The Buffalo Common Council will try again to eliminate speed zone cameras at 20 schools by September, this time through the regular legislative process.
University Council Member Rasheed N.C. Wyatt recently filed an ordinance amendment that is identical to a previous one Council members approved last month for immediate passage to end the use of speed cameras in the School Zone Safety Program. The earlier measure passed 6-3, enough to override a potential mayoral veto.
But Mayor Byron W. Brown refused to sign the expedited legislation or veto it, saying the members did not follow the proper legislative process for immediate passage.
Council President Darius G. Pridgen and other members maintained the Council’s vote was appropriate.
The new resolution is not marked for immediate passage, and the Council will vote on it Tuesday.
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Wyatt says he is confident he still has the six supermajority votes needed for a veto-proof tally.
“The bottom line is I didn’t want to jeopardize people getting tickets for $50 because of a technicality that was assumed by the administration,” Wyatt said.
If it passes, the ordinance will be sent to Brown for his signature or a veto within 10 days of receipt. If Brown does nothing, the item then would be enacted automatically, city officials say.
The legislative action calls for removing the speed cameras and replacing them with radar speed signs and nonpunitive traffic calming measures in school zones, such as speed humps. It also changes the school zone speed limit from 15 mph to 20 mph and requires the city to place "school" pavement markings and crosswalks by schools.
The Council and the Brown administration have been in conflict for about a year over the cameras. The program sets a 15 mph speed limit around 20 public, private and charter schools. Drivers captured on camera traveling at least 26 mph receive a citation mailed to the car's registered owner. The city gets $36 of each $50 citation. Sensys Gatso, the camera company that issues the citations, receives $14.
The program has drawn criticism that it was poorly rolled out and executed. Others have complained the cameras target the city's most impoverished residents by placing many of the cameras in high-poverty, minority neighborhoods.
But the camera company, the Brown administration and some residents say the program is working and saving lives. About half of the citations were issued to people who live outside the city, and the cameras have increased compliance by Buffalo drivers to 82% since February 2020.
The program has generated about $1.84 million in revenue since the cameras were activated in January 2020.
