CLEVELAND, Tenn. -- Cleveland is losing its red light cameras on March 31.
Traffipax Inc., the contract company that operates the five cameras here, has notified the city that it will decommission the cameras with a year still left on its three-year contract.
The company cites a financial loss on the cameras as its reason and claims the city has lost money, too.
"We are not making money but we haven't lost money," City Manager Janice Casteel said Friday. "All we have been able to do is pay for the cameras."
Making money was not the reason the city agreed to the cameras in the first place, she said.
"Cleveland went into this for the right reason, for public safety," she said.
And on that score the cameras have been successful, she said, reducing accidents and their severity at those intersections.
The company signed a three-year contract with Traffipax in February, 2008, and agreed to pay the company $16,750 a month. The city started issuing $50 citations at five locations in October, 2008.
In a letter to the city, Traffipax President Stuart Mackiernan noted that the company incurred all the upfront costs for the cameras.
BY THE NUMBERSTicket cameras in fiscal year 2009$201,000: Budgeted ticket revenue$111,796: Actual ticket reven($89,204): Variance$201,000: Budgeted expenditures$132,734: Actual expenditures($68,266): VarianceSource: City of Cleveland audit
"Analysis of the sites shows that over the past few years, both the city of Cleveland and Traffipax have been operating these sites at a financial loss," Mr. Mackiernan's letter states.
"Therefore, it is with great regret Traffipax wishes to terminate this agreement. Our plan is to have these sites decommissioned before March 31, 2010. Citation data will be delivered to you in an agreed-upon format so that you are able to continue to collect on unpaid citations," the letter states.
Cleveland Finance Director Mike Keith said Friday that last month's financial statement showed the red light traffic fund owed the city general fund $25,000. That money was loaned to the red light camera fund from the general fund, Mr. Keith said.
There is about a 45-day lag from the issuing of a citation to receiving payments, Mr. Keith said, since the police department must review the videotapes first.
"Our projection is the fund will basically break even," Mr. Keith said.