Staff photo by Tim Barber/Chattanooga Times Free Press – Nov 16, 2010 Former Red Bank mayor Joe Glasscock holds a up sign he took from an intersection concerning the city’s traffic cameras during his last meeting as mayor on Tuesday. City Manager Chris Dorsey, left, City Attorney Arnold Stulce, Jr. and new mayor Monty Millard look at the sign. The city recently signed a 12-year contract extension in January.Red Bank Mayor Monty Millard would love to take down the city’s traffic cameras, but transforming a message into policy is more complicated than saying you want it done — and almost assuredly more expensive.
Three minutes into his inaugural speech Tuesday evening, Millard was playing familiar political tunes, focusing on “our city’s positive assets” and praising “a very favorable property tax rate.”
Then, the loud note that got people’s attention.
“Tonight I am asking [City Manager] Chris Dorsey to determine our option for the immediate removal of the red-light cameras and the speed van,” he said, pausing for applause that never came. “This will send a strong and unmistakable message that we want people to come to and through our city.”
In January, Millard was the only commissioner out of five to vote against a 12-year contract extension with American Traffic Solutions, the Arizona-based company that supplies Red Bank’s traffic cameras. He’s aware of the constitutional arguments, but he said he cringes when he hears out-of-towners and “talk radio” blasting the city’s most controversial piece of technology.