A group of town residents say that Morinville could run its own photo enforcement program for as little as $150,000 a year – a claim a traffic safety advocate says is inaccurate and misleading.
Town resident Rick Price presented his cost analysis of an in-house photo enforcement program for Morinville at last week's council meeting.
Council voted last August to sign a deal in principle that would have Independent Traffic Services Ltd./Global Traffic Services run photo enforcement services in town. The deal is provisional on ITS/Global accepting the town's photo enforcement policy.
When town council asked for information about the cost of doing photo enforcement in-house, Price said administration provided only a few general comments on it instead of a detailed breakdown.
"It is of my opinion that council cannot make a sound decision if all the facts are not presented equally and unbiased," he said in council. He teamed up with residents Lynda Lyons, Cliff Haryett, and Jim O'Brien to do his own cost breakdown.
Estimates
Initial estimates indicate the town would need to spend about $59,604 to start its own photo enforcement service, based on the cost of a car, a photo enforcement camera, photo enforcement software and office equipment.
The town would thereafter need to spend about $150,322 a year to run the service based on the cost of a clerk, a Commissionaire, office supplies and ticket processing, Price continued.
Price noted that many of the figures in his estimate – specifically the cost of the telephone, ticket processing and insurance – were guesses because he couldn't get the actual figures for them.
Price said the town would have direct control over its photo enforcement program if it ran it itself, and would not have to negotiate changes with a contractor. It would also give the town a clearer picture as to the program's cost.
"If we have our own program and we do it, we know what it costs us."
He said council should more thoroughly investigate the town-run option before it settles on a contractor.
“Misleading,” say analysts
The Gazette asked Keith Norris, a member of the town's traffic advisory committee who is familiar with photo enforcement, to review Price's estimates.
"They've done a good job on it, but I don't think they've been accurate on it," he said.
"There's nothing wrong with this presentation, but it's very misleading."
Norris said Price had underestimated the cost of the vehicle (pegged at $28,000), as it would need extra wiring, computers, framing and batteries for use in photo enforcement. (Price's estimate was based on a stock vehicle.)
"Who's going to put them in, and at what cost?"
A report to council last August pegged the cost of a photo-enforcement vehicle at about $55,000.
While Price estimated that the town could buy its photo enforcement software for $2,000, town corporate services manager David Schaefer said that wasn't possible. That software costs more than a million dollars to develop as it has to meet strict provincial security standards, and the companies that have it don't license it out.
"There is no off-the-shelf (software)," he said.
That's why the town would most likely have to hire a contractor that had developed such software, he explained – a contract he pegged at about $10,000 a year last August.
As for staff, while Price had estimated that the town could get by with one clerk and one Commissionaire for about $121,472 a year, Schaefer said the town would likely need two peace officers and a clerk at about $300,000 a year.
Add in a bare-bones $17,000 photo radar gun and about $25,000 in insurance, fuel and other operating costs, and Schaefer estimates that an in-house photo enforcement program would cost about $335,000 a year plus $72,000 in start-up costs.
Schaefer said he had not done a more detailed analysis on an in-house program because council had decided to contract out for the service. The town could re-examine the in-house option when the contract comes up for renewal in three years, he added.
Schaefer said the town's end-of-year financial report would include, as of 2015, a line item that shows the exact amount of money the town pays its contractor for photo enforcement. This amount represents what the contractor gets in ticket revenue each year plus court costs.
Contracting out is more cost-efficient than going on your own for photo enforcement, Norris said. It also allows the town complete control over how the program is run through the terms of the contract.
The town's new photo enforcement policy should reach council in late November, Schaefer said.
