Naperville drops red-light camera vendor

Red-light cameras won't be monitoring Naperville drivers for at least six more months.

The city council voted 7-1 to terminate its contract with Maryland-based Traffipax, Inc. after the company was unable to comply with all of the terms of its contract despite being given extra time to do so.

"What is a concern to our staff is we promised this community we would deliver a system with integrity and with confidence," said City Manager Pro Tem Robert Marshall. "We as a staff have lost confidence in the ability of Traffipax to deliver the contract they entered into with the city last September ... so that troubles us greatly."

Instead, the city will focus on finding a new vendor to install cameras along Route 59 intersections.

They city's contract with Traffipax was a $1 million, three-year deal for eight cameras at four intersections. Eventually, the city planned to equip 10 to 15 intersections.

Cameras at the first two intersections, Fort Hill Drive and Aurora Avenue and 95th Street and Book Road, were supposed to be installed in January and the city said it would give motorists a 30-day warning period before issuing $100 citations.

Months later, the cameras still are not operating on par with the city's standards. The council considered terminating its contract with Traffipax earlier this month but agreed to give the vendor two more weeks to comply with the city's requests.

But Tuesday, the city staff said there are still two major problems -- monitoring of left-turn violations and prosecuting multiple violations occurring simultaneously.

New Traffipax President Donald Wood apologized for not meeting all of the city's requirements on time but said the company had been working diligently.

"We are prepared to go live tomorrow issuing citations," Wood said. "Are we going to get every single violation, every single citation? No. I don't believe there is a system out there that is going to get you every single violation every single time."

But councilmen voted 7-1 to terminate the contract.

"We have given an inordinate amount of effort to this as a city," said Councilman James Boyajian. "We should not be the guinea pigs for this company. We're the fourth largest city in Illinois. We deserve better than that."

Councilman John Rosanova said "it's time to end the suffering" and that the public is going to lose confidence in the program if the situation drags out.

Councilman Richard Furstenau was the lone dissenting vote and said he believed the council was "splitting hairs." Mayor George Pradel was absent.

The cameras were originally projected to bring in $2.4 million for the city although that amount had already been lowered in recent months. Furstenau requested that the city prepare a financial analysis of no longer operating the cameras as planned.

The city is already in the process of searching for a vendor to install cameras with an emphasis on state and county routes and hopes to select a vendor in July. There could then be cameras installed on these roads as early as November.