MELBOURNE, Fla. – The city council has decided no red-light cameras will be placed at Melbourne intersections, Local 6 news partner Florida Today reports.
Officials said state legislation makes the program too complicated and costly to implement
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The decision comes after months of debate about the use of cameras and pre-empts installation of the electronic sentinels at two major Melbourne intersections.
"There is just no room for us to be in the red-light camera business," councilman Greg Jones said.
Effective July 1, the state legislature made local governments that installed the cameras responsible for providing a magistrate or hearing officer to oversee hearings when citations are contested. Previously, contested tickets went before a county judge.
That has shelved the yet-to-start Melbourne program, but does not give any break to drivers who receive tickets in Palm Bay and Cocoa Beach, the only Brevard County cities with red-light cameras.
Morris Richardson, the special magistrate who oversees code enforcement issues in Palm Bay, will now be tasked with handling red-light citation hearings, according to City Manager Sue Hann. Palm Bay has been running red-light cameras since 2008, collecting between $125,000 and $130,000 in annual ticket revenues since tickets started being issued in 2010.
Cocoa Beach is working on a contract with a magistrate — who formerly worked with the city — to handle contested ticket hearings about once a month, said Melissa Byron, director of marketing and economic development.
"That salary will be paid out of the fines the offenders are fined by the magistrate," she said. About 7 percent of the more than 5,000 tickets issued at Cocoa Beach's three monitored intersections are contested.
Last August, the Melbourne council approved a three-year deal with Massachusetts-based Gatso USA, the camera vendor that also contracts with Palm Bay. Under the terms, Melbourne agreed to pay the company $4,200 monthly for each of five cameras. The cameras would have been installed at U.S. 1 intersections with Strawbridge Avenue and Eau Galllie Boulevard.