Second of three parts
Re “Money, Money, Money, Money? Where Is the Red Light Camera Money?”
The labyrinthine path that both money and pertinent information travel, from the County court system into Culver City, remains one of the numbing mysteries of the secretive red light camera system.
Chief Financial Officer Jeff Muir said again yesterday that his office does not know exactly how much City Hall collects from the thousands of red light camera issues every year.
An observer never could have guessed that based on the language of certitude that City Council members employed last week when, without working up a sweat, they flung a lucrative new three-year contract at a vendor whose honesty is widely in doubt.
Except in Culver City.
Around $1.5 million seemingly accrues to City Hall coffers each year from the red light camera gig.
There probably is not a single body within City Hall who can say, with confidence, that 1.5 is a fair cut from a curious scheme that has made Redflex the plumpest of the plump in its unique field.
Council members swear that while Redflex Traffic Systems may be hip-high in corruption and bribery charges elsewhere, hey, they have been so darned honest in Culver City.
Speaking of the covert, circuitous path that money and fealty follow, Mr. Muir is no novice to the system.
“I have been involved with this for a long time,” he said. “I was with the City of Inglewood when red light cameras were made legal in the late ‘90s. Inglewood implemented the system in the very early 2000s.
“The lack of information available from the court to me is astounding,” said the CFO, who always speaks deliberately and with precision.
“To me it is very simple that when they send us a check, if it is for $132, 413.28, that they would be able to generate a report that says ‘All of the ticket numbers are ticket numbers that represent the exact amount attributable to those ticket numbers that adds up to that total.’
“That would (or should) be very easy to get,” said Mr. Muir.
“However, the court does not provide it in that format. They have said they are unable to do it.”
(To be continued)
