The City of South San Francisco made a Boo-Boo

SOUTH SAN FRANCISCO, CA (KGO) — Red light runners who were caught on camera in South San Francisco will get a legal break over a big, big mistake, and it is going to cost the city a lot of trouble and money.

“It’s a big mess,” South San Francisco Police Chief Mike Massoni said, referring to the red light cameras on two of the city’s busiest intersections — El Camino and Westborough, and El Camino and Hickey.

Since they were put in Aug. 15, the cameras have nabbed thousands of red light runners. The cameras were installed by the American Traffic Solutions (ATS) and they are working without a hitch, except for one thing.

“We didn’t go to a public meeting and have council formally ratify the contract between us and our vendor,” Massoni said.    

So just what does that mean?  

“It has to be ratified before you implement the program, so anything from Aug. 15, when we started, to Jan. 27 is invalid,” Massoni said.

This mistake by the City Council means returning perhaps more than a million dollars to red light violators who were caught on camera.

“I’m going to Disneyland,” was the reaction of Russellino Barri whose mother got a ticket last fall. She fought it, but lost. “They still gave her a $500 ticket on that corner.”

The city is now working with the county traffic court to identify violators like Barri’s mother who will get refunds. But the city has to do more than that to make things right.

“We will be in contact with the courts and Department of Motor Vehicles to remove points from driving records. If persons went to traffic school, we will look at refunding their traffic school fees,” Massoni said.

Assemblyman Jerry Hill, D-San Mateo, who is not a big fan of red light cameras, says this is a perfect example of why they ought to be the subject of a statewide review.

“One of the standards is to make sure that there is a signed contract before you start installing cameras at red lights,” Hill said.

When the City Council realized its error, it quickly ratified the contract on Jan. 27. Any citation issued after that date is legitimate.

If you were one of those cited between Aug. 15 and Jan. 27 you can call the red light ticket hotline at (650) 829-3777 for information on obtaining a refund.

The mayor and city manager did not return calls to ABC7 for comment.

(Copyright ©2010 KGO-TV/DT. All Rights Reserved.)

Nicole Machado is a regular contributor to PruCalVoices.com

2 Responses to “The City of South San Francisco made a Boo-Boo”

1. Henry on February 10th, 2010 2:53 pm

   SSF is not the only Bay Area city with a big problem with its cameras. Daly City and San Mateo each have been the subject of (separate) appeal cases where the appeal court ruled that the contracts between the city and their camera supplier are illegal, a violation of the CVC 21455.5(g) prohibition of compensation based upon a percentage of fine revenue. (See P. vs. Bullock, P. v. Lopez.) Other Bay Area cities with the same problem are Menlo Park, Millbrae, Newark, Redwood City, San Leandro, and Union City.

   And another dirty little secret: Many cities issue Snitch Tickets, which are fake/phishing red light camera tickets currently sent out by the police in an effort to fool the registered owner into identifying the actual driver of the car. (He doesn’t have to!) Local cities using this “social engineering” tactic are Daly City, Elk Grove, Emeryville, Fairfield, Marysville, Millbrae, Modesto, Newark, Redding, Rocklin, San Leandro, San Leandro, San Mateo, Stockton and Union City. Snitch tickets have not been filed with the court, so they don’t say “Notice to Appear,” don’t have the court’s address and phone # on them, and usually say, on the back (in small letters), “Do not contact the court about this notice.” Since they have not been filed with the court, they have no legal weight whatsoever. You can ignore a Snitch Ticket. If in doubt, Google the term

2. Brian Boisson on February 11th, 2010 10:01 am

   Thanks Nicole,

   I guess the next uses for the cameras will be radar based speed enforecment so if you are going through the intersection too fast it will get you.

   Brian

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