment, and if they decide to put cameras on their equipment, there will be a cost to the city,” said Robinson. “They are not going to absorb the cost, that is why I want to be able to send this to conference so we can flesh some things out.”
District 4 Councilor Tanairi Garcia voiced her support for Rivera’s motion, noting that moving forward with a plan for the safety of students should be a no-brainer.
“There are not many buses and this is a small city and something doable and an expense I am willing to say yes to,” said Garcia.
District 5 Councilor Lisa Santagate noted that the council vote was a first step in the process, and that the school district would be allowed to have a conversation with the bus company or anyone else about moving forward with the cameras.
“I don’t think this is about us funding anything, it is just letting a conversation go forward in the school department,” said Santagate.
Taylor noted that the motion on the bus monitoring systems is part of a bigger issue he has seen in recent months about a reluctance to discuss issues in subcommittee.
“I would ask my colleagues to please let’s talk to each other, let’s have a discussion,” said Taylor. “You may have an opinion already, but we need to listen to each other and respect each other enough to have a discussion about these things. I don’t know why recently there is this thing about shoving everything without any type of conversation about everything.”
Taylor said he was going to vote no on the motion because he didn’t like stuff showing up on the council agenda without there being an opportunity for further discussion.
“If there were any additional costs, this would be an order that would go through the appropriate process, there would be a ways and means hearing on additional appropriations if they were city appropriations,” said Rivera. “If they are school appropriations, there would be a process through the school committee and they would have to assign it through their budget. This does not appropriate any funds nor does it commit us to appropriating any funds.”
With the motion failing, the council will not be able to bring it back on the agenda for six months.