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YOUNGSTOWN -- Those who've contested speeding citations in school zones from unmanned cameras have been sitting in "limbo" as the Youngstown Municipal Court hasn't scheduled a hearing on any of those cases, city police officials said.
Councilman Pat Kelly, D-5th Ward, asked police officials at Thursday's safety committee meeting about contested citations.
"I'm concerned that people don't have a chance to dispute these tickets," he said. "They're just using cameras and telling people, 'you're guilty.' To me, that's not right. Somebody has to have a chance to dispute these tickets."
Police Lt. Brian Welsh, the department's fiscal officer, and Lt. Robert Gentile, head of the department's accident investigation and traffic unit, said they agree.
"The court has not been set up," Gentile said. "I've tried and tried and tried. It's in the hands of the law department and the court and there's not much more I can do."
Under state law, those who are issued citations from unmanned cameras can contest them and the matter is resolved in local courts. For Youngstown, that would be the city's municipal court.
But Gentile said once people contest the citations, they end up in "limbo" as the court hasn't scheduled any of the cases.
Those who get citations for speed camera violations in school zones are given 30 days to pay or fill out a form to contest it, he said.
"It's out of my hands," Gentile said. "There's no timeline on when you have to have a court date."
He added: "I'm frustrated."
COURT DOCKET
Attempts Thursday to reach Carla Baldwin, the court's presiding judge, and Clerk of Courts Sarah Brown-Clark were unsuccessful.
Law Director Jeff Limbian said: "We reached out again to see if the court's docket is not ready to accommodate what might be an onslaught of new cases. The administration is ready to pay for a part-time magistrate to handle the cases in a new docket."
The city started giving speeding citations at schools in phases starting Feb. 21 after a one-month warning period. Those who contested citations at the start of the program haven't heard anything about their appeal in five months.
To date, the city has received about $270,000 from the citations, Welsh said.
Motorists caught going at least 11 mph over the speed limit and up to 14 mph over it face a civil penalty of $100. Those going 15 to 20 mph over the limit face a $125 penalty and those traveling faster than 20 mph over the limit face a $150 penalty. They do not get points on their driving record for the citations.
The city gets 65 percent of the money collected from speed citations with Blue Line Solutions, a Chattanooga, Tenn., company that runs the program, receiving the remaining 35 percent. That would mean Blue Line has received about $145,000 to date from the cameras in Youngstown.
Cameras are only in use on school days from the time kids headed to class until 6 p.m. They aren't used on weekends, during the summer and on days when class is not in session.
The cameras will be turned on again Aug. 23 when classes resume.
Under state law that restricts the use of speed cameras, Youngstown will be able to use its share of the fines for only school safety resources, such as improvements to school zones and crosswalks near those buildings.
NUMBER OF CITATIONS
Gentile and Welsh said Thursday that Blue Line has not provided information about the number of citations issued.
That information is supposed to be given to the city four times a year, Gentile said. He expects to receive it for the first time as soon as next week.
Glenn Branam, Blue Line regional sales manager, said Thursday the company will give that information to only the city and that should occur soon.
A Blue Line official said at a March 21 public meeting that 1,987 civil citations were issued as of that date, only a month into the first phase of the program.
That number didn't include a breakdown by school, which the Blue Line reports will provide, Gentile said.
LICENSE PLATE READERS
Blue Line is in the process of installing automatic license plate readers at 32 locations in the city with about 65 percent of them in school zones, Gentile said.
The remaining cameras would be put in high crime areas, he said.
Blue Line doesn't normally separate license plate readers from cameras, but agreed to do that for Youngstown, Branam said.
The high-speed, computer-controlled camera systems are typically mounted on street poles and capture photographs of cars and their license plates that are used to assist in solving crimes or helping find missing people.
The city gets an automatic license plate reader free of charge from Blue Line for every school zone camera, Gentile said.
Additional cameras would cost the city $3,500 each, Branam said.
There's been a delay in installing the cameras because solar panel brackets needed for the readers are on back order, Gentile said.
Gentile said he was told two weeks ago they would be ready by the end of the month, but because of the delays with the brackets that won't happen. He said he is hopeful they'd be ready by the end of next week.
The data collected by the license plate readers is deleted every 30 days on a rolling basis, Gentile said.