City keeping red-light firm so it can cut ties later
Mayor Rahm Emanuel reluctantly agreed Friday to extend for a second time Chicago’s contract with a redlight camera vendor at the center of a bribery scandal to make certain the city can sever the relationship for good.
Three months ago, Emanuel ordered an independent audit of Arizona-based Redflex Traffic Systems — and barred the company from competing for the new contract — amid allegations that Redflex showered more free trips than first believed on a former city official who oversaw the contract.
It happened after the company’s internal investigation concluded that Redflex paid to send former city transportation official John Bills to the Super Bowl and other sporting events and allegedly concealed those favors from the city.
Although Redflex was barred from competing for the new contract, Emanuel extended the disgraced company’s contract for six months to give the city time to select a new vendor.
Now, the contract is being extended for a second time and competing vendors are being explicitly told that their request to continue subcontracting with Redflex to ease the transition has been denied.
How long the extension lasts will depend on how quickly the new ven- dor can make the transition — and speed will be a factor in determining the winning bidder, according to mayoral spokesperson Bill McCaffrey.
The decision to prolong a relationship that has been a huge embarrassment to the city is somewhat surprising.
But McCaffrey argued that City Hall had no choice. In order to continue the red-light program — and the millions it has generated while making Chicago streets more safe — Redflex must be allowed to continue.
“We’re not extending the relationship with them. We’re making sure the relationship comes to an end,” McCaffrey said.
“The red-light program aims to increase safety and reduce the number of dangerous angle crashes. We are not gonna interrupt the program while selecting a new vendor.”
The revised deadline for submitting bids — after Friday’s addendum barring vendors from using Redflex — is May 10.
“Without issuing an addendum, a winning bidder could have used them as a subcontractor,” McCaffrey said.
Red-light cameras were gradually installed at accident-prone Chicago intersections beginning in 2003. The cameras pumped out a high of 791,111 tickets in 2009, before dropping in recent years to 763,419 in 2010 and 662,046 in 2011.
The mayor’s decision to oust Redflex marked the end of a lucrative relationship that has generated $100 million in revenues for the company and $300 million in fines for the city.
Former Chicago Inspector General David Hoffman was hired by Redflex to investigate the company’s relationship with Bills as well as Redflex decision to pay Bills’ associate more than $500,000 in commissions.
Redflex was barred from competing for yet another cash-rich contract — to install speed cameras around schools and parks — after the Chicago Tribune first disclosed the company’s relationship with Bills.
The Tribune initially reported that Redflex had given a lucrative contract to Bills’ friend and that the company had picked up the tab for Bills’ stay at a luxury hotel during the former city official’s annual trip to White Sox spring training.
The stories prompted Inspector General Joe Ferguson to open an investigation.