Red Light Camera News Hialeah gives initial OK to remove red-light cameras
http://www.miamiherald.com/2011/06/16/2269895/hialeah-gives-initial-ok-to-remove.html
Hialeah gives initial OK to remove red-light cameras
In a 4-1 vote, the City Council gave the initial OK to repeal the red-light camera program.
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By Laura Isensee
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Hialeah City Council has given the preliminary OK to end the city’s red-light camera program, which issues civil citations to drivers caught on camera running through intersections.
Mayor Carlos Hernandez has pushed to repeal the ordinance, calling the program another tax. Hernandez voted against the program last year when then-mayor Julio Robaina proposed it.
“For me, the city of Hialeah has spoken very clearly that it doesn’t want these cameras,” Hernandez said.
The council voted 4-1 to give the preliminary OK to end the program. Councilwoman Vivian Casals-Muñoz voted no; Councilwoman Katharine Cue-Fuente was absent.
The city is in the process of negotiating a cancellation fee with American Traffic Solutions to end a two-year contract with the Kansas-based company early.
Council President Isis Garcia-Martinez and Vice-President Luis Gonzalez noted they opposed the program last year.
“I’m not sure it improves the safety,” Gonzalez said. He added that after the state amended the program, red-light cameras have become a bigger source of state revenue while becoming more costly for cities.
The council had previously given the preliminary OK to repeal the program in May. But the council had to start the two-step repeal process over because the previous vote was for a 2008 law, not the current 2010 law. A second hearing is expected on June 28.
Since Hialeah ramped up the red-light program last year, the city has collected about $100,000-$125,000 in revenue from citations, according to Hialeah Police Chief Mark Overton.
Overton said there have been about 9,000 violations caught on camera, but the city has issued citations for only about 40 percent of those, or 3,400 citations, for cases the department considered “the worst of the worst.”
Overton said the number of traffic fatalities in Hialeah had fallen 17 percent from 2009 to 2010.
“I’ve always said it’s a good program and we should use it, but if the residents of the city don’t want it, that’s why this country is so great, because we respect the opinion of the residents,” Overton said.
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