A group of Jersey Village citizens presented a red light camera petition to Jersey Village Secretary Lori Coody before the Jan. 18 city council meeting.

Although red light cameras are not currently active within the city of Jersey Village, the purpose of the citizen petition was to have city council amend a city ordinance to permanently ban red light cameras in the city.

Under Texas Law, a petition requires signatures from at least 5 percent of current voters to qualify as a legally binding petition. With 5,174 registered voters in the city, a minimum of 259 signatures were required. The petitioners were able to surpass that number, gathering 439 pre-validated signatures since the petition began Oct. 3, according to Richard Jacquet, a Jersey Village resident and petitioner who spoke before the council.

“We urge the [council] to change the Jersey Village city council regular consent item No. 2 scheduled for this meeting on Jan. 18 to include the petition to ban the red light cameras on the election [ballot] on May 7,” he said.

Another Jersey Village resident, Barbie Freeman, spoke against the petition to change the city ordinance.

“I want people to be aware of what they have signed and what the impact will be on our city,” Freeman said. “We have a good government here and there is no reason for all of this.”

Although Freeman said she signed the petition to ban the red light cameras, she said she also believes it unnecessary to change a city ordinance in order to ensure that the cameras are not reinstalled.

“All this does is elongate our ordinance,” she said.

While city council did not discuss the red light camera petition at the Jan. 18 meeting, council member C.J. Harper previously expressed desire to permanently ban the red light cameras from the city.

“[I] will vote no to any attempt to have red light cameras again installed in Jersey Village,” Harper said.