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Vaida Pavolas From: [email protected] Sent: Monday, September 11, 2017 2:17 PM To: Mike Nichols; Ginger Marshall; David Zito; Jewel Edson; Judy Hegenauer; Amy Uruburu; City Attorney; Angela Ivey; Vaida Pavolas; Bill Chopyk; Corey Andrews Cc: [email protected] Subject: Redflex contract proposed renewal Follow Up Flag: Follow up Flag Status: Completed To the Honorable Solana Beach Officials, I believe you should terminate the Redflex Photo Light Enforcement Program and remove the cameras for several reasons. 1) The program does serious economic damage to the businesses in Solana Beach, their existing and potential employees, and ultimately to your tax base. Per the Federal Reserve, money circulates about six times a year. About $350 per ticket goes to Arizona, Australia and Sacramento to produce about 6 x $350 = $2,100 of total sales of goods and services (turnover) in a year. Almost none of that turnover can occur in the Solana Beach economic area because most of that money is gone forever. If about 3,000 citations are paid in a year, this means about 3,000 x $2,100 = $6,300,000 of sales of goods and services will occur in Arizona, Australia, and wherever Sacramento spends their portion of each ticket's revenue. Obviously, not all of that turnover would occur in the Solana Beach area, but some significant portion would - and the program prevents that turnover from having a chance to happen in your economic community because the money is gone. 2) These 79 California cities were reported to have dropped red light cameras, or prohibited them before any were installed. Anaheim, Baldwin Park, Bell Gardens, Belmont, Berkeley, Burlingame, Cerritos, City of Orange, Compton, Corona, Costa Mesa, Cupertino, Davis, El Cajon, El Monte, Emeryville, Escondido, Fairfield, Fresno, Fullerton, Gardena, Glendale, Grand Terrace, Hayward, Highland, Indian Wells, Inglewood, Irvine, Laguna Niguel, Laguna Woods, Lancaster, Loma Linda, Long Beach, City of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County, Lynwood, Manteca, Marysville, Maywood, Modesto, Montclair, Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Napa, Newport Beach, Oakland, Oceanside, Orange County, Paramount, Pasadena, Poway, Rancho Cucamonga, Redlands, Redwood City, Riverside, Rocklin, Roseville, San Bernardino, San Carlos, San Diego, San Juan Capistrano, San Rafael, Santa Ana, Santa Clarita, Santa Fe Springs, Santa Maria, Santa Rosa, South Gate, South San Francisco, Stockton, Union City, Upland, Victorville, Vista, Walnut, Westminster, Whittier, Yuba City, Yucaipa. Only 31 California communities are continuing red light camera programs, in a state that once had over 100 programs. I believe that Solana Beach would be wise to become #80 in the list of California communities that ended or banned red light camera programs. 3) There are now five guilty pleas or verdicts in federal Redflex-related cases for fraud, bribery or extortion. Regardless of how honorably Redflex may have dealt with Solana Beach, is it wise to continue to do business with a vendor with that many related felony convictions in federal courts? Note that former Redflex officials have told FBI investigators that these issues happened in as many as twelve states, but the five convictions are from only two states. In Jefferson Parish, Louisiana officials discovered just as the program began that Redflex had agreed to pay some local people a per-ticket "commission" for improperly using their influence to get Redflex the contract. The Parish escrowed all the fines until the account was about $21 million dollars and finally shut off the cameras. There were lawsuits from both sides and the parties finally reached an agreement out of court to pay Redflex a part of the escrowed monies, the Parish 1 paid their high legal fees from the account, and the ticket recipients got partial refunds. It was another example of improper dealings by Redflex - though one that did not result in any criminal convictions. 4) With something like half of your camera tickets for slow rolling right on red turns, please know that these tickets go almost entirely to safe drivers who endangered no one. Research by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for a Report to Congress showed that only six one-hundredths of one percent (0.06% or 0.0006) of crashes with injuries or fatalities involve a right on red turn - including both turns with or without a full stop. Is it morally OK to fine mostly safe drivers nearly $500 for making safe rolling right on red turns when there were no pedestrians, cyclists or other vehicles in the turning path? Yes, it is technically a violation to slow roll a right on red turn, but is it proper to issue very high fines to mostly safe drivers who carefully assured that the way was totally clear before they made the safe right turn at actual turn speeds typically under 10 mph? http://www.nhtsa.gov/About+NHTSA/Traffic+Techs/current/The+Safety+Impact+of+Right+Turn+on+Red:+Report+to+Congress I urge the city to end the Redflex red light camera program. Respectfully submitted, James C. Walker Life Member, National Motorists Association Board Member and Executive Director, National Motorists Association Foundation www.motorists.org ; 2050 Camelot Road Ann Arbor, MI 48104 734-668-7842 [email protected] BIO: Age 73, licensed for 56 years, over 1.1 million miles of driving experience in 27 major countries, a volunteer student of these issues for 50+ years. I work closely with the safety department of the Michigan State Police and testify frequently before state legislative committees on proposed legislation that affects traffic safety and other motorists issues. Red light and speed cameras are illegal to use in Michigan. When bills were introduced in 2013 to allow them, the combined opposition and testimony in hearings from the Police Officers Association of Michigan, the ACLU, the Campaign for Liberty, Abate, the Mackinac Center think tank, the judges association, the National Motorists Association, skeptical editorials in both major Detroit newspapers, and others caused the bills to be withdrawn. Ticket cameras remain illegal to use in Michigan, and should be illegal in every location. Ticket cameras are about profits, not safety. Safety comes from proper roadway engineering, not enforcement. 2 Vaida Pavolas From: Greg Wade Sent: Monday, September 11, 2017 12:22 PM To: Angela Ivey; Vaida Pavolas Cc: Mo Sammak; Dan King; Johanna; Dan Goldberg Subject: FW: Eight more years of red light cams in Solana Beach? (Sept. 12 agenda item.) Attachments: Supporting Information Dan Goldberg.pdf -------- Original message -------- From: Edward Tiedje <[email protected]> Date: 09/11/2017 9:24 AM (GMT-07:00) To: Dan Goldberg <[email protected]>, Keith Underwood <[email protected]> Cc: Mo Sammak <[email protected]> Subject: RE: Eight more years of red light cams in Solana Beach? (Sept. 12 agenda item.) Dan, Below is what I found in reference to Lissner's comments. Right Turns While the 2016 percentage of issued Right Turn citations Lystner mentions is correct, he leaves out some important data o While 1465 right turn citations were issued in 2016, an additional 1191 captured right turn incidents were rejected by the PD. o The PD rejected 45% of the right turn incidents captured by the system as they felt the violation was not egregious enough to warrant a citation. o The PD rejecting 45% of right turns does not appear to support Lystner's theory of issuing rolling right turns. Volume Lystner mentions that incident volume is not decreasing and is actually increasing. Lystner fails to take into account the change in traffic volume. o June 2015-May 2016 6.3 million vehicles crossed the Redflex sensors resulting in 3042 citations o June 2016-May 2017 7.1 million vehicles crossed the Redflex sensors resulting in 3337 citations . Traffic increased 12.69% and citations increased 9.69% o Jan 2016-Aug 2016 4.1 million vehicles crossed the Redflex sensors resulting in 2330 citations o Jan 2017-Aug 2017 6.2 million vehicles crossed the Redflex sensors resulting in 2281 citations . Traffic increased 51% and citations decreased 2.1% Pricing Lystner mentions Del Mar and Elk Grove pricing but leaves out some important points. o The Elk Grove contract calls for no upgrades or changes to equipment o Elk Grove has outdated camera equipment resulting in 81% of incidents captured being rejected while Solana Beach averages 46% rejected. o The 35% difference in usable incidents is due to constant free upgrades provided to Solana Beach such as HD video and higher grade cameras. Redflex bases its pricing on several factors with incident volume being one of them. o Solana Beach averages twice the volume of incidents per approach vs. Del Mar. o Each incident is reviewed by 3 employees which leads to higher costs 1 o Each approved incident also leads to printing and mailing costs o Higher incident volume results in additional wear and tear on the approach equipment which is replaced at Redflex's expense as it wears out. I have attached an informational sheet which includes some recent positive articles reference photo enforcement and its effectiveness. We can discuss these items on the 1:30 call if, talk to you then. TJ Tiedje | Sales/Accounts Manager | Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. M +1 480 393 6668 | F +1 847 787 5369 | E [email protected] 5651 West Talavi Boulevard, Suite 200, Glendale AZ 85306-1893, United States www.redflex.com Confidentiality Note: This e-mail, and any attachment to it, is intended only for the use of the individual(s) or entity named on the e-mail, and may contain confidential or proprietary information (including copyrighted materials). If the reader of is not an authorized recipient, you are hereby notified that reading it or further distributing it (other than to the author or the intended recipient) is prohibited and is potentially an infringement of the rights of the sender or intended recipient.