HEALTH

OAK BROOK TRUSTEE MICHAEL MANZO

RED LIGHT HELL

At Route 83 & 22nd Street

BY ADAM ANDRZEJEWSKI, CONTRIBUTING EDITOR

“It’s a disgrace that those red light cameras are still at that corner knowing that it was placed there by corruption.” Oak Brook Trustee

Michael Manzo.

Since 2018, Oakbrook Terrace collected nearly $11 million in revenue from ticketing 206,500 motorists on red light camera violations at the intersection of Route 83 and 22nd

Street.

Our auditors at OpenTheBooks. com received these figures from the city after we filed Freedom of

Information Act requests.

And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

The figures showed a massive amount of fines generated from the cameras peppering drivers with $100 tickets. This happened during a period when several suburban elected officials pled guilty to taking bribes from the camera company reps and while federal investigations swirled.

Opponents of the program claimed the cameras were tainted from the get-go. Elected officials across the Chicago-metro area were alleged to have taken kickbacks to promote the Chicago-based red light camera company SafeSpeed LLC.

SafeSpeed’s cameras were installed at the busy Oakbrook Terrace intersection in August 2017 after being the subject of a lawsuit. The Illinois Department of Transportation (IDOT) first rejected the permit but then quickly approved it. Oak Brook sued alleging a corrupt process. However, the village attorney at the time recommended that the lawsuit be voluntarily withdrawn.

Then, the red light tickets started flying.

In 2018, 68,090 tickets were issued, driving $3,473,164 in city revenues. The following year, 60,629 tickets were issued, resulting in revenues of $3,319,287.

The tickets and revenue slowed down, presumably due to drivers staying home during the Covid-19 pandemic. In 2020, the cameras snapped pictures for 34,449 tickets, bringing in $1,899,303, and in 2021, they issued 37,064 tickets, for $1,885,448, according to records from the City of Oakbrook Terrace.

That’s 200,232 tickets issued between 2018 and 2021, for $10,577,202 in fines.

So far in 2022, 6,281 tickets have been issued through the end of February. Dollar figures for fines

weren’t included because they haven’t been reconciled, the city said.

Trustee Manzo wants the cameras removed.

On Tuesday, March 8 at the village board meeting, Manzo plans to reintroduce discussion on whether Oak Brook should sue Oakbrook Terrace, IDOT, and elected officials for the removal of the cameras. He’ll argue that history has shown evidence of a corrupt process.

Manzo has spearheaded the local movement against the cameras for years.

$1 Billion Red Light Camera Problem In Illinois

An October 2019 analysis by the Illinois Policy Institute found that in throughout the state, municipalities collected more than $1 billion from drivers through red light cameras tickets between 2008 and 2018.

The dollar figures have more than doubled over time, with local governments collecting more than $113.2 million in 2018 compared to a much smaller $53.5 million in 2008.

At the time of the analysis, there were at least 89 municipalities operating red-light camera programs, with the number of cameras more than tripling between 2008 and 2018.

This as the camera program was plagued with corruption.

Omar Maani was co-owner and cofounder of SafeSpeed LLC. In August 2020, Maani was charged with bribery conspiracy for allegedly conspiring with political operative Patrick Doherty, who worked as a contractor for SafeSpeed, and another sales agent to bribe an Oak Lawn trustee with $4,000 for his support to add cameras at additional intersections.

Maani cooperated with the FBI. The cooperation led to charges against several Democratic politicians and power players, including Doherty, Crestwood Mayor Louis Presta, and then-state Sen. Martin Sandoval, who pled guilty to bribery and tax charges for collecting at least $700,000 for effectively lobbying for the red light camera company in the state Senate. (Sandoval died of Covid-19 in late 2020.)

Despite these numerous indictments and guilty pleas, SafeSpeed’s cameras are still in use in 21 towns in Cook County, Chicago TV news channel WGN9 reported in February 2021.

Safe Speed cut ties with Omar Maani in February 2020 and

has successfully denied criminal racketeering conspiracy allegations. Multiple attempts to reach the company and request comment were unsuccessful. Local government officials and the red light camera company tout the ability of the cameras to prevent crashes. However, in 2020, an Oak Brook Village study showed a linkage to more car crashes, NBC Chicago reported. The study showed that before the cameras, there were 23 crashes in 2015 at the major intersection of Route 83 and 22nd Street in Oakbrook Terrace. But after the cameras were installed, the numbers jumped to 36 in each of 2017 and 2018 and 49 in 2019. Oak Brook Police Chief James Kruger attributed the crashes “ The Pritzker administration has to drivers "panic stopping" to avoid getting a ticket. refused to lift a finger, review prior State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi decisions, and has refused to give local (R-Elmhurst), whose legislative district covers the region, residents some well-deserved relief.” introduced a bill in March 2021 that would ban all red- DEANNE MAZZOCHI light cameras in Illinois. After State Representative (R-Elmhurst) a do-nothing session, Mazzochi introduced tailored legislation to target red light cameras tainted by corruption. If passed, Mazzochi’s bill would potentially eliminate the cameras at Route 83 and 22nd Street in Oakbrook Terrace. “Ever since the indictments came out, I’ve repeatedly called on Gov. Pritzker’s Illinois Department of Transportation to revoke the permit that blessed their installation under dubious circumstances,” Mazzochi told me on a phone call. “The Pritzker administration has refused to lift a finger, review prior decisions, and has refused to give local residents some well-deserved relief. If you won’t mend it, then end it. They’re riddled with corruption.” Adam Andrzejewski is the founder and CEO of OpenTheBooks.com. Last year, the organization filed 47,000 FOIA requests and captured nearly every dime taxed and spent from federal, state, and local governments. ■

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