The Spotsylvania County Board of Supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday night to delay approving a contract with a third-party company called Altumint to install speed cameras in school zones.
Lee Hill District Supervisor Lori Hayes made the motion to table the discussion after a presentation from Spotsylvania Sheriff’s Office Capt. Delbert Myrick and Altumint Chief Executive Officer Holly Cooper.
The supervisors expressed concern about the process to select Altumint, which did not include a Request for Proposal (RFP), but rather was based on a contract rider with Chesterfield County.
Supervisors said they are also wary of pending litigation in the Hampton Roads area regarding the constitutionality of the speed cameras, the time commitment from deputies and School Resource Officers — and the fact that the county’s school board had not been briefed on the plan.
“The people that don’t have a voice in this are the citizens that are going to be affected by this the most,” Battlefield District Supervisor Chris Yakabouski said. “I’m really troubled that this has been done basically behind closed doors with no presentation of why this company was picked over the other company.”
Yakabouski said he’s also alarmed that this initiative will “never end.”
Myrick, who is the sheriff’s office’s administrator of the project, said the plan is to start out in five of the county’s 25 school zones along with one mobile trailer before eventually expanding.
“We will have cameras. We will expand cameras and in fact we will have cameras in other places because what happens is people get used to this new type of surveillance,” Yakabouski said. “Everybody used to be against government spying, now you’re welcoming it and asking it to change your radio station for you.”
Spotsylvania County Public Schools Superintendent Clint Mitchell and School Board Chair Lorita Daniels spoke during the meeting. Lee Hill District school board representative Lisa Phelps alerted board members during Monday’s meeting that the approval of the contract with Altumint was on the agenda. Phelps was concerned that the school board did not have a seat at the table to discuss potential revenue sharing.
Daniels reiterated that stance when she addressed the supervisors. Mitchell spoke after the supervisors decided to table the matter and he expressed gratitude to the supervisors for encouraging Myrick to give a presentation to the school board. Supervisors noted that many parents and student drivers in the school division will be impacted, and school resource officers will be tasked with validating citations.
“I applaud you for the motion on the floor to table and revisit the conversation despite all the work that’s been done by the captain and his team,” Mitchell said. “The reality is that this discussion started [in the past] and a lot of the leadership who was present at the time in our school district are no longer there.”
Mitchell said he is just getting up to speed on many initiatives that were in motion previously. He said he is looking forward to a collaborative discussion.
However, supervisors did warn school officials that the program is not to generate revenue but to improve safety. Yakabouski suggested that if any revenue is generated it goes toward one-time capital improvement projects so that funds are not expected on a regular basis.
He compared it to a cigarette tax, which is meant to curb behaviors but when effective lessens the revenue for the jurisdiction that implemented it.
“And then there’s a hole in the budget and they wonder, ‘Woah, where did that come from?’ Yakabouski said. “That, to me, is idiotic. I don’t want to go down that road.”
The Fredericksburg City Council voted in June to enter a contract with Altumint. City officials noted they expect to generate $900,000 in annual revenue with an additional $300,000 going to contractor fees.
The city, however, will have five schools in four zones once its new middle school is complete next year. Spotsylvania includes 31 schools in 25 zones. Myrick noted that the project will start with five zones that include six schools — Battlefield Elementary and Battlefield Middle, Courthouse Road Elementary, Livingston Elementary, Massaponax High and Salem Elementary.
Myrick said a recent speed study in three of the zones was eye-opening. In one week, near Battlefield Elementary and Battlefield Middle, Massaponax High and Salem Elementary, there were 25,000 violations of vehicles traveling at least 11 miles over the speed limit.
“There’s an obvious need there,” Myrick said.
The cost of speeding violations in the school zones will be $100 with $14 going to Altumint, which will use its equipment and mail the tickets to offenders. Cooper, the CEO, stated during the meeting that after a 60-day period — a 30-day promotional campaign and 30 days of issuing warnings — offenses typically drop by 90%.
Daniels cited estimates that the county could rake in $6.9 million per month or up to $60 million per year, but Myrick and Cooper reminded her of the steep drop-off in offenses after the first 60 days. Daniels requested the county look into using the funds for traffic education as well as potential paid internships and externships for students at the Virginia Department of Transportation.
Hayes and other supervisors asked anyone seeing dollar signs because of this project to think again.
“This is not about a revenue generator at all,” she said. “In fact, we hope we don’t get any revenue from it because the goal is to have zero speeding in a school zone. This is not about policing for profit.”
