Chicago - A message from the station manager

The [Monday] Papers

By Steve Rhodes

“The Emanuel administration quietly issued a new, shorter yellow light standard this spring that generated 77,000 red light camera tickets that would not have been allowed before the rule change, the city inspector general announced Friday,” the Tribune reports.
“The administration defended the $100 tickets – and the nearly $8 million in revenue it will collect from them – as valid. But the city agreed to Inspector General Joseph Ferguson’s recommendation to end the new practice of issuing citations with yellow light times below 3 seconds.”
Three seconds happens to be the federal safety guideline. Seems like a good place to draw the line. But no.


“The Tribune reported Thursday that its analysis of overturned tickets and interviews with experts suggested the Emanuel administration had made a subtle, but significant, change when it switched camera vendors this spring from the beleaguered Redflex Traffic Systems Inc. to Xerox State and Local Solutions. Hearing officers were suddenly throwing out hundreds of tickets that showed yellow light times at 2.9, below the 3-second minimum required by the city.”
So when the city dumped Redflex because of bribery allegations, it decided to twist the knife into drivers’ backs even more. As I wrote last week, can we get the bribers back?
“The city would not answer questions this week about whether it changed the yellow light standards, and Transportation Commissioner Rebekah Scheinfeld declined to explain the mystery in a recent interview with the Tribune, saying only that the tickets were valid because they fell within an acceptable standard for electrical deviations.”
Is it possible the city would not answer questions because they knew what they did was really shitty? I mean, if they were proud, they’d be lining up to answer questions.
“But in a broader review about problems with the red light program sparked by Tribune reports, the inspector general on Friday revealed that Scheinfeld’s department had ordered changes early this year as the program was transitioning from Redflex to Xerox control.”
Rebekah Scheinfeld, you are Today’s Worst Person In Chicago.
*
“At the City’s request Redflex categorically rejected any captured event with a recorded yellow light time below three seconds,” Ferguson wrote. “However, after Xerox took over the operations of the RLC program, the City directed Xerox to accept RLC violations with yellow light times above 2.9 seconds.”
*
From the Beachwood vault (see the item Red-Light Rahmpage):
“[Ald. Scott] Waguespack recalled that when he and a handful of aldermen began asking questions about the red light program, the mayor’s aides didn’t like being asked,” John Kass writes for the Tribune.

“And they wouldn’t give any answers. Who was in control? What’s the policy need for the red light program? They refused to tell us,” Waguespack told me.

If the mayor’s office could eliminate the city council, it would.
On second thought, it already has.
*


*
The Sun-Times, incredibly, sees progress.
*
The red-light program might be the best embodiment of the Emanuel administration: Lying through their teeth while sticking it to the little guy and dismissing the few aldermen interested enough to ask questions as pests. Oh, and also, fake reform that just makes things worse.
–
Bears Fans Are Who They Are
And so is everyone else.
Jim “Coach” Coffman’s SportsMonday will appear tomorrow as SportsTuesday.
The College Football Report: Mississippi vs. America
Colonel Reb vs. Admiral Akbar.
The Weekend In Chicago Rock
Featuring: JD’s Revenge, Sharon Van Etten, Lucius, The Afghan Whigs, Robin Trower, Brett James & The Vintage Youth, Delta Spirit, Bayside, Made in Heights, Odesza, the Augustines, Tokimonsta, TAPES, The Bots, and The Front Porch Step.
–
BeachBook
* What I Saw As A Bears Ball Boy.
* Rejected By Ivy League Kindergarten.
* Warren On Obama: He Protected Wall Street, Not Families.
–
TweetWood


*


*


–
The Beachwood Tip Line: Not yellow.

Permalink

Posted on October 13, 2014