City of Costa Mesa*

Findings 6.1 Camera revenues: The five cities in Orange County using RLCs are unable to determine through existing accounting systems how much revenue the cameras are producing. Cities should have this information to make informed decisions about RLCs. www.ci.costa-mesa.ca.us .... . . . . Response: The City of Costa Mesa agrees with this finding. Historically, the data available to the City from the Court has not afforded the ability to match red light revenue received from the Court with the specific list of red light camera citations for which the revenue was generated. During the past couple of months, the City's Finance Department has been working with the Centralized Accounting Unit of Orange County Superior Court - CJC. The City has requested to be provided with a report to breakdown red light camera revenue by citation. The Court subsequently provided a sample report for red light camera revenue generated exclusively during the month of January 2005. This report was said to have been somewhat labor Intensive to produce by the Centralized Accounting Unit staff. While this may be true, it is the City's goal to be able to receive reports of this nature on a monthly basis. Progress: Since our initial report on July 26 2005, efforts have been made to accurately track the amount of revenue generated by the operation of red light cameras. For example, on September 19 2005, the City of Costa Mesa hosted a meeting with representatives from each of the five cities in Orange County that operate a red light camera Our goal, as recommended by the Orange program. County Grand Jury, is to work together with the Orange County Superior Court to resolve accounting and reporting issues to determine the net operating effects of our red light camera programs. On October 11 2005, we submitted a letter to Alan Slater (Chief Executive Officer of Orange County Superior Court) addressing the intent of the five cities to receive a monthly RLC report with three options for his staff's consideration. To date, the Court has not responded to the letter (see attached letter). Approximately 33 percent of all RLC 6.2 Unpaid citations: citations issued by the five cities in 2004 were not paid, leading to potentially significant, but unknown, losses in revenue to the cities, the county, and the state. Response: The City of Costa Mesa agrees with, or at least cannot dispute, this finding, as we do not have the data from all five cities to claim otherwise. A review of the red light camera citations filed in 2004 by the City of Costa Mesa revealed that only 6.49% of the citations remain open (as of June 30, 2005). If all 996 of these open cites were to be paid, it would generate over $325,000 of additional revenue for the City of Costa Mesa, the County of Orange and the State of California. In an effort to improve the percentage of red light camera citations that reach final disposition, the City of Costa Mesa intends to implement an additional procedure that is within an existing policy established by the Executive Committee of the Orange County Superior Court (Title: Filing and Processing of Photo Red Light Citations). The finer points of the procedure are yet to be established between the City of Costa Mesa and the Harbor Justice Center, however, the framework for the procedure is already spelled out in the Court's policy. The purpose of the policy is to address the violators who fail to respond to their red light camera citations. Red light camera citations that involve violators who fail to appear for their scheduled hearing date will be reported back to the originating law enforcement agency 60 days from the filing date of the citation. The issuing agency will perform a Soundex (DMV Driver License photo) photograph comparison of the alleged violator with the driver image captured during the original red light camera violation. In such cases where the Soundex photograph matches the driver's image from the red light camera violation, the issuing agency will return the Soundex photograph along with a signed affidavit (In Support of Request for DMV Hold on Driver License) to the court. The court may then process the matter pursuant to California Penal Code Section 1214.1 (Civil assessment for failure to appear). Should the violator fail to respond to the Court's subsequent notice (CPC 1214.1), the Court may impose a $250 civil assessment, a California Department of Motor Vehicles Driver License hold pursuant to California Vehicle Code Section 40509.5(a) (Notice to Department: Failure to Appear) and submit to the Franchise Tax Board Court-Ordered Debt (FTBCOD) and Franchise Tax Board Tax Intercept (FTBTI). Note that the above procedure is an additional assessment and not in lieu of the responsibility of the violator to respond to the original red light camera citation. The procedure will certainly create an additional workload for the staff of the Court and the It is anticipated that originating law enforcement agency. implementation of the procedure will reduce the loss of red light camera citation revenue to the City of Costa Mesa, the County of Orange, and the State of California. ---- Progress: In October 2005, we have implemented the Civil Assessment Protocol for offenders who fail to appear or pay their fines. This recommendation is complete. 6.3 Police Officers: Currently, only sworn police officers in each city determine which RLC citations to issue. This may take officers away from more critical assignments. Response: The City of Costa Mesa disagrees partially with this finding. The Costa Mesa Police Department currently utilizes only sworn police officers to determine which red light camera citations to issue. However, at this time it is the City's contention that sworn police officers are best suited for this function based upon the level of training and experience that There are a variety of factors sworn police officers possess. that should be considered when viewing red light camera video images and determining whether or not to issue a citation. The sworn police officer that has field experience with traffic enforcement, accident investigation, and courtroom testimony is in the best position to make the decision about citation issuance. Notwithstanding the above paragraph, the Costa Mesa Police Department will continue to explore and re-evaluate the option of utilizing civilian police department employees for various red light camera program functions. This will be particularly important as the City is currently in discussions with our red light camera vendor regarding adding additional approaches to our system. Progress: To date, the Police Department has trained civilian employees to review red light camera violations captured on video, issue citations, and perform civil assessment functions. Designated civilian personnel are in process of being trained to California State Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training (P.O.S.T.) as Traffic Accident Investigators to assist in elevating the level of training and experience to that of a sworn police officer. The Police Department has begun to phase civilian personnel into the processing of RLC citations. The Police Department will continue to utilize police officers for Court testimony and presentation. This recommendation is complete. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7.