HOUSTON – City Council put the brakes on red-light cameras for good on Wednesday.
Council members first passed a non-binding resolution to take the cameras down, but then took it a step further – outlawing them in the City of Houston.
The full-scale repeal of the ordinance that originally allowed the cameras means they can never go back up -- unless City Council were to start from scratch sometime in the future.
"This is a big day for the City of Houston," said Michael Kubosh, an outspoken red-light camera opponent. "It started back last November when 186,000 people voted to get rid of these cameras. And today, the City Council has finally done what we asked them to do and that’s to vote to get these cameras out of Houston."
But now, the city has a legal fight ahead.
They’ll be fighting the manufacturer of the cameras, American Traffic Solutions, in court over breach-of-contract claims.
"A deal is a deal," said Andy Taylor, the lead counsel for ATS. "We have a valid, multi-year, multi-million-dollar contract, and we’re going to seek to enforce our rights in a court of law. We didn’t pick this battle. The city’s the one who sued us. But we will respond and we will prevail."
Taylor said ATS is seeking $25 million in damages from the city – money that taxpayers could be on the hook for.
If the city has to pay up, some council members worried it would blow a hole in the city's budget and lead to additional job cuts.
"I don't know what downspiral this will send us in if we are not victorious in the end," Councilwoman Wanda Adams asked during Wednesday's meeting.
Still, Mayor Annise Parker insisted that the city would not pay ATS anywhere near that settlement amount. City Attorney Dave Feldman argued that the city doesn't owe ATS anything and that Wednesday's vote would give him the "arsenal" he needed to fight ATS in court.
"(Paying) $25 million is ludicrous," Parker said. "ATS keeps pushing the number up. Having to pay that kind of amount would a serious impact on the city's budget."
Taylor, the representative from ATS, said the company had presented an offer to the city Tuesday that would have settled the issue for no monetary damages. The catch is that the city would have had to leave the cameras on until December of 2013.
Parker did not accept that deal.
So while the breach-of-contract case plays out in court, it's unclear when the cameras will be dismantled. ATS owns the devices so it's up to the company to take them down. However, right now there's a judge's order preventing that from happening.
Feldman, the city attorney, said he expected the judge to rescind that order after Wednesday's vote.
Red-light runners who were caught by the cameras in the past few weeks will still have to pay their tickets, Parker said Wednesday, reminding Houstonians that running red lights is still illegal.
