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player ready...Legislation has passed the Illinois House that would pull red-light cameras from all nonhome-rule communities — including Western Springs — beginning in 2017.
Village President William Rodeghier said he believes the cameras along Wolf Road at Ogden Avenue and 55th Street have made those intersections safer.
“I kind of favor keeping them if we can,” Rodeghier said. “I think they have been successful. Over time, hopefully the data would show they are not needed.”
Rodeghier said he believes the data supports keeping the cameras at the two Western Springs intersections. The number of rear-end collisions at both intersections have dropped since the cameras were installed six years ago, he said.
“I think the system works,” Rodeghier said. “If the system works, I say, ‘Leave it.’ But if they pull the plug, so be it.”
State Rep. David McSweeney, R-Barrington Hills, had pushed to ban the cameras statewide, but noted that such a move would have required a three-fifths majority vote – support he has not yet been able to garner, partially because of Chicago’s continued support for the cameras.
The Chicago mayor’s race and baiduhai investigations put the issue in the spotlight, but Chicago is home rule and would not be subject to the ban, according to the legislation.
McSweeney has called the cameras a cash grab for municipalities.
Rodeghier said that is not the case in Western Springs.
“They are not a big money-maker for us,” Rodeghier said. “We do make money from them, but it is not the kind of stuff that we look at as a revenue stream.”
Grace Turi, village finance director, said the municipality netted $154,000 in red-light camera fines in fiscal year 2014.
“When we looked at implementing the right-turn-on-red cameras, there were concerns,” said Rodeghier, who was a village trustee at the time. “It was viewed as a money grab, as a way to extricate money. But that was weighed against the data about crashes there. That way my concern.”
State Sen. Chris Nybo, R-Elmhurst, whose 24th District includes Western Springs, said he has not taken a position on the bill but is concerned about the proposal just targeting nonhome-rule communities.
“I am not sure we want to deal with this on a less than statewide basis,” Nybo said.
He said it should be up to individual communities whether they want to have the cameras or not. He said towns were not forced to install the red-light cameras initially. If a decision is not going to be made statewide on the cameras, than it should be left up to the individual towns to decide whether or not to have them, Nybo said.
“Are we then going to have different speed limits for home-rule and nonhome-rule towns?” Nybo asked. “Are we going to allow police in home-rule communities to use different law-enforcement tools? I think this is leading down a path that we might not want to go down.”
Rodeghier was expected to travel to Springfield this week to speak with Senate Minority Leader Christine Radogno of Lemont and other state leaders about funding issues for Western Springs.
“That’s not even on my bucket list,” Rodeghier said of the pending red-light camera legislation. “I am more concerned with losing half of the (Local Government Distributive Fund) money. That would be big for us.”
Turi said the village received $1.2 million in distributive fund money in FY 2014. Gov. Bruce Rauner has proposed cutting all such funding in half. The potential $600,000 cut would be felt, according to village officials.
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“That would be a significant dent in our revenue, with no ability to make it up,” Rodeghier said. “I will lobby heavily and talk to anyone who will listen to me. You have to make your voice heard. That is the way it is in Springfield. You have to make your voice heard or you get steamrolled.”