Karl Baker

The News Journal

Two months after Mayor Dennis P. Williams left office, the city of Wilmington is still paying for some of his decisions.

On Tuesday, current Mayor Mike Purzycki announced that Wilmington officials "inappropriately" had sent red-light-camera tickets to nearly 10,000 drivers during the second half of 2016. Now, he said, the city must send $800,000 in refunds.

"You can’t keep [$800,000] that’s not yours, and going out and fining people unlawfully is just not something we’re going to do," Purzycki said.

In January, the new mayor ended the city's practice of ticketing drivers caught by cameras making right turns during red lights without first coming to a complete stop, he said.

Delaware lawmakers, on July 1, passed a law mandating the city either justify how ticketing those drivers made streets safer or suspend the program. City officials at that time did neither.

Mike Haas was one of those ticketed after the law was passed.

After turning right from Concord Avenue onto North Broom Street – the city's most lucrative intersection for red-light camera citations – Haas in October received a ticket in the mail for $110.

Haas chose to fight the ticket.

“The [city] clerk’s office said, ‘Why don’t you just pay it? It will be easier for everyone,’ which I thought was pretty hilarious,” he said.

He then took the dispute to the mayor, calling Williams' office, he said.

"I got a call back about a day later saying they decided to [dismiss] it," he said. "The lady said, 'I probably shouldn’t be telling you this, but last July there was something that said we basically can’t enforce right-turn-on-red tickets anymore.'”

Neither Williams nor his former chief of staff, Gary Fullman, returned phone calls for comment.

While most who received a right-turn-on-red ticket between July 1 and Jan. 11 did not contest the citation as Haas did, they too will now see their tickets thrown out. The Purzycki administration, in a statement, said there are more than 6,700 vehicle owners who during the second half of 2016 paid red-light-camera tickets for turning right on a red light.

"We want to make sure we don’t expose the city to any liability," Purzycki said.

The city also is sending notification letters to 2,500 drivers who were issued right-turn-on-red tickets during the period, but had not yet paid their fine.

"Frankly, the law is pretty clear that people who received tickets and paid fines, that whole process happened outside of the law," Purzycki said.

City Finance Director Patrick Carter said all ticketed vehicles have been identified, "so there is no reason for citizens to call the city about the refund."

The contentious traffic program, which relies on automatic cameras to catch red-light runners, will continue to issue tickets to those who drive straight through red lights. The Delaware Department of Transportation also operates a red-light camera program statewide that does not ticket rolling-right-turn drivers.

For the 2017 fiscal year, which extends from July 1, 2016, to June 30, 2017, Wilmington will lose $1.4 million in revenue, which includes the $800,000 refund, as a result of ending its right-turn-on-red camera operations.

City officials estimate red-light-camera revenues to hit $2.7 million during fiscal year 2018, down from a peak of $4.5 million in 2014.

Drivers who turn right on a red light without coming to a complete stop still could be ticketed by a police officer, Purzycki said.

“It’s still against the law. If a police officer sees you do it, you're going to get fined,” he said.

That is how state Sen. Colin Bonini, R-Dover South, prefers it. A self-described civil libertarian, Bonini said, "In America," people ideally should face a human accuser, like a police officer, and not a digital device, like a camera.

"But I think [cameras] are part of reality and our job in the Legislature and government oversight is to make sure these things are used exclusively for safety,” he said.

STORY: Dangerous crashes at red light cameras down

STORY: Want to fight that red light ticket? Good luck

Bonini in June proposed the red-light camera language, which effectively ended Wilmington's right-turn-camera operations, for the Capital Improvement Committee's bond bill.

Buried in the epilogue of the bill, it stated jurisdictions “can only issue right turn on red violations if there is safety and crash data to support it as determined by the [Delaware] Department of Transportation."

During the final hours of the legislative session, 10 legislators on the committee voted in favor of the new rule. The two from Wilmington – Sen. Robert Marshall, D-Wilmington, and Rep. Charles Potter, D-Wilmington – opposed it.

Shortly after the committee passed the bill, a spokeswoman for Wilmington in an email stated Williams' administration would evaluate the changes.

Purzycki said officials within Williams' administration likely believed there was "some ambiguity" in the law.

He sees none, however.

"We acted in good faith as soon as we realized what was going on,” Purzycki said.

Spokesman Jim Lardear with AAA, which has lobbied Wilmington and the General Assembly for changes in red-light enforcement policies, said the right-turn-on-red tickets were never supported by safety evidence, and that can erode the public's trust.

“To call something a safety program when all you’re doing is effectively taxing motorists is disingenuous, and that doesn’t improve safety,” he said.

The News Journal in 2014 reported how the stop line on Concord Avenue was set back about 60 feet from Broom Street, prompting many to receive tickets for stopping too far forward before turning right. Following the story, Wilmington repainted the stop line closer to the corner.

Still, thousands continued to receive tickets there, with many claiming they had done nothing dangerous.

Crystal Campbell said she has only received red-light camera tickets in Wilmington after living in many cities that use the system. Like Haas, one was for turning right from Concord onto Broom.

While she disputed the tickets, she eventually paid them. But a nagging issue remained, she said.

"Because I had been disputing this and I hadn't paid, they had actually sent this to a credit bureau and it was on my credit report," she said. "I'm like 'are you kidding me?' I don't have any negative ratings and because I decided to dispute this I now have this on my credit report."

Campbell said for months she has been lobbying the previous and current city administrations to remove the credit mark. But the issue has not yet been resolved, she said.

"Not only am I out $400, but this is now going to follow me on my credit report," she said.

Contact Karl Baker at kbaker@delawareonline.com or (302) 324-2329. Follow him on Twitter @kbaker6.

Wilmington’s red-light camera intersections