Cedar Rapids City Council votes to appeal traffic camera ruling

CEDAR RAPIDS - The Cedar Rapids City Council on Tuesday voted to appeal a judge's ruling for the right to continue using traffic cameras on Interstate 380.

After emerging from a 45-minute closed session with legal staff and police on Tuesday, the council voted 7-1 to appeal Polk County District Court Judge Scott E. Rosenberg's April 25 ruling against the city.

The ruling affirms a March 2015 Iowa Department of Transportation order to turn off two of the four speed cameras on I-380 and move the other two, and turn off the westbound speed camera at First Avenue E and 10th Street.

'We felt the District Court judge didn't get it right,” City Council member Kris Gulick said in explaining his vote. 'We did it for all the same reasons why we took on the lawsuit in the first place.”

Muscatine and Des Moines, which also participated in the lawsuit challenging the Iowa DOT's authority, also have appealed. Rosenberg ruled Iowa code gives Iowa DOT broad latitude in oversight of operations on the interstate and primary highway system in Iowa.

City staff had pre-emptively filed an appeal, but a City Council vote was still required to move forward with the case.

The cameras remain on for data collection purposes, but have not been issuing tickets generated since the ruling.

Cedar Rapids has filed for a stay to suspend Iowa DOT's order until after the appeal. If granted, the city could start issuing tickets again.

A decision on the stay is expected on May 17, Gulick and Cedar Rapids Mayor Ron Corbett said.

Corbett was the lone vote against pursuing the appeal. He said he didn't want to file a lawsuit in the first place and thinks it is time to work with the Iowa DOT on permitting new locations for the approved cameras.

'I view it as crying uncle,” Corbett said. 'We've been getting beat up on this by the DOT for over a year.”

Cedar Rapids Police Chief Wayne Jerman recommended continuing the appeal, and said he doesn't understand why opponents of the cameras choose to ignore data about camera's effectiveness in reducing serious-injury crashes and fatalities.

'My stance has always been this is about public safety,” Jerman said. 'This is a proven tool that reduces crashes. Right now, across the country, other jurisdictions continue to use these systems because they work. It's not about how much money they make. These save lives.”

The Cedar Rapids traffic cameras resulted in nearly 150,000 tickets being issued in the last full fiscal year, fiscal 2016. Those tickets generated more than $4 million for the city and $2 million for camera vendor GATSO USA.

Cedar Rapids officials already have eliminated $4.7 million tied to expected ticket proceeds from the upcoming fiscal 2018 budget that was approved in March.

l Comments: (319) 339-3177; brian.morelli@thegazette.com