City To Re-Bid Red Light Camera Contract As Current Vendor Receives Extension

By Chuck Sudo in News on Jan 11, 2013 2:40PM

The Sun-Times reports the Emanuel Administration will put the lucrative red light camera contract out to bid after a temporary extension that was granted to the current vendor expires.

Redflex Camera Systems received a six month extension on its current contract. City Inspector General Joseph Ferguson is investigating Redflex after the Tribune reported last October the company paid a $910 hotel tab for a Chicago Department of Transportation official in 2010 and didn’t report it to the Chicago Board of Ethics. Redflex also awarded a contract to a friend of John Bills, the former CDOT official who was regarded as the department’s expert on the automated enforcement system. After leaving CDOT, Bills went on to work as a consultant for the Traffic Safety Coalition, a lobbying firm funded by Redflex and run by Greg Goldner, a longtime Emanuel and Richard M. Daley ally who also founded the political action committee For a Better Chicago.

Redflex was barred by Emanuel from bidding on the speeding camera contract, which could conceivably blanket half of the city in automated cameras, as a result of the reports. The red light camera contract was to expire Jan. 31 but a spokesman for the city’s Department of Procurement Services told the Sun-Times the extension will allow Ferguson’s office to complete its investigation of Redflex and allow “a full procurement and selection process to take place.” It’s unknown if Redflex will be allowed to bid on the new red light camera contract.