If the council approves the ordinance the amnesty period will lead to the city subcontracting with private attorneys to take motorists with outstanding fines to court to collect the citations.
[Update: The council again delayed voting on the amnesty ordinance, putting it off until May 21. Council members want to look into the prospect of Redflex, the company that administers the SafeLight/SafeSpeed program, sharing the cost with the city for initiating lawsuits against motorists with outstanding fines.]
An ordinance that would offer a temporary amnesty period for motorists who have incurred late penalties on traffic citations received through the city's SafeLight/SafeSpeed program will be back before the City-Parish Council Tuesday. If the council approves the ordinance the amnesty period will lead to the city subcontracting with private attorneys to take motorists with outstanding fines to court to collect the citations. There are nearly 30,000 past-due tickets generated through both the camera-enforcement program as well as parking tickets.
The council tabled the ordinance last month amid questions about how fees collected through litigation would be shared between the city and Redflex, the company that oversees the camera enforcement system. Under normal circumstances the city receives 60 percent of the value of citations while Reflex gets 40 percent. Chief Administrative Officer Dee Stanley tells The Advocate that ratio will likely be observed for collections obtained via litigation, although the actual amount that would go to the city and Redflex will be about a third the face value of the citation/late fee; the attorneys pressing the litigation in court would get the lion's share.
To read tonight's council agenda, click here.