The Wellington Village Council took a step this month toward becoming the first municipality in Palm Beach County to put automated speed cameras in school zones, while slightly tapping the brakes on a contract, as one council member suspected some residents would find the $100 fines “shocking.”
The council voted 5-0 to approve the first reading an ordinance that makes such cameras possible on Tuesday, Oct. 8, but also unanimously agreed to hold off on voting on a contract with vendor RedSpeed Florida LLC until the required second reading of the ordinance on Tuesday, Oct. 22.
One issue discussed was whether the village has learned all it needs from competing providers of such equipment.
Not yet fully resolved is how Wellington residents will pay the fines — whether online, by phone or perhaps in person at a village office.
Debate also touched on how many people are likely to request a hearing challenging a fine before a village magistrate.
If ultimately approved, the cameras will represent a big new fact of life for local drivers.
Automated cameras in school zones became possible under a 2023 Florida law that set up guidelines for their use. More than two dozen counties, cities and towns in the state have started the process to use them. The automated systems fine drivers traveling at least 11 mph above posted limits in school zones, and mail notices of a $100 fine to car owners identified by their license plates.
RedSpeed representatives said their experience over several years in Georgia has been that just two percent of drivers request a hearing, and one percent actually show up for it.
Vice Mayor John McGovern said he was not sure it would prove quite that smooth, especially in the beginning. “We keep saying it’s going to be very few people,” he said. “I have a feeling this is going to be very shocking to people.”
David De La Espriella, vice president of client relations for RedSpeed, said, “Our data is pretty clear, it’s two percent.”
Another issue is whether RedSpeed represents the best deal without too much more conversation needed, or if there is more to hear from a competing vendor, such as Verra Mobility. Village staff said those are the only two competitors they know about with existing contracts in Florida that allow the village to “piggy-back” on another community’s negotiated terms, in Wellington’s case a deal vetted by Plantation that ranked the top bidders in a scoring system and picked RedSpeed.
Plantation and Wellington belong to a governmental cooperative group whose members can pool their orders for things like chemicals or set contract terms others can use. The main alternative to that is opening a formal bidding process that could take several months to play out.
An advantage cited by RedSpeed is that its license plate readers can share information with the Flock system that the village has adopted to read plates. It helps keep track of vehicles involved with suspected crimes. That is a plus in the eyes of the Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office.
“We’re in full support of it,” said PBSO Capt. Nichole Addazio, who oversees the Wellington district, about the proposed deal with RedSpeed.
The cameras issue fines solely for speeding in school zones, though law enforcement can request video stored for 45 days if it sheds light on problems such as a bad accident or criminal incident.
“I’m comfortable with staff’s recommendation to move forward with this,” Councilwoman Tanya Siskind said.
“The sooner we get the cameras in, the sooner we’ll slow people down,” Mayor Michael Napoleone added.
Not everyone was ready to push ahead just yet. Councilwoman Amanda Silvestri said she wanted to discover more about alternatives in the marketplace, and McGovern said waiting a couple weeks would allow for more questions to be answered.
The cameras would probably not start operating until January at the earliest, to allow time for engineering plans, permits and installation of equipment and signs, officials said.
State law requires an awareness and educational program for each community using the cameras, and 30 days of mailed warnings before the system starts issuing actual fines.
The civil fines do not involve points on a license or affect insurance, though if unpaid after being upheld in a review process, they could be referred to the court system. Appeals would first be heard by a village magistrate.
Wellington would not pay any money up front for the system but would take a cut of the fines. The village would be responsible for a magistrate’s time to handle whatever appeals come about, and for an enforcement officer’s time to review, approve or reject individual fines proposed by RedSpeed. Village officials have indicated they think the workload can be handled without hiring new people.
From each $100 fine, $39 would go to the Village of Wellington, $21 to RedSpeed Florida LLC, $20 to the state’s general fund, $12 to the Palm Beach County School District, $5 to a school crossing guard program and $3 to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
One issue Silvestri wanted to nail down was whether the school district’s share would go specifically to Wellington schools.
For now, Wellington plans to put speed cameras at six elementary schools, three middle schools and the charter school Somerset Academy, village staff members said.
The list did not quite cover every school in Wellington, though that could change over time. The village’s two public high schools, for example, do not have the same kind of speed zones as other schools do, though the village plans to study whether such a zone might make sense at, say, Wellington High School. Such cases can be complicated by which government bodies have jurisdiction over nearby roads and what requirements must be met to impose stricter speed conditions.
Automated fines must be for violations in school zones during the regularly scheduled class day, extending half an hour before and after those hours.
In other business:
- The council approved a new driveway for Lot 8 at Winding Trails near Aero Club Drive and Greenbriar Blvd., amending the Landings at Wellington master plan. The idea is to allow an exit-only lane so that large vehicles carrying horses and equipment at the property do not have to back up or turn around to leave the space. One neighbor expressed concern about increased traffic.
- The council put off until Oct. 22 proposed changes to its own meeting procedures. One possible alteration is that certain representatives of interested parties, such as neighbors affected by a proposed development, are limited to as few as 10 minutes of speaking time.
It’s a fluid issue on which council members expended plenty of debate, opening the door to extending the time under certain conditions. One idea is that there will no longer be situations where a representative has to be a professional in, say, the real estate or architectural fields, Village Attorney Laurie Cohen said.
The changes are pitched as streamlining village rules in such a way that third parties don’t swamp an applicant’s time before the council, though residents at the meeting questioned whether it was heading in a welcome direction.
“There’s no way you can get your point across in 10 minutes,” said Dr. Kristy Lund, who serves on the village’s Equestrian Preserve Committee. “Your job is to listen to your residents.”
- The council voted unanimously to allow Cohen to hire outside counsel to negotiate a possible sale of the village-owned 66-acre property known as K-Park to Related Companies for a prospective mixed-use development with a private school. That does not mean the village is giving advance approval to the development deal, but rather it is determining the details of what a purchase would look like, Napoleone said.
