HOUSTON – A federal judge ruled Sunday that the strongest opponents of Houston’s banned red-light cameras can’t intervene in an ongoing lawsuit that will determine the future of the controversial devices.
The Kubosh brothers have been outspoken critics of city’s 70 red-light cameras and collected thousands of petition signatures to place the measure on the November ballot. Proposition 3 narrowly failed, outlawing the cameras.
The result of the vote is expected to cost the city’s police department millions of dollars in annual revenue.
Once the vote was certified on Nov. 15, the city turned the cameras off.
But the city also filed a federal lawsuit asking a judge to decide whether the camera’s vendor, American Traffic Solutions, was due any money since the city was still locked in a contract.
The Kuboshes, claiming the city would lose the case on purpose to keep the cameras’ revenue, filed a "motion to intervene" in the case late in November.
"I believe the city wants to fall on their sword and allow the cameras to come back," Michael Kubosh said on Sunday.
In court documents filed Sunday, U.S. District Judge Lynn Hughes wrote that "because the Kuboshes lack standing to defend the constitutionality of the election, they may not intervene."
"The Kuboshes may not intervene because they have not demonstrated an inadequacy of representation or an independent interest," Hughes also wrote.
Essentially, the judge ruled that the city is already representing the "will of the people," meaning the Kuboshes did not need to interfere.
The Kuboshes’ attorney, David Furlow, said he would appeal the judge’s latest ruling by Tuesday and planned to ask Texas’ attorney general to get involved.
"There’s a real possibility that if (the city) wins the litigation, then they’re able to tell the citizens that they fought hard for them," said Furlow, "and if they lose the litigation, then they say, ‘Oh, well, we tried hard. Now we’ll take the money again.’"
However, it’s not just the Kuboshes that have concerns about the way City Attorney David Feldman is handling the case.
"The city has taken a very friendly approach with the ATS lawsuit," said Mike Sullivan, a city councilman. "I don’t know that they’re being as aggressive as they should be."
Feldman has strongly denied the notion that he’s collaborating with ATS and has vowed to fight for what the voters decided.
"I’m not much into the idea that you can play games in front of a federal judge," 11 News Legal Analyst Gerald Treece said. "Federal judges have a way of ferreting out if a side is throwing something or giving in."
Hughes is not expected to give a final ruling on the case until at least January.
