(Ban the Cams note:  This will be one town to watch, any bets they will DROP the SCAMERAS soon!)

http://www.sbsun.com/news/ci_16059616

Grand Terrace owes red light fees
Error may cost city
Ryan Hagen, Staff Writer
Posted: 09/12/2010 08:35:12 PM PDT

Grand Terrace has until Oct. 2 to make up late payments of $72,203 stemming from a series of miscalculations or face an additional $27,500 in late fees.
City Council will decide Tuesday whether to borrow money from the city's facilities fund to repay Redflex Traffic Systems, which has operated two cameras each on two intersections in Grand Terrace since 2007.

Redflex charges $12,513 to maintain the cameras, which tape and ticket anyone breaking traffic laws. Various codes dictate that about 34percent of the revenue from those tickets goes to Grand Terrace. The county, the state and the courts also get a cut.

There are two cameras at Barton Road and Michigan Avenue and two cameras at Barton Road and Mount Vernon Avenue.

According to the city's contract with Redflex, if the city makes less than $12,513 in fines, it must pay all of that revenue to Redflex, but does not owe more than it collects.

"The city became delinquent in contractor payments due to reporting and computational difficulties to determine the amount due to the contractor," Finance Director Bernie Simon wrote in a report to the Council.

Unsure how much money it owed to Redflex, the city set aside too little in 2007, 2008 and 2009. The city realized the error in May 2009, then decided in September that it could break even by June 2010 because of anticipated increases in revenue from fines.

Instead, fine revenue decreased and debt increased.

City officials were not available to clarify how they misunderstood the amount owed to Redflex or why they expected fine revenue to increase.

Redflex initially waived the city's late fees, but when the city missed the June catch-up date, the company announced it would charge 1.5 percent interest on all payments, retroactive to when they first became overdue, if it did not receive payment by Oct. 2.

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