Laguna Woods’ City Council voted to renew the city’s  red-light camera contract through July 2011.  They elected, however, to delete the provision which reduces their fees to the vendor, if there is a decrease in revenue from the red-light tickets, in anticipation that such a provision may be seen as a “cost-per-ticket” payment arrangement.  Instead the city will pay the contract on a flat fee basis at a rate of $25,000 per month. 

This concern over the type of payment arrangement is the result of last year’s court decision in which the “cost-per-ticket” contract was ruled  illegal by an Orange County Appellate Court.  While the case is currently under consideration with the California Supreme Court, and this ruling could be overturned, the city of Laguna Woods has opted to play it safe, and avoid the possibility defense attorneys will get these tickets thrown out based upon this issue, by implementing the monthly flat fee payment schedule instead.

A “cost-per-ticket” contract is beneficial to the city in that it guarantees the cost of the red-light camera program will not exceed the city’s revenue from red light tickets.  The potential that the contract can be manipulated for profit, however, raised the legal issues presently being litigated in the courts.  According to the City Council, the $25,000 monthly fee was considered fiscally safe as their red-light camera revenue numbers, while varying, typically do not fall below this amount.

The Council also voted to keep the red-light camera tickets as vehicle code violations, rather than administrative citations, in part because vehicle code violations carry larger fines.