After all their feuding this week, the city and the camera vendor are still trying to work out the terms of their breakup.
A day after Mayor Annise Parker ripped American Traffic Solutions for “jerking us around” and failing to negotiate in good faith, she said Wednesday that she hopes the two sides can reach a solution through mediation scheduled this weekend.
American Traffic Solutions’ response on Wednesday echoed Parker both in expressing hope for an amicable outcome by Sunday and in attacking its adversary for not playing fair.
“The mayor’s manufactured outrage toward ATS is not only disingenuous, but it’s also disappointing,” ATS spokesman Charles Territo said. “At the same time she was issuing that statement, we were already working with her legal department on arranging settlement discussions for this weekend.”
[…]
Scottsdale, Ariz.-based ATS asserts that the city would owe at least $25 million if it shut the cameras off today. More than half would be in monthly fees for running the cameras through the end of the contract in May 2014. It also assumes a commission to ATS for collecting from violators who do not pay their fines on time.
The figure also includes reimbursement for the money the company spent trying to keep Proposition 3 off the ballot and then campaigning against it.
Nice to see that ATS is being so very reasonable and keeping things focused on the real issues, isn’t it? I don’t know who the mediator is, but I hope he or she is well stocked with Maalox. Something tells me Judge Hughes will still have the final say – before it goes to the appeals courts, anyway. Stace, Campos, and the Chron e-board have more.
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Interesting, in that whole chronicle article full of quotes from entities and individuals that support cameras there wasn’t one word on how we can’t afford to get rid of the cameras because they save lives, all they talk about is the money, hmmmm.
Can the taxpayers get a protective order since ATS is promising violence against our pocket books?
I think it it time for Mayor Parker to stop playing games. I was ready to applaud her for her new found stance against ATS and putting the repeal on the council agenda. When she did so she said that anyone that tagged the agenda item would be playing games. Well that is just what Lovell did not once, but twice! Today she tagged the vote to repeal the ordinance. And guess what, Jones and Bradford forced a vote to override the tag so we could see who was on what side. PARKER VOTED TO KEEP THE TAG! So I guess by Parker’s own words she is playing games. Shame on you mayor Parker for playing the games and shame on me for thinking you actually had a change of heart and wanted to listen to the voters.