Speed cameras, operated by Blue Line Solutions, were turned on Sept. 4 at 21 public, private and charter schools in Youngstown for a two-week warning period. Sept. 4 was the first day of classes for the Youngstown City School District.

YOUNGSTOWN — After a two-week warning period, unmanned cameras in Youngstown school zones, last used in June 2023, will issue citations to speeders starting today.

“We worked real hard on that one, and I’m so glad it’s starting,” city Law Director Lori Shells Simmons said. “Some people are not happy with it, but ultimately we have to look out for the children’s safety.”

Speed cameras were turned on Sept. 4 at 21 public, private and charter schools in the city for a two-week warning period. Sept. 4 was the first day of classes for the Youngstown City School District.

“My heart is for the children,” Shells Simmons said. “Any time I can protect our children I do it. Hopefully, people will slow down.”

The city implemented the speed cameras in phases beginning Feb. 21, 2023. They were turned off between May 18 and June 2, 2023, when classes ended. The cameras at the schools were supposed to be turned back on Sept. 18, 2023, when classes began in Youngstown after a nearly one-month teacher strike was resolved.

But that didn’t happen because of a disagreement between the city administration and the courts, leading to the cameras not being in use for more than a year.

The issue was how appeals of speed citations would be handled.

The two sides came to a tentative agreement in May that was finalized Aug. 21 during a meeting between representatives from municipal court, the clerk of courts, the police department, the law department and Blue Line Solutions, the Chattanooga, Tennessee, company that runs the speed camera program.

Donna McCollum, a part-time municipal court magistrate, will start next month holding court once per month to hear appeals. Also, details were ironed out as to how computer systems at the court and Blue Line will interface.

During the three months of enforcement in 2023, 22,424 speeding citations were issued. City officials had said about 300 of them were contested.

Because the program is starting over, Shells Simmons said, those who contested the speeding citations had their cases dismissed, and they don’t have to pay.

Also, the majority of those who received citations in 2023 didn’t pay them. They also had the slate wiped clean and had the fees forgiven, she said.

The city collected $596,878 from the citations, with more than $300,000 received since it became publicly known in September 2023 that the program was suspended, and there’s no apparent penalty for not paying the citations.

The city gets 65% of the money collected, with Blue Line receiving the other 35%.

Blue Line’s take of the paid citations is $321,396.

Cameras are in use on school days from the time kids head to class until 6 p.m. They aren’t used on weekends, during the summer and on days when class is not in session.

During the two hours in the morning that kids go to school and the two hours when they leave, the speed limit in those zones is 20 mph. In between and after school ends, the speed limit is 25 and 35 mph, depending on the location.

New with the reinstatement of the cameras is Blue Line-installed flashing beacons in school zones that blink a yellow light before, during and after arrival and dismissal times for each school, indicating the 20 mph reduced speed limit. The beacons don’t warn drivers that the cameras are on during other times of the day.

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.

Motorists do not get points on their driving record for the citations.

Even at the minimum $100 penalty, the collection rate was about 41% during the three months the cameras were in use last year.

In a Sept. 11, 2023, email to city administration officials as city council was preparing modifications to the speed camera ordinance, David Magura Jr., court administrator, wrote: “Rushing this process without due diligence could lead to unintended consequences and complications in our operations,” and the administration’s proposal “does not offer a comprehensive analysis of the potential ramifications on our docket and operations.”

City council made the minor changes Sept. 20, 2023, to the ordinance and it didn’t move the court to act.

City council agreed in March to have the court hire a part-time magistrate to hear cases from those contesting the speed citations in school zones.

Blue Line previously had offered to pay for a magistrate to get the cameras operating again. Instead, McCollum’s salary for hearing the appeals will be reimbursed through the city’s citation funds.

Under state law that restricts the use of speed cameras, Youngstown can use its share of the speed camera citation collections for only school safety resources, such as improvements to school zones and crosswalks near those buildings.

The city has spent none of its citation money to date.

The legality of the unmanned speed cameras is open to interpretation.

Last year’s state transportation budget included a provision addressing the use of a “traffic law photo-monitoring device.” The provision was first passed in March 2015.

The provision states, “A local authority shall use a traffic law photo-monitoring device to detect and enforce traffic law violations only if a law enforcement officer is present at the location of the device at all times during the operation of the device.”

The Ohio Supreme Court in July 2017 ruled it was unconstitutional for the state legislature to require a police officer be present when cities with home rule-use cameras for traffic enforcement. Youngstown is a home-rule city.

The court ruled 5-2 in favor of Dayton, which brought the lawsuit, writing that a state law “which requires that a law enforcement officer be present at the location of a traffic camera infringes on the municipality’s legislative authority without serving an overriding state interest and is therefore unconstitutional.”