Committee approves new photo‑enforcement contract with VeriMobility, including pilots for sound and 'don't block the box'

The special Ways and Means committee approved a contract award for the city's red‑light and speed camera program and authorized pilot features, the chair said July 7.

Chair Miguel Sanchez called the vote after a staff presentation and vendor remarks. The resolution read into the record authorized a contract award to "American Traffic Solutions Incorporate DBA, Garrett Mobility" for photo‑enforcement services; staff said the vendor will provide red‑light, school‑zone speed cameras and pilot programs for "don't block the box" and limited sound monitoring.

Why it matters: staff described the procurement as a roughly nine‑month competitive RFP process intended to replace legacy equipment and improve evidence quality, uptime and data access for courts and the public. "This has been about a 9 month effort, to renew our… Speed and red light camera contract and add 2 new camera functionalities as pilot, for the city," the presenter said.

Finance director Sarah Ferreira summarized the financial assumptions underpinning the contract: tickets are priced at $50 with the vendor receiving $7 per ticket plus a $25 per‑camera monthly fee. Using prior vendor data, staff estimated roughly 48,000 red‑light ticket events and 72,000 speed events per year, yielding annual gross estimates staff presented as approximately $1,326,000 for red‑light and $2,430,000 for speed enforcement under current assumptions.

Vendor Wayne Jenkins of VeriMobility described his company's experience running large programs and said VeriMobility will retain ownership of cameras under a lease model and maintain local technicians for repairs. "We're essentially leasing the camera systems to you… If something breaks and something goes wrong, we'll be the ones to take care of it," he said.

On transparency and accuracy, the court administrator (introduced for the record) told the committee the new vendor back office will produce stronger evidence packages and more accessible data for judges and defendants. "The evidence packages are gonna be a lot stronger… it was night and day," she said, adding that the system will provide more detailed metrics (speed, direction, mapped incidents) and configurable dashboards.

Staff stressed that the 'don't block the box' pilot is limited by state statute to three citywide sites and a two‑year window; sound cameras are a one‑year pilot and will only be installed in wards whose councilor requests them. The presenter said signage will be posted at enforcement locations.

Quality control measures cited in the presentation include pre‑deployment testing, automated alerts to local technicians when cameras are down, human review of violations in the back office and contract performance standards tied to financial penalties for missed service levels.

The committee approved the items by voice vote after Vice Chair Taylor moved to approve and Councilor Peterson seconded. The resolution was read as authorizing the Board of Contracts and Supply award of the identified contract.

Next steps: staff said final legal tweaks remain but are not expected to change pricing or scope; implementation timelines and business rules (including data purge schedules) will be finalized before full deployment.