Fourth in a series
Re “How Do You Find Out City’s Red Light Camera Take?”
City Hall’s darkly clouded relationship with reputation-scarred Redflex Traffic Systems is mindful of the way the columnist George Will today characterized the Obama administration, “the government with 10 thumbs.”
Without a drop of hesitation, the City Council last month approved a new three-year agreement with Redflex, its vendor of choice for the past dozen years.
City Hall and the Police Dept. have been portrayed as fairly equal partners in the city’s red light camera venture – except for three towering problems:
- Chief Financial Officer Jeff Muir does not know how much money enters the city’s treasury as a result of the 18 red light cameras – and neither does any other English-speaking city employee.
- Weeks ago the Police Dept., the lead player in this drama, promised to deliver statistics “proving” that red light cameras throughout this century have made Culver City a safer community. The mailman, however, may have been trapped in the recent snowstorm. He has not arrived.
- City Council members have virtually unanimously agreed that they don’t care how much, or if any, revenue pours into City Hall’s coffers because of the red light cameras. Their primary concern, they say, is safety. On faith, they say the cops guarantee them the community is safer – not that they have seen a speck of data.
So while this is a triumphant time for those who believe faith is a big deal in life, harder heads who insist on physical evidence remain disappointed.
