PRC could get involved in Las Cruces red-light camera/utility flap

Pat Lyons

News New Mexico Note: Commissioner Lyons will be a special guest tomorrow morning Tuesday 5/1/12 8:30am to discuss this issue. Capitol Report New Mexico -  

The chairman of the Public Regulation Commission says he wants the state agency that regulates utilities to look into a controversial program that the city of Las Cruces has established that would turn off the water, sewage and gas services of those who are delinquent in paying citations from the city’s red-light camera program. “That’s unacceptable,” commissioner Pat Lyons said by telephone on Monday (April 30) to Capitol Report New Mexico. “Water and heating, those are necessities, not luxuries.” Citing a section of the municipal code that states, “The city may decline, fail or cease to furnish utility service to any person who may be in debt to the city for any reason, except ad valorem taxes and special assessments,” Las Cruces officials sent out letters earlier this month to people who haven’t paid their citations from red-light cameras that if they don’t cough up the money (or make “satisfactory payment arrangements”) they could get their water, sewage and gas services turned off. “It’s the law,” Las Cruces city spokesman Udell Vigil told KVIA-TV, adding, “If you don’t pay for it and let it go on for a long time, you get your utilities turned off.” The fine for running a red light or speeding through a lighted intersection where a red light camera is located is $100 per violation. A $25 default fee will be added if the fine is not paid within the 35-day period stated on the citation and the city says some $2 million in delinquent fines are owed. The system is operated by Redflex Traffic Systems, an Australian-based company that installed the system in Las Cruces three years ago. Lyons, who had not heard of the Las Cruces program before Capitol Report New Mexico informed him of it, said he’ll bring up the issue at the PRC’s Tuesday morning meeting. “I’ll discuss it with our department attorney,” Lyons said. “We’ll see what we can do.” Read More:  News New Mexico

PRC could get involved in Las Cruces red-light camera/utility flap