Red Light Camera News Newport News, VA city employees are exempt from paying RLC fines
File this one under "do as we say, not as we do".
http://www.wtkr.com/news/dp-red-light-fines-dupe,0,310453.story
Caught on red light camera: Newport News city employees are exempt from paying fines
But could face disciplinary action
Joe Lawlor |
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Daily Press
City employees driving city vehicles are not fined if they are caught running a light by the "red light cameras" installed at three major intersections in Newport News.
But residents running the red lights receive a $50 ticket in the mail.
"I think the city workers should have to pay," said Newport News resident Terri Terry. "It bothers me a lot, because I got one of those tickets."
Terry said she was ticketed for going through the red-light camera at Mercury Boulevard and Jefferson Avenue last summer. The other two cameras are at Oyster Point Road and Jefferson Avenue and at Denbigh Boulevard and Jefferson.
The cameras were installed last year and have so far generated more than $90,000 in net income for the city, according to Budget Director Lisa Cipriano.
City employees don't get tickets, but they do face disciplinary action, City Manager Neil Morgan pointed out. The discipline to be handed out would be at the discretion of the department head, he said.
"It's a fair question," Morgan said when asked why city employees don't get fined.
He said according to state law, the fines are sent to the owners of the vehicles, which in this case would be the city.
"It would be like we were paying ourselves," Morgan said.
Morgan said the city could require reimbursement from employees, but he believes the threat of employee discipline is a sufficient deterrent.
"You could not get a promotion, get suspended or even lose your job," Morgan said.
Ben Burbic, president of the firefighters association, said he sees no problem with the policy.
"You could be sent home," Burbic said. "That's a lot worse than a $50 fine."
Denbigh resident Richard Hyatt said he also has no criticisms of the policy.
"I don't have a problem with it. It's all taxpayer money," Hyatt said.
Resident Tim Dolan disagreed. "The only time city employees shouldn't have to pay is if they're driving an emergency vehicle with their lights on."
The photos of potential violations are sent by the company that runs the cameras, Arizona-based Redflex Traffic Systems, to the Newport News Police Department. Police officials determine if there's a violation and the company mails out the fine notices. If it's a city vehicle, the police department notifies the department head.
Police spokesman Lou Thurston said there were 13 incidents of city vehicles caught on camera running red lights from May 2010 through Wednesday. A total of 15,434 violation notices were mailed out to residents during the same time period, according to Thurston.
Two other Hampton Roads communities that use red-light cameras -- Virginia Beach and Chesapeake -- have different policies regarding city employees. Virginia Beach is similar to Newport News in that no fines are handed out, but employees could be disciplined for running red lights while driving city vehicles.
In Chesapeake, the city employee could be fined or disciplined by their department head.
"They (department heads) have to do one or the other," said Heath Covey, a Chesapeake spokesman.
Newport News Councilwoman Pat Woodbury said employees who run red lights while driving city vehicles should be disciplined or fined.
"Just because you're a city employee does not mean you should be exempt from consequences," Woodbury said.
Meanwhile, Morgan said city employees driving personal vehicles would be fined just like anybody else. "The system wouldn't have any way of knowing if you were a city employee," he said.
Morgan said overall, the cameras are working well.
"They are doing an effective job of improving driver safety," Morgan said.
A recent study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety says that red-light traffic cameras save lives. Fatal crash rates in the 14 largest cities declined by an average of 24 percent, according to the study.
Comparing policies
Newport News, Virginia Beach and Chesapeake are three Hampton Roads communities that have red-light cameras. City employees caught running red lights by the cameras while driving city vehicles could face disciplinary action in Newport News and Virginia Beach. In Chesapeake, the employee running the red light would have to either pay the fine or be disciplined.
Copyright © 2011, Newport News, Va., Daily Press
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