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Mitre -Ramirez, Norma From: Huizar, Maria Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2015 4:31 PM To: Rojas, Carlos; Cavazos, David; Carvalho, Sonia R. Cc: Carroll, Robert Subject: CORRESPONDENCE ON AGENDA ITEM 19E - REDFLEX Attachments: CCF02172015_0001.pdf Mayor and City Council, Below please find correspondence received on Agenda Item 19E that has been entered into the record. From: Jim [mailto:jim@vivahermosa.com] Sent: Tuesday, February 17, 2015 3:22 PM To: Huizar, Maria Subject: Santa Ana council meeting Feb 17 - item 19E-1 - red light cameras For City staff: Please distribute this email to all councilmembers, and make it available to the public, for tonight's meeting. 2-17-15 Venue: Red light camera item 19E-1, council meeting of Feb. 17, red light cameras Honorable Councilmembers - There is a major item the Chief did not consider in his report: The cost of the ill will the tickets generate toward the city and toward the police. I think it is a BIG number. In 2013 Santa Ana issued 9450 tickets for rolling right turns (see annual CVC 21455.5(1) report, attached), and even the top management at Redflex now admits that that is a bad idea, to wit: In late 2014 we saw this, in a Dec. 26 Wall Street Journal interview of the president of RedFlex: "Mr. [James] Saunders [president of RedFlex] suggests jurisdictions refrain from issuing a [rolling right] ticket except when a pedestrian is in the crosswalk. " The headline was, "Can the Red -Light Camera Be Saved? - Money -hungry politicians discredit a hopeful safety innovation. " (A Jan. 22, 2015 column in the Dallas Morning News confirmed the statement The Journal had attributed to Saunders: "When I asked Redflex spokeswoman Jody Ryan about her boss' comments urging cities to lighten up on rolling reds, she answered, "It only makes sense that Jim is going to say, `Look, we need people to be thoughtful about how they are implementing these programs and how they are issuing citations. 'It wasn't that shocking. ' ) Further, I can't figure out how the Chief came up with that $1 million loss figure. The City receives about $100,000 each month from the court, and out of that it pays Redflex $78,000, leaving $22,000 to pay for the the City staff (police, city attorney, city prosecutor, public works) involved in the program. So, the City will be giving up a net profit of MAYBE $10,000 a month, but that will be more than replaced by an "un -signing bonus," the gain of about $500,000 the City will see in the second half of 2015 when it is still collecting fines but is not having to pay any rent to Redflex. Please stand by your 2014 decision to let the program expire. CCM 02/17/2015 19E