* Press release…

Effective February 6, the Illinois Office of Comptroller will no longer assist municipalities in collection efforts for fines for red-light camera tickets, a system that is both unfair to low-income Illinoisans and the subject of a federal corruption probe.

“My office is taking decisive action in response to unethical arrangements that have come to light regarding the red-light camera industry,” Comptroller Susana A. Mendoza said. “As a matter of public policy, this system is clearly broken. I am exercising the moral authority to prevent state resources being used to assist a shady process that victimizes taxpayers.”

News reports show these tickets fall hardest and disproportionately on minority and low-income drivers. The $100 red-light ticket camera fines can double if they initially go unpaid, and then almost triple, with vendors and private collection agencies in some cases able to keep a portion of the funds the state collects on behalf of municipalities. Loss of a driver’s license can mean loss of a job for some people who can’t afford to keep up with these fines and late fees.

The Chicago Sun-Times quoted one government official who simultaneously acted as a consultant to a red-light company - helping get them contracts with certain towns - saying he gets a cut of the money paid on every such ticket issued in those towns. Several more arrangements like this one have been revealed in other reports.

“This kind of arrangement stinks — it’s plain rotten,” Mendoza said. “It exploits taxpayers and especially those who struggle to pay the fines imposed, often the working poor and communities of color. We can’t continue the practice of municipal employees directly pocketing cash from contracts they arrange.”

Starting in 2012, the General Assembly allowed municipalities and other local governments to use the Comptroller’s offset system to help collect debts, such as court fines, administrative judgments, traffic tickets, etc., generally through withholding of state income tax refunds or other state payments. Historically that offset system has been used to help collect child support, overpayment of benefits, and other types of debt.

In recent years, a growing percentage of these collections have involved red-light camera ticket violations, mainly from Chicago suburbs. The State does not collect for the City of Chicago’s red-light or speeding camera tickets because of controversy over the use of those cameras as well as the reliability of ticket and motorist data provided by the City as part of the administrative process necessary to validate the debts themselves.

An ABC7/Sun-Times story also found most red-light tickets do NOT go to motorists who run through intersections during red lights. They go to motorists failing to come to a complete stop while making right turns on red where such turns are allowed. Many states outside of Illinois ban the use of these red-light cameras entirely.

That means low-income drivers who really count on their state income tax refund can see it nearly vanish if a fine for a relatively minor traffic offence such as failing to come to a complete stop during a right-turn-on-red, triples to nearly $300.

Municipalities are free to hire private debt collectors to go after motorists who have not paid the fines. But Comptroller Mendoza urges all municipalities to take a second look at any contracts with red-light camera companies and determine if those contracts were procured properly in light of recent news reports and criminal investigations concerning the red-light camera industry and its relationship with government officials.

“I think it’s critical that the state’s collection mechanisms should not be hijacked by political insiders to profit from an enforcement system whose integrity is now being seriously questioned,” Mendoza said.

* Sun-Times…

In 2017, the Chicago Tribune reported on controversial efforts by SafeSpeed to install red-light cameras in Oakbrook Terrace — efforts opposed by state bureaucrats but supported by state Sen. Martin Sandoval, whose campaign fund SafeSpeed donated to heavily.

On Sept. 24, Sandoval’s home and offices were searched by the feds, and SafeSpeed was listed on a search warrant.

The feds also seized $60,000 from the home of Oakbrook Terrace’s mayor last fall, according to a federal record that does not explain the origins or significance of the cash.

* More Sun-Times…

Federal agents seized more than $51,000 in cash from a safe found inside Cook County Commissioner Jeffrey Tobolski’s house last year, according to a just-obtained federal document that indicates authorities are interested in yet another suburban mayor: Oakbrook Terrace’s Tony Ragucci.

Agents seized a whopping $60,000 in cash from Ragucci’s west suburban home late last year, the document shows, though it does not indicate whether he’s being eyed as part of the same political corruption investigation that’s been rocking local governments. […]

The federal document also reveals that $9,720 in cash was seized from Sandoval’s Chicago house. His home and state offices were raided Sept. 24, and he announced in November he was resigning effective New Year’s Day.

On Sept. 26, federal agents descended on the homes or offices of several suburban officials, including Tobolski, whose county chief of staff, Patrick Doherty, was a sales consultant for SafeSpeed.

* Related…

* Tom Cullerton’s lawyer wants details about ex-Teamsters boss John Coli, calling it vital to his defense: Cullerton landed a job as an organizer for Teamsters Joint Council 25 after his former employer, Hostess Brands, shut down in 2012, Collins wrote. Coli told prosecutors he arranged for Cullerton to get the organizer job that year, “but did not believe the employment was legitimate,” according to the defense attorney. Collins also wrote that media and other public sources indicate “Coli has been involved in numerous instances of improper behavior, including lying to federal officials.” He asked prosecutors for FBI reports or other paperwork documenting interviews with Coli, as well as “correspondence with counsel for Mr. Coli” to learn of benefits Coli received from his cooperation agreement, he said.

* Amid sweeping federal investigation, panel begins work to overhaul Illinois ethics, lobbying laws: “In regard to the recent federal cases, I think it’s just important to remember that those things for which some elected officials have been indicted are already crimes,” said House Majority Leader Greg Harris of Chicago, a co-chairman of the commission. “However, other circumstances in those investigations have revealed other situations not currently addressed in law where we have an opportunity to clarify what is right and what’s wrong, what is permissible and what’s prohibited,” Harris said.