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If you are among the 50,000 drivers with outstanding fines due for red light camera tickets, sorry, but the city is still looking to collect that money from you. Today the Los Angeles City Council voted in favor of continuing to pay the contractor hired to collect those fines.
Although the red light camera program was terminated in the summer, the city still stands to generate revenue by collecting on the pricey tickets.
The contractor is American Traffic Solutions, which is based in Arizona, and, as we sometimes may forget, the City of L.A. has boycotted Arizona businesses since May 2010. ATS is one of a handful of businesses with which L.A. continues to do business, despite the boycott.
City Councilman Mitchell Englander urged the council towards an ultimate 11-2 vote in favor of paying the Arizona contractor about $11,000 a month to collect on the outstanding tickets. Last month, those tickets brought in $107,000 in revenue for L.A.; Assistant Chief Legislative Analyst June Gibson said in Council today "the city can and should end the contract when the cost of the contractor exceeds the ticket revenue," reports MyFoxLA.
Among the dissenters was Councilman Paul Koretz, who said: "I thought we voted to kill this red light camera program. It seems not to die. I think we need to put a stake through its heart at some point."
If you've got one of those unpaid tickets, alas, the debt is not dead to the city.
