Red-light camera tickets

Boynton might stop pursuing fees

Motorists who haven’t yet paid red-light camera ticket fees in Boynton Beach might be off the hook.

City officials recently discussed whether it’s worth it to keep pursuing court cases against drivers accused of running red lights who failed to pay the $158 fine. The hourly rate for the city’s legal services, which includes taking tickets to court, is $195, according to city documents.

There are some red-lightcamera tickets that remain unpaid after the city shut down its program on Jan. 1. The city has racked up more than $5,000 in legal costs related to red-light tickets in February alone, according to city documents.

Mayor Steven Grant at a city meeting Tuesday asked the city’s legal staff to determine how many tickets are left outstanding so officials can “make a business decision” whether to pursue or dismiss the cases.

“I don’t want to be spending the city’s money on more attorney’s fees than what we can get from the red light tickets,” he said.

Grant asked legal staff to run the numbers by the end of March.

The number of outstanding unpaid tickets and the legal fees will start to dwindle in the upcoming months, city legal staff said.

City Attorney James Cherof said during Tuesday’s meeting there are still court cases pendcamera

ing, but because tickets are no longer being written, the number of cases will drop “and then disappear completely” as more are settled out of court.

However, he said, a federal case remains that will continue to incur legal expenses until it’s settled. The federal lawsuit involves folks who received red-light tickets in nearly 100 Florida cities and are now seeking a refund, he said.

“Everything that the city has collected, in theory, would have to be paid back” if the case is successful, he said.

Cherof didn’t specify whether the refunds would encompass all tickets written since the start of the program in 2011, or if it would be for a shorter period of time. He couldn’t be reached for comment after the meeting.

The lawsuit is currently on hold pending two Supreme Court cases, said Assistant City Attorney Shana Bridgeman.

On Thursday, the Florida House voted to ban red-light cameras statewide. If the Senate supports the bill, the ban would start in July Steven Grant, 2020.

Red-light programs remain operating in four Broward County cities and 16 in Miami-Dade County.

When Boynton shut down its 15 cameras at seven intersections on Dec. 31 at 11:59 p.m., after five years of using them, it effectively killed the program in Palm Beach County. Boynton Beach had been the last city in the county using the cameras.