At Tuesday's meeting, the Manatee County Commission unanimously approved the installation of school zone speed cameras throughout the county. Immediately after, the board approved an agreement with a vendor called RedSpeed to administrate the program in a 6-1 vote.
RedSpeed will "furnish, install and maintain the speed detection system, comply with FDOT placement and installation specifications, and assist Manatee County Public Safety in the public announcement and awareness campaign," according to the county. County Commissioner George Kruse voted against the "piggyback" contract, noting that he would prefer the solicitation of competitive bids.
The county ordinance allows for piggyback contracts, which permit the selection of a firm without bidding, provided they have been awarded such a contract by another municipality in a competitive bidding process, essentially allowing for the county to "piggyback" off the other institution's decision. In RedSpeed's instance, it was the city of Alpharetta, Ga.
The Florida Legislature passed Florida House Bill 657 in April of 2023. The law authorizes counties to enforce speed limits in school zones using speed detection systems. Drivers traveling more than 10 miles per hour over the posted school zone speed limit during designated hours would receive a $100 ticket in the mail.
The speed camera zones would be active only at times when kids are heading to and from school—30 minutes before the start of school and 30 minutes after. There will be two weeks of warning signs prior to enforcement.
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Dianna
Why are we not putting these contracts out for a competitive bid? Commissioners/staff are circumventing the procurement process just like they did for the methane landfill project. Will the taxpayers now be footing the bill for 2 lawsuits for fair and ethical bidding practices? Also, staff/commissioners used vendor information that was 5 years old and based on 9 school zones in Georgia not a good comparison. A Florida citizen representing a Florida company that also camera tickets drivers, stated that they are not using our county’s fair and competitive bidding process. If this was solely for child safety our commissioners would have addressed this issue 7 months ago when the law changed, so this is clearly not an emergency. Commissioners acted under the guise of “student safety” but it looks a lot like a political favor at the expense of Manatee County taxpayers.
Tuesday, February 13 Report this
lib224
What a waste. This is the ONLY place where drivers actually do follow the speed limit.
Wednesday, February 14 Report this