The city’s traffic-enforcement camera pilot program has generated more than a half of a million dollars in revenue.
But most of that money is going to the county, not the city.
Michael Bailey, the city’s finance director, released financial data for the controversial program at Tuesday’s city council public safety committee meeting.
The program began Feb. 1 with a one-month warning period and from March 16 to July 14, the fines have amounted to $567,859 — eighty percent of which goes to the King County District Court because the city contracts with the county for its court services. That equates to $454,282 paid to the county as a retainer for court administration costs. Bailey said if there is money left in the retainer it will be paid back to the city; if court costs exceed the retainer balance, the city must pay that amount.
The city also paid $47,000 to American Traffic Solutions (ATS), the traffic camera vendor, leaving the city with a net amount of $66,578 through the program’s first five months. The profits from the program go into the city council capital improvement fund.
Prior to Bailey’s presentation, police officials presented the most recent violation data, which showed the camera-enforced citations have dipped slightly since the program began in February.
The program features red-light cameras at three busy Redmond intersections — eastbound on Redmond Way at 148th Avenue Northeast, eastbound and westbound on Northeast 40th Street at 156th Avenue Northeast and westbound on Union Hill Road and northbound on Avondale Road where those two roads intersect. A speed zone camera is also located at Einstein Elementary, 18025 NE 116th St.
There have been a total of 7,238 citations between March and June with 6,343 of those being right-on-red violations where vehicles did not come to a complete stop — more than 87 percent. From March through June, the program has had a total of 2,004 rejected violations in which officers reviewed the video tape and determined no violation was committed.
DECLINING NUBMERS, BUT WITH A CATCH
The school-zone camera was up and down as March started with 110 violations, lowering to 96 in April, back up to 107 in May and back down to 79 during June’s partial operation. The school-zone camera was turned off June 22, the day after the end of school.
From March to June, the total number of violations at the three intersections declined from 2,142 to 1,216 and also saw a fluctuation from month to month. To compound the data-collecting process, the camera at Redmond Way and 148th Avenue Northeast did not capture a number of violators in May and June due to a technical malfunction with some ATS equipment, combined with an underground sensor failure. That led to a steep decline in citations at that intersection — 941 in April to only 20 recorded in June. The problem has since been fixed, according to Bruce Newman, a city public works engineer, who explained the glitch at the meeting.
At the two other intersections — Avondale Road and Union Hill and Northeast 40th Street and 156th Avenue Northeast — the citations went from 1,271 in March to 1,196.
“Our numbers are going down,” said Redmond Police Commander Shari Shovlin, who added that she would like to see a larger decline when police officials make their final pilot program presentation to the public safety committee Sept. 27.
While the numbers have decreased overall since the citations began in March, violations actually increased between May and June at the intersections of Avondale Road and Union Hill and Northeast 40th Street and 156th Avenue Northeast.
In addition, the collisions at the three intersections with red-light cameras have increased from 11 in the first six months of last year to 14 during that same time period this year. Shovlin said two of those collisions were rear-end crashes involving people who said they were stopping for a changing light.
So far, council member Hank Myers, chair of the public safety committee, said the data is a bit inconclusive.
“I’m not sure we’re seeing the trend going down,” he said Wednesday. “We have to continue to gather data consistently before we can make a decision. After September, my goal is create a very clear, complete record for the council to look at.”
Police Chief Ron Gibson, who would like to see the program become permanent, outlined a proposed timeline for council action. He suggested that the council hold a study session on the issue on Oct. 11 with a final vote coming as early at the Nov. 1 council business meeting.
Gibson said the city must give ATS a 60-day notice of its decision before the end of the one-year pilot program contact, which puts the final deadline at Dec. 1.
“I hope they continue with it,” Gibson said. “It’s a traffic safety program, which is really about prevention. … the community expects us to do crime prevention. Well, this is a crime prevention activity that will help prevent accidents. People are talking about traffic safety in our community because of this program. … I think it’s a good thing.”
LET THE PEOPLE DECIDE
Meanwhile, Union Hill resident Scott Harlan continues to lead a petition drive to gather 3,845 valid signatures to put the matter of traffic-enforcement cameras on the November ballot.
While Harlan declined to release specific numbers, he said Wednesday the campaign is making huge strides. But time is running thin if he wants to get it on the November ballot.
The city council has to pass a resolution by Aug. 16 to make the November ballot, according to city clerk Michelle McGehee.
But first Harlan will need to submit the signatures to the city. The city would then pass them on to the county auditor’s office, which will validate the signatures, McGehee said.
Once all of the signatures are validated, they would be returned to the city, then the city attorney would draft a resolution for the city council to vote on, McGehee said.
If the resolution is not passed by Aug. 16, the issue would be decided in a special election early next year.
Harlan could not estimate when he plans to turn the signatures into the city, but acknowledged that time is of the essence.
“We are coming up on crunch time,” Harlan said. “For those sitting on fences, it’s time to turn in your petitions.”
