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If you haven't
already done so, please read the Montebello
section on the Camera Towns page City of Montebello
Documents It is possible to completely ignore a Montebello ticket: 1. The LA County
Superior Court does not report ignored red light
camera tickets to the DMV. More info is in
"Countywide Information," which is Docs Set # 2
on the LA County
Documents page.
In 2022, Vote No on Sheila
Kuehl Do you live in LA County? Was
Zev Yaroslavsky your County Supervisor? (He
represented the Third District, which includes the
central and western San Fernando Valley, Malibu, Santa
Monica, Venice, Beverly Hills, the City of West
Hollywood, and part of Hollywood.) Zev "termed out," and in the Nov.
2014 election Sheila Kuehl won the race to succeed
him, by a narrow margin.
Sheila "Kuehl Cams" Kuehl, in 2007 During her career in the California
Legislature, Kuehl made three attempts to pass bills to
allow the use of automated speed enforcement (photo
radar) in California. As an LA County Supervisor,
she has a seat on the MTA/Metro board and she will be
a vote to continue and expand Metro's huge (101
cameras, so far) red light camera system.
She was a vote to put an additional LA County-wide sales tax, to go to Metro, on the Nov. 2016 ballot - and it passed. (See Measure M on the Action/Legis page, for more about that tax.) Kuehl may be up for re-election in Nov. 2022.
Violations
Recorded (in red
type), and Citations Issued [5] New 11-6-04, updated 10-25-19
This table made by
highwayrobbery.net, using official monthly tabulations of
citations actually issued.
Official reports, Jan. 2007 - Apr. 2010 Official reports, 2010 - 2011 Official reports, 2011 - 2012 Official reports, 2011 - 2013 Official reports, 2007 - 2013 Official reports, 2013 late Official reports, 2010 - 2014 Official reports, 2008 - 2015 Official reports, 2015 early Official reports, 2015 Spring Official reports, 2015 late Official reports, 2016 to July Official reports, 2015 & Aug. 2016 Official report, Aug. 2016 to Mar. 2017 Official reports, Aug. 2016 to Apr. 2017 Official report, May to Oct. 2017 [4] [12] Official reports, Dec. 2017 to Mar. 2018 Official reports, May 2017 to Dec. 2018 Official reports, Jan. 2019 to Mar. 2019 Official reports, Apr. & May 2019 Official reports, May 2019 to Sep. 2019 [ ] indicates a footnote. [1] Totals are as provided by the City. [2] These annual totals, or annual projections, are by highwayrobbery.net. [3] Un-used columns are to allow for later expansion of City's system. [4] Month-by-month data was requested on (date). [5] Any
figures in red type (or, if you are
looking at this table in black and white, the upper figure
when there are two or more figures in a cell) are what RedFlex calls Total Violations, or all incidents recorded by the cameras, and due to time limitations may have been posted here only for selected months or locations. If there is sufficient public interest, the remaining months will be posted. The figures in black type are what ACS (the city's camera supplier before 2007) calls Citations Issued and RedFlex (the supplier after 2007) calls Notices Printed, and represent the sum of genuine citations issued (those filed with the court) plus any Nominations mailed (not filed with the court, a.k.a. Snitch Tickets). [6] The
camera enforcement is believed to be on traffic on the
first-named street, but the direction
of enforcement (north, south, east, west, thru, left, right) is not yet available.. [7] One of these camera codes (Cam #) will appear in the data bar above the photos on your ticket. [8] The title bar has been repeated solely for the convenience of the reader - there is no difference between it and the one at the top of the table. [9] The Dec. 2011 report generated in Jan. 2012 differs from the Dec. 2011 report generated in Dec. 2012. highwayrobbery.net has entered the later-generated report in the table. [10] For more info about monthly revenue, see Set # 5, below. We are asking for verification of the unusually large revenue shown for Jan. 2019. [11] From the annual reports required, beginning with 2013, by CVC 21455.5(i). They become available by the Fall of the following year. [12] The official report for this time period was generated less than ten days after the end of the reporting period. As a result, many violations were still "in progress" and the eventual number of "approved violations" would be expected to be greater than the number shown in the official report. Before being posted in the table above, the figures given in the official report were adjusted by assuming that the "in progress" violations would be approved in the same proportion that violations were approved during the previous calendar year. For time periods during ---- the proportion used was --%. Montebello Docs Set # 2
Reasons to Stay Out of Montebello
1. Mickey Mouse tickets. An
official
report showed that in 2018, 68% of the City's
tickets were for right turns. 2. Citywide ticketing jumped in
2019 and by Aug. & Sep. the rate was 60% higher than
it was during 2018, with most of the increase coming
from the two cameras at Garfield/Via Campo;
ticketing by camera GAVC was almost double the rate in
2018 and ticketing by VCGA was more than triple the 2018
rate. Montebello Docs Set # 3
"Late Time" Graphs The City provided bar graphs of Late Times, etcetera, for all eight of its cameras. These graphs track violations recorded, not tickets issued. Where there is a large number of long Late Time violations in a curb lane, it is believed to indicate heavy ticketing on right turns. (The curb lane will be the lane with the highest lane number.) The picture above is an example from another city. Highwayrobbery.net has periodically requested bar graphs for each camera. The following are those received. BEGA 2009 - 2010 BEGA 2011 GAVC 2007 - 2010 GAVC 2011 MOBE 2009 - 2010 MOBE 2011 MOPA-01 2009 - 2010 MOPA-01 2011 MOPA-03 2009 - 2010 MOPA-03 2011 MOWH 2009 - 2010 MOWH 2011 VCGA 2009 - 2010 VCGA 2011 WAGR 2007 - 2010 WAGR 2011 Oct. 2012 - All Cameras Oct. 2013 - All Cameras Oct. 2015 - All Cameras Oct. 2016 - All Cameras Mar. 2018 - All Cameras Bar graphs are available for more than fifty other cities - see the list in the expanded version of Defect # 9. Montebello Docs Set # 4 2006
RedFlex Contract In 2010 the contract was amended to
substitute "Financial Feasibility" for "cost
neutrality." The new Financial Feasibility clause
allows the City to cancel the contract upon 30 days'
notice. From Exhibit D, as amended: "...no out of pocket costs for the
Customer." "Financial Feasibility includes, but is
not limited to, whether the Customer's costs, including
payment to RedFlex, exceeed or nearly exceeds the
monthly revenue received by Customer." The 2010 amendment also provided for an
$18,000 monthly "concession" to the City, which had the
effect of reducing the monthly rent per camera to
$3750. Many RedFlex customers have negotiated
lower prices, with at least seven of them paying less
than $3000, and had Montebello negotiated a $3000 price
it would have saved $216,000 in twelve months. See
FAQ # 17. The one-year extension effective Feb.
2011 provided for a $28,000 monthly concession, which
reduced the rent to $2500 per camera.
2012
-
2013 Extension and Restated Agreement
At their meeting on Wednesday May 14,
2014 the city council adopted a staff
recommendation to extend the program for another
year, to April 2015, at a total monthly rent of $20,000,
equal to $2500 per camera. Two months earlier
(March 2014) the City of Elk Grove, California approved
a new contract which specified the following rents for
their five RedFlex cameras.
As of late 2014 the City of
Montebello still was paying
$2500 per camera.
By April 2015 all of Montebello's cameras were seven years old, or more. Beginning in May 2015, the City signed a series of short extensions more extensions of the contract. The latest of the those extensions received here at highwayrobbery.net extended the contract two months to Nov. 2017, without reducing the rent. Beginning when the cameras hit seven years of age, the City should have negotiated to pay no more than $2000 per camera. Because they did not negotiate the rent down, they paid an extra $96,000 between May 2015 and May 2017 (compared to Elk Grove prices). To cover that extra rent, the City needed to issue tickets to an additional 1264 motorists (the City's fine revenue averages $76 for each ticket it issues). 2017: Seven More Years In late Summer 2017, after more than a dozen short extensions of the contract, the City put the camera program out to bid and got three responses. The lowest bidder, RedFlex, bid $2500, the same price the City had been paying them since 2011. On Dec. 13, 2017 the council voted 5 - 0 for a seven year extension (five years ending 12-13-22 plus two optional one-year extensions) of the program. About the bidding: Bidders were given just 22 days to submit a bid! On a complex project, a short window like that works in favor of the incumbent contractor. Some of Montebello's bidding documents are attached to the draft and final contracts, at links below. In 2019 there was a similar very short bid deadline, in Menlo Park - but the council voted to end the program rather than continue. The draft contract (attached to the staff report presented at the Dec. meeting) said, at section 5.1: "Contractor has established rates for the City which are comparable to and do not exceed the best rates offered to other governmental entities in and around Los Angeles County for the same services." That clause made it into the final signed contract (including bid info), which expresses the monthly rent as "not to exceed $20,000" - equal to $2500 for each of the eight cameras. There are cities nearby paying lower rent than that, even though they have fewer cameras than Montebello does, including nearby Covina with seven cameras at $2200. Or, if we look further away, there is Del Mar with two cameras at $1578 and Elk Grove which has contracted to pay RedFlex $1500 per camera once its five cameras reach ten years in service - see that city's price table, above. If we look at cities having more cameras than Montebello, there is Garden Grove at $2200 and Ventura at $2190. Will Montebello ask RedFlex to lower the rent to $2200 or less, or will the City say nothing and pay the maximum, $20,000? (FAQ # 17 has more info about the rent other cities pay.) If Montebello fails to ask for an adjustment of the $2500 price they will pay an extra $201,600 over seven years (compared to Covina's $2200 rent), and to cover that extra rent Montebello will need to issue an extra 2429 tickets. (In the first ten months of 2017 the City's fine revenue averaged $83 for each red light camera ticket it issued, and we used that figure to calculate how many extra tickets would be needed to make up for the extra rent money given to RedFlex. In 2018 the city's fine revenue dropped to $74 per ticket.) The contract includes, at section 9.22, a Termination for Convenience clause allowing the City to end the contract on short notice - fifteen days - without penalty. That clause gives the City some leverage to demand an adjustment of the rent. Our Dec. 2017 Letter to the City
Montebello Docs Set # 5
The Revenue The City's monthly ticket revenue from the court is available in the rightmost column in the large table in Set # 1 above, and in the Revenue Spreadsheet on the LA County Docs page, where you can compare it to the revenue received by other LA County cities.
Montebello Docs Set # 6
Montebello
Docs
Set # 7
More Coming There may be some more information posted in the next few weeks. Mark your calendar to remind you to come back here and look! --------------------------------- RED LIGHT CAMERAS www.highwayrobbery.net www.highwayrobbery.net6 |