CHICAGO _ Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration has agreed to pay out $38.75 million to settle a class-action lawsuit alleging Chicago failed to give adequate notice to red light camera and speed camera violators.
Under the massive deal, more than 1.2 million people could be in line for payments of half of whatever they paid the city for their tickets. Attorney Jacie Zolna said those who qualify will receive letters in the mail in upcoming months notifying them they were part of the suit.
Zolna sued in 2015, claiming the city violated its own rules by failing to send a second notice of a violation before guilt was determined, and by doubling the fine for late payment of tickets sooner than allowed.
In response, the Emanuel administration changed city ordinance in May 2015 to eliminate the requirement for a second notice. And the city tried to give those who hadn't gotten second notices from 2010 to 2015 a do-over, sending notices in the mail giving people the right to request an administrative hearing to contest their ticket. Emanuel's lawyers argued that brought them into compliance.
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Then-City Corporation Counsel Stephen Patton said that the change "further bolsters our case" by addressing the argument that people who didn't get a second notice were wronged.
But Zolna said the city trying to retroactively meet its own standards didn't cut it.
"When they passed that law and did that sneaky move, it just emboldened me," he said Thursday while discussing the settlement. "I decided I wouldn't let them try to do that."
The Emanuel administration did not immediately comment on the deal. The agreement still needs City Council approval. If the proposed settlement is ready, the Finance Committee could consider it Monday, in which case it would go to the full council at Wednesday's meeting.
The settlement is just the latest problem for the city's troubled red light camera system.
Zolna's suit was among half a dozen cases that followed a Chicago Tribune investigation of corruption and mismanagement within the city's $600 million red light program. The series exposed a $2 million City Hall bribery scheme that brought the traffic cameras to Chicago as well as tens of thousands of tickets that were unfairly issued to drivers.
The investigation found malfunctioning cameras, inconsistent enforcement and millions of dollars in tickets issued purposely by City Hall even after transportation officials knew that yellow light times were dropping below the federal minimum guidelines.
Throughout the scandal, the Emanuel administration has been reluctant to issue refunds, in some cases forcing drivers to file paperwork and apply for a rehearing process some critics have called onerous.
In 2016, former City Hall operative John Bills was sentenced to 10 years in prison for taking hundreds of thousands of dollars in bribes to steer tens of millions of dollars in red light camera contracts to an Arizona company, Redflex Traffic Systems Inc.
According to testimony at his federal trial, Bills took a cash bribe of up to $2,000 for each of the 384 red light cameras that were installed while he oversaw the program. The Chicago Tribune found that up to 40 percent of those cameras made intersections more dangerous by increasing injuries from rear-end crashes by 22 percent.
City Council Transportation Committee Chairman Alderman Anthony Beale, 9th, who has railed against the red light and speed cameras, said the huge settlement underscores that the red light and speed tickets are not about safety, but about "making money off the people who can least afford it."
"What I can tell you is, 'I told you so,'" Beale said Thursday when told of the settlement. "If you recall, years ago I said the whole red light camera issue was more about revenue than it was about public safety."
