I am um part of the committee, but I'm here gathers who is the chair of the committee is running a few minutes late, so he will be taking on taking over once I once he gets here.

So blessings to everyone here.

We're gathered here together.

That's not like church, huh?

Well, we need that, right?

So no, um we do, right, Hogan?

Yeah, I absolutely Councillor Hogan, Counselor Navi, Counselor Jones Wowser, President, uh Hudson, uh myself Rashida Kwa, Council Paolo, Council Mantle, Counselor Padiagua, right?

And we're here to talk about um several different things, right?

Um Connor, you can go ahead and get it going.

Sure thing.

Good afternoon, Councillor Connor.

I'll do in chief operating officer.

Um I'm joined by my colleague here, Jeff Nielsen from Genoptic.

Hi, welcome.

Um thank you for the opportunity to be here, and I'm looking forward to meeting you.

Um, there we go.

No need to share.

Thank you.

Could you tell could you say that again?

Your name again, I'm just Jeff Nielsen.

Jeff, thanks, Jeff.

And I'm with Genophic and responsible for the program management for Syracuse.

Um just a bit of table setting before we we go in.

Um so as uh we've had a number of conversations, we're all familiar with uh there are three components to our school zone traffic enforcement program.

Uh in the spring, we launched our bus stop arms, which are attached to the school buses and pro uh document incidents where vehicles pass a bus when uh students are loading or unloading uh when the camera lights are flashing and the red stop arms out.

Uh at the beginning of the school year on the first day of school, we launched the beginning phases of the next two components of that program, our red light uh uh enforcement program and our school speed zone camera program.

Um all of these work together uh with the intention around uh in an alignment with our vision zero efforts uh to prevent uh traffic and safety violations and to increase the city's ability to enforce uh some of the most egregious examples of of speeding uh in school zones.

Um my understanding is that today we have a number of uh topics or in the past couple of weeks.

We've had some questions about uh data security and privacy and things like that.

We're um have a number of folks in the audience today from various departments from API and digital services, from the law department, municipal violations bureau, SPD, school district.

Goodness, quite a few people here um that can talk about uh a number of issues or any questions or concerns.

Um happy to turn it back to the council for any any questions.

I just want to um ask about I know that we're talking about uh underground at the stained school.

Right.

So we're talking about the how do I want to say it?

I guess all of the utilities underground are adequated, so we're trying to actually bring those up to speed, and with Genop get, can't say their name, um we're looking to put together a pop, I don't want to say policy, but where they'll be responsible with us for the maintenance of the underground stuff.

Right.

So um I'll Jeff Jeff can speak to that in a little bit more detail, but um just as a uh recollection for everyone, um, on on Monday, the council did pass the revocable permission agreement, uh, which is a fairly standard uh permission that allows a third party to uh deploy or uh locate their equipment in the public right of way.

Um and then some components of that agreement were around uh liability for if things during the construction period get damaged, other existing equipment that's in there.

There's some electrical conduits for street lights and traffic signals and things like that underground there, um, that you know there would be uh responsible cost sharing um on the on the part of Genoptic to cover any damages.

Um the reason why that location in particular was um being held until we had that revocable permission in hand uh was that the majority of our speed camera program uses overhead electrical powering.

So the wires could drop down from from overhead, and it doesn't require getting underground and potentially damaging anything.

Um in that downtown location, and in that location, um those conduits are the oldest uh conduits that the program will be utilizing is shared space, basically a tube underneath the roadway that you know contains a number of different pieces of equipment.

Um and that was one that just because of the age of those conduits, um, sometimes when you're getting underground in construction, um, you know, things can be damaged or or crushed the conduit canon.

So you want to make sure that we're being as as cautious as we can be in uh installing that infrastructure.

Okay.

So with that saying, once we install, so for those people who are not like tech savvy and understand all of this, right?

Because this is a this is a lot, right?

Um so once it's installed underground, right?

Then how maintain maintaining this, where does that fall with the city, with genoptics, the fee, the pay, like what does that look like moving forward once they're gonna do that?

Sure.

So I'll I'll speak quickly to just the um cost sharing, um, and then I'll I'll turn it over to Jeff for any uh specifics around maintenance.

Um so these programs across the country typically are uh put into place where the contractor that the our our partner will um it's their equipment, so they pay for the the procurement and installation of that equipment, and then as a result of being located within our right-of-way, we share in the revenue for any uh dollars that are generated through fines or violations.

And uh it's a little bit different across the three programs, but it's typically around Jeff.

Do you have do you know this off the top of your head?

The Rev show to Genoptic.

Right.

Thir35 on speed and red light program, it's 35% to Genoptic, 65% to the city, and then on the bus stop arm 45 to Genoptic.

45 to Genoptic and 55 to the city.

Thank you very much, Jeff.

I appreciate that.

Um sorry, school district doesn't receive anything, behind this.

The funds go to the city in the general fund.

General fund, but not anything to the school district.

Uh not directly to the school district, no.

So it's just the three um gynoptics, the city, just the two, and but it's a slightly different revenue share across the three programs.

Gotcha.

Okay.

And then I can ask Jeff to comment on gymnastics responsibility for maintaining the equipment within our right-of-way.

Yeah, so it is our responsibility to maintain uh that the equipment not only is in good order and is not damaging the current conduit or other things around it, but also that the uptime is maintained.

So it's our responsibility to get in a timely fashion if something does go down on that at our expense.

And what do you consider a timely fashion?

Uh well, that's uh let me put it more practical.

I can tell you within 24 hours.

Okay.

24 hours is this the standard KPI we use, uh cost perfor key performant index.

But we have field engineers that are stationed residing here in Syracuse.

And so it they're dedicated to doing that same day.

I don't know if the administration aspects are your responsibility.

That is correct.

How can we um ensure the community like I love the cameras, especially around the schools with the kids?

But how can we share ensure the community accuracy with the cameras?

What did you know?

Like, what are we putting out there for protocol that, you know, because it's still technology and we're learning and things people can mess with stuff all the time.

We know that.

But how are we ensuring that whatever is going on with you know your procurement, everything you guys do that we're all set that the community is getting the actual like the speed at the speed says 30 is actually reading 30?

Yes.

Absolutely.

Yeah, great.

So uh there's a couple different ways.

Number one, addressing vandalism or tampering, there are tamper anti-tamper um seals on the cases of both speed, red light, and on the school buses as well.

Um, those all those equipments to to preserve the hardware uh security as a if you will, from a software perspective, their daily touches over the air over the um software, non-physical touches, but their daily touches to the different camera systems to see if they're operating properly.

Is the video recording number one?

Is it is it accurate?

You can actually see what's there is is ham happening as well.

As it relates to speed, they have a radar in it.

It's the same type of radar that's used by a handheld gun by a police officer.

And that radar is calibrated no less than every 12 months by an independent third-party uh company that does that calibration and provides that certificate to the city of Syracuse in the administration of those.

So, in the same way that a police officer with a radar gun on the side of the road or in his vehicle, his or vehicle um has a radar that's calibrated, these are calibrated annually according to the state law as well.

And we do that about every 10 months to ensure that we're we don't fall fall behind.

And those time periods for maintenance and calibration are laid forth in the enabling state uh legislation.

So when it comes to actual violations, and this is probably the question I'm getting the most often right now, when it comes to violations, if we violate somebody at a red light on, let's say November 1st, we're not violating them again November 2nd, right?

Are we giving them, are we sending out that first violation and then giving them a chance to respond to the first one before we're violating them again the next day?

So the uh it's important to remember that we are within a 60-day warning period right now.

I mean once you get past the warning period, yeah.

So I'll get to that.

Um and so uh the way that the state law works is that every violation receives either a warning or a notice of violation.

So it is per incident, right?

The reason why we're doing a 60-day warning period is because we know that this is a very significant change in the way that we enforce our speed and traffic safety laws, particularly around schools, right?

And so the state enabling legislation does not require a warning period.

And typically the average uh the industry best practice is a 30-day warning period, and that's intended for residents to get a couple notices, get a couple warnings.

I fully expect that many homes and how households will get a warning in this period.

Um, we wanted to ensure that residents are aware of uh these programs and what the expectations are and what the expectations are for changing their behavior behind the wheel.

And so we doubled that warning period to a 60-day uh length of time, uh, with the expectation that many many individuals will get a warning.

We want residents to uh you know receive that warning, read that that mail, that piece of mail that will come, uh, and say, Oh, I I made a mistake, and I need to be more cautious when I'm behind the wheel, particularly around schools.

Do we have so it's interesting?

Well, two things that I would like to say is that one that I think, and I don't, it's not genoptics more of a city thing.

I think we need to have a little bit more signages out, letting people know like school zones are coming, especially for people that don't know people that live here, sort of knows where schools are.

But if you're coming from, you know, you're you're not local and you've come into a school zone, you really don't know next day you know you're seeing a camera, right?

So actually letting them know you're coming in an area, science that says you're coming here where there are schools, be you know, prepare to slow down.

So that people are mentally starting to prepare that these are neighborhoods that are schools, right?

That's the first thing.

But the second thing is how close do once you're going past the school zone.

Oops, I'm trying to use this as a object and you're driving up.

How close do it before it reads it?

You know what I mean?

Yeah.

Because I always watch it, you know, it goes like 25, 24, three.

You know what I mean?

So where is it catching the house reading?

This is something I'm interested to know.

Absolutely.

I think your questions are are really important.

Um, so the state just vehicle traffic law, New York State guidance, federal guidance requires signage, right?

It requires signage at the entry point to uh into the city boundaries.

And so we've put up signs to say you know this is a community that enforces traffic violations with automated cameras, and so that's around a number of required locations into the city.

Um, and then every zone also requires multiple signs saying you're about to enter an area of automated enforcement uh that that you know is uh camera enforced, so please be mindful of that.

So please be mindful of that.

Um our engineering and DPW teams are currently going through uh with a fine-tooth comb every single one of these zones to make sure that we have the appropriate signage in place so that when the warning period is over and we actually start to issue violations with dollar amounts that that we know that we've done everything that we can to communicate to drivers, you're about to enter a school zone and and you need to slow down.

So one of the things that I and I and I'm fairly aware that you guys are and you're gonna answer the second question is it's the size street.

So say you're going down um, right?

And McKinley is right here.

If you hit canon, you're not aware, right?

So it's not really the main streets of focus on, yeah, it's the size street.

So if you're coming off one of the side streets and you don't know, you're not recognizing that you're coming to a school zone, which you're gonna like connect, which I just want more people to be aware of it that this is opportunity for you know to be knowledgeable that is we're watching.

Absolutely.

Have you been having coffee with John Kivlahan and our engineering department?

Because that's exactly his concern as well.

That you are spot on.

Absolutely.

No, so that that is a concern, right?

We want to make sure that if an individual is coming from the side street that they also receive the appropriate notice to say this is an area of enforcement, and you need to be cautious here because uh you know there are interpretations of the requirements to say that those may or may not be and uh required, and we're trying to ensure that we've gone above and beyond to communicate to residents with appropriate signage.

Is there anything to add?

Yeah, just one other piece on that.

The beauty of doing a 60-day warning period as opposed to the traditional 30 is at that 21 to 30 day mark, we can start looking at where the problem area is and go, hey, this this is a problem, and then we can step back and go out to the site and go, what's the problem?

Oh, a side street comes up to this, and there's no signage.

Maybe we can stop it.

It's all about the safety.

That's the number one.

And if we or we see something else that, hey, this is how do we address the specific one that's just in the outlier?

It's for some reason it's recording way too many.

And then to your other question, Council Policy.

Okay.

Um the the camera has a uh zone um that it can enforce about seven 70 feet.

It's gonna say 70 to 100.

So glad, glad we're on the same page there.

Uh and so that you know there is an area where the cameras are pointed that that um is the more specific zone of where the ri the radar reading occurs.

It's a point, it's on the point on the road, and it's no sooner than the actual poll itself.

So, like traditionally, when you see it say your speed is 50 is 45, it's pointed out at you coming to it.

The speed recognition for this is not coming that way, it's pointing at the pole or beyond the poll, wherever it's the straightest thing.

So they start to slow down and recognize it and they get to the poll and they're at the speed limit, then they're fine.

It's just if they're okay.

That's exactly what we're doing.

So for those kind of go backing the speed limit.

Um, how do we how do you give them the finds electronically?

How does this happen?

So, Jeff, can you talk about just to the multiple rounds of review and then all the steps that have to happen before the piece of mail lands in a residence inbox?

Oh, okay.

Okay, so the first thing is obviously is the occurrence, the incident has been video recorded.

Uh it's a 10-second video recording of the the violate potential violation.

It comes to UNOPTIC.

We do a first pass review, human review.

We verified is the video right?

There's three pieces of video that come in.

Is the license plate readable?

Is it legible?

Um, and then and a couple of the things on the location and time of day.

Make sure the business rules have been adhered to.

Because if it's come it's speed camp speed violation at midnight, that's out of the enforcement time.

So we make sure that those first pieces are that it is a school zone between 7 a.m.

and 6 p.m.

Um so the business rules.

Then from there, it goes to a quality check.

A quality checker looks and says, okay, this reviewer has been uh approving 100% of the things that come through the queue.

We know that's a problem.

Because we know something's not good shouldn't be coming through that first review.

So we're we're doing a quality check to make sure five percent up to five percent of those first reviews will go back in for a second first review just to keep the quality check.

It's a statistical sampling to make sure that that first review is being done properly and there's proper trading.

So verify that the plate is actually attached to the car that it's on.

That's correct.

Okay, that's part of the human review.

That's correct.

Go ahead.

Then go on.

And then it goes to a second human review.

At the second human review, they have the business rules again.

Now they look at it and they see the plate is legible attached to the car.

They see the registered owner information for it as well.

They verify make a model matches what's with DMV and what what's visible?

They see those things, they make sure the data bar is correct, time of day, uh etc.

Location, etc.

The speed is correct.

Um and they they verify those things.

Then if they approve it internally, Genoptic approves it, then it goes out, another quality check, goes through that cycle of quality, and then from there it goes to Syracuse Police Department for review.

SPD reviews and determines.

We're saying we believe this is a violation based on the business rules that Syracuse has provided to UNOPTIC to look at.

And now SPD, take a look and see what you think.

SPD, there's generally industry wide, there'll probably be a two between a 2% and a 7% rejection rate at SPD would be normal.

Um and SPD will look at speeds obviously pretty easy because it's is the radar certified and what was the speed and time of day business rules.

Red light definitely more judicious.

If SPD is reviewed and SPD determines, that's a that's something I would cite.

I would issue a ticket for that if I was on the road.

Um then it goes in approval uh approval status and comes back to Yanoptic and says print and mail that violation on behalf of the city.

And so we print and mail that violation and give the give the person there the opportunity to uh to either come and get a court hearing to just pay it online.

If it's a school bus, the beauty on the school bus is they can see the 10 second video clip and they can see them in their car, they can't see them inside the car, but they can see their car at the time of day, school bus stop, yellow school bus, the the red, the stop signs out, and that they actually passed it.

Most often on school buses, most often people watch that video and they go, uh that's that was dangerous.

And 98% of people on school buses don't repeat industry wide.

98%, it's very, very effective tool.

It's also 250 dollar fine, so it makes an impact.

But that's the general that is the process, and so there are the two human reviews plus the quality checks that occur before it gets to SPD to do a human review.

So I just wanted to circle back and piggyback off of um what counselor claude well had uh spoke about as far as like the warning uh signs.

Um are we taking into account areas where there are hills because uh if you come up Calvin from the Comstock area and you are accelerating because you're on a hill, all of a sudden you hit the school bus zone.

Now you're already in acceleration mode and you have to quickly try to slow down.

You're not going to well, I don't know, based on what you just said about the far as it being right at the pole, but it is hard to reduce that speed so fast.

So adding more signage prior to the pump, I guess, um, would be absolutely helpful.

And I don't know if that's the only location where that exists.

Yeah, we'll take that in consideration as well.

In the in this case, in Syracuse's case at the 30-day 21 to 30 day mark where we're looking where problem sites are, go, gosh, there's a lot of offenses there.

What's going on?

Oh, it's an uphill.

Okay, instead of uh pointing the spot speed right at the poll, let's move it down further to say 70 feet down.

So that what do we think would happen to that?

Would that make a difference?

So we'll we'll have that dialogue that thought process.

Counselor uh president just identified Bellevue and Geddes.

And I'm sorry, the first one you mentioned, oh sure.

The first one you mentioned, please?

Calvin, guys.

Yes.

Yeah.

Um, the other one of the other um questions.

So once the tickets you said the third step, give to the police.

All right.

Um give it to the police.

Once the police give it, then she you guys give it.

If you think it's approvable and you think it needs to go, then it goes to BA.

Like, how did when does what's the next step?

Like once you get the actual ticket, and we're like, yeah, that's it.

You think it's a ticket, they find them.

What is the next step for the constituent to say, you know, they gotta go to court as court BA?

Okay.

Okay.

I'm just trying to say the steps so that people understand.

Hi, Leah Whitmer, director of the municipal violations bureau.

So once they get the ticket in the mail, they have 40 days to pay or contest.

And again, we base that time frame on the state requirements.

So most of our tickets are 20 to 30 days.

This is 40 days.

Pay or contest if they want to contest, it goes through just technicality.

The parking violation bureau is what the state law allows us to adjudicate through.

So they can request a hearing.

Um, right now, it's you can do it right online.

You can come into our office.

We're working to get kiosk set up in the front of our offices that should be up before the warning period is over, so that people can again look at that evidence that Jeff was referencing right there, make a determination if they want to pay, they can pay the payments go directly through Yanoptic.

Um, but we'll have those kiosks, they can make that payment there with a credit card, or they can contest and work updating and working with Yanoptic to ensure that that process is flawless since we started with school bus ticketing in the middle of May.

We've done over a hundred hearings for school buses.

So my staff are all trained and ready to go.

What's the what are the percentages look like compared?

How many people are are um objecting to the ticket for the school bus arms?

What percentage are actually just paying it and going?

Yeah, it's right around 10%, I'd say right now, based on the numbers.

Again, you know, it's me looking at the numbers in the system, so I'm not entirely sure.

Um, but because summer school continued, um, I think the number, you know, the number of buses on the road and the events captured were a little bit less, and we're seeing a lull right now in hearings.

Like I think this morning we only had two.

Um, and then with um, I think school bus tickets started going out again on Friday.

Um, so I think it'll pick up, but it's right around 10%.

And is it cumulative?

So if someone has 10 parking tickets in the city, are we adding these violations to that and then making them boot eligible?

Is all of it going together or no?

Not yet.

That's a proposal that I'll have coming in front of you soon, but I haven't quite gotten that far yet.

But that point I think was outlined in Connor's recent memo.

That's one of our collection plans, and something that we've um talked to other municipalities in the state that they're doing.

May I make a comment?

Uh I applaud what is going on in the Butternut Street corridor from Carbon Street down to Josephine, because now we have a school zone 20 miles.

It's keeping police, it's keeping vehicles at a normal speed rate.

They're not excessively speeding.

However, and this is a persistent problem on the Butternut Street corridor.

Uh the school bus drive driver stops, and he's gotta wait, and he's gotta wait within 10 seconds.

We have a backlog of vehicles going back a quarter of a mile, and I'm not exaggerating.

So now we have a backlog of vehicles.

Some are blowing the horn, some are backing up, they're trying to find an interesting and make it a roundabout, they're turning around in the other direction.

So, what can we do to work on the stalemate of vehicles where there is a stall and there's an immediate pile up of cars?

What can we do to keep traffic flowing?

What can we do to work with the school bus drivers and the parents, make sure the children are there, and if they are not there when they get there, they just go on.

Yes.

Maybe you can answer that question for you.

Dr.

DeFlore, I'm the chief operations for the Syracuse City School District.

And we do our best to look at routing.

If there's problematic routing, we can talk to the Department of Transportation.

However, it depends on the child and the needs of the child.

Some children need to be picked up at their home, particularly if they have disabilities.

I understand that, and I do see that, but I'm talking about another way because I see this many times.

I mean, that's that's the best I can I can offer you is that we can look at routes, um, particularly if it's a traffic issue.

We don't want kids coming out in traffic, we don't want traffic backed up.

That's the best we can do.

There are some instances that we will just simply have to do our very best at that moment, particularly depending on where the children live.

So we might also consider where we got central bus stops.

Would it be all right if a child can walk maybe one block they will they go where they could cut down onto stop after stop after stop?

Yeah, that that's a possible solution for some children.

We have moved bus stops.

We can't yeah, if we can for different corners to make it safer for children, we do that quite regularly.

Yes.

Thank you.

Thank you while you're while you're there.

Um I um wanted to um just mention to everyone really, but um long metal drive um has had consistent speeding on that street where people not going down Celina to um was it meet them to meet them cutting down Hilton to go long meadow, which is a backside street and speeding.

Um so I've been getting complaints throughout the entire year.

I did speak to um someone from the city about it, but now that we're here with this, that is a street that needs to potentially be looked at in a larger capacity.

Um I don't know if it's for uh that that may be for for DPW to take a look at if there are some engineering uh considerations.

I spoke with engineering.

Um but I'm just making sure to reiterate.

Absolutely, and I appreciate that.

We also can can loop in our uh police department as well to have some uh targeted enforcement there.

Thank you, Dr.

Florida.

Uh that was a very good um point because that's also dealing with the side streets.

So that means more the more that we have more radars detecting people are gonna get going down main streets and they're gonna go down side streets to avoid it.

So that's where we've come together with DPW, maybe getting some more speed bumps and everything.

But the other piece that I want to Dr.

DeFor slash honey D.

I think we're okay with that question.

Any other questions with Dr.

Florida?

Yeah, we're also did you want to say something?

I did.

I just want to say thank you uh to the city and in optic uh for for doing this.

I think it's very important, the safety of our children, particularly the bus arm cameras, and very helpful.

Thank you.

Thank you, Dr.

Let me ask this question.

How many cameras uh do you posit you do approximately have you installed?

So New York State provides a limit on the number of cameras that we can install for speed and red light programs.

It's 34 locations uh with multiple cameras at those locations for the red light program and 36 locations for speed as well.

Uh we have almost all of our speed cameras up uh for our red light cameras, as we said.

Uh we started the program with uh one in each quadrant, and over the coming weeks ahead, we'll be installing the next phases of that to eventually get up uh to the 34 locations uh by you know uh within this fall is our goal.

And then my next question for you is it may not even be a factor, but as the police with their body cams and all the different policies, is there a policy on how long you can keep this?

Is there a policy on what you do with it?

I mean, what is the policy?

Absolutely.

There are very strict uh requirements from New York State, and then there's also some industry practices.

So I'm gonna turn it over to Jeff to answer your questions.

Yeah, that's great.

Um one thing I've noticed about Syracuse, I've been in the industry for about 12 years.

One thing I've noticed about Syracuse and the way you all have approached um asking that question, your team has approached it right out of the gate.

First thing out of the gate was my private privacy and what's going with data security.

How's that gonna be happen?

Um many cities don't think about that, and some other things have happened with other companies in the way they generate revenue.

But our contract with the city in section 7.2 makes the is called non-disclosure of information.

And it in summary it says Syracuse data is owned by Syracuse, and all derivatives of that data is owned by Syracuse, and UNOPTIC has agreed that that would be a breach of contract if we were to do anything with that data.

How long do you keep it?

So it's kept in a stored environment, either on a server or a cloud environment, and it's expunged no later than every one year, 12 months.

It's expensive.

So every year is a sponge.

So go ahead.

And that's if it's been a violation.

If it's a non-violation, if SPD determines or our reviewers determine, hey, there's there's nothing there.

You sponge it immediately.

Okay, can I ask the question, Connor?

The policy, can we get a copy of that?

Yep, absolutely.

Okay.

We also have signs.

Um, you know how like you're going down Genesee Street and you're um just before you're entering a school, they'll say, like speed school zone, speed zone nine between nine and six, right?

Can we make sure that we're because this is a 24-hour thing, right?

It doesn't the speed cameras uh as per state regulations are only during certain times.

So the speed cameras are citywide, 7 a.m.

to 6 p.m.

That's a rule that New York State sets, and we're making sure that all of our signage appropriately communicates that time period.

And that's only on days when school is in session.

So including summer school, but if there's a weekend or a holiday, those cameras are turned off.

The red light program, the state enables us to keep out operations 24-7.

Okay, that's confusing.

It is a little confused.

I'll say it again.

Yep.

So the speed cameras, according to New York State, can only operate on days when kids are in school, right?

And only during the time period of 7 a.m.

to 6 p.m.

Right.

The red light program has different requirements from New York State, and those can operate 24-7, 365.

So do we have spots where we're double, where we have both.

We have so I'm thinking let's use Teal and James Tree, for instance.

So we have a hot spot red light there with accidents, and then we have two schools right after it.

So we have speed and red light there.

Not the exact same location, but certainly there are a couple of places.

James Street is one of them where there are a number of schools, and and um we know that there are a number of violations that occur on that corridor.

And so there's a lot of there that you could get the speeding ticket.

You could run the red light and get a speeding ticket within like okay.

That's I mean, that's probably what we need right there because it's pretty.

So why can't we just make it cross the border time?

Like that's confusing.

That's just the the way that New York State their enabling legislation says this is what you can and can't do with the program.

Um we could ask our state representatives to adjust that program and have speed cameras uh longer uh time periods or 2024-7.

Um, but that would require the state legislature to approve that type of law.

You got a speed camera, you got a red light camera, you got bus came like the bus cam.

It's like a lot of cameras.

I can't.

It is and Connor, what does so uh I'm just a little confused?

Maybe Lee can answer.

Is this these tickets that are issued?

Are they civil tickets or are they state?

Will points pile up?

Leah Whitmer.

Um they're civil tickets, they're not traffic violations issued as if they were issued on the spot by a police officer because they're automated enforcement.

Okay.

If you look at the governing laws, like the actual violation outlines, you know, the penalties for speed, for instance, it shows an escalating fine schedule depending how fast you're going through the automated enforcement program, like Connor said, the state caps it at $50 and then a $25 penalty if you don't pay or contest within the 40 days.

So they don't get you don't get points on your license.

So I mean, even though the police department reviews it, it's like the parking point.

Yeah, it's okay.

It's just like a parking ticket because I've been getting a lot of questions also about people.

Yeah, we have in the city through the you know, the work zone violations, they're getting a lot of them.

81 and all those places.

So that's a civil, I guess, too.

But yes.

Yeah.

So in other words, you could keep on violating and it just be we'd have to collect it through our means in order to collect any of the money, correct?

I mean, maybe I mean the big thing is getting points on your license.

I mean, where you could lose your license, obviously.

Yeah, you can't get points on your license for this.

Well, I mean, only allowable.

That's more of a hammer than just a civil action.

We did have a conversation, Connor and I, about looking into seeing if if we could take that route of tagging it along with the registration or something like that.

Before we would be registration, I just want to clarify they're two different things, right?

They're not points on a license.

No.

The state allows for both parking and automated enforcement that you can go through the DMV to put a registration hold.

Correct.

But you have to have a certain number of violations encompassing both parking and or automated enforcement within an 18 month period.

So that would be once we put it in place, it would take over a year and a half for that to happen.

Okay.

Before, you know, it'd be great if somehow we could share this information for speeding and all that with the school district.

Uh, just particularly the principals of the school, because I wonder how many of these tickets are going to be issued from parents trying to get their kids.

What's the object?

They've they've shared it.

And I know for my children's school, um, I've spoken to the both the principal, the vice principal, and a couple of teachers, and they're they're all aware.

So I think the district's done a really great job of getting it out.

I've got it on the talking points app, I've got an emails, and I know the teachers, we asked them to share that again at the start of the school year.

Um, and the comms team has made some updated, you know, fact sheets with all the programs and information, and we made sure to highlight that these aren't points on your license, these are civil fines.

Um, you know, they're not criminal, they're not traffic tickets.

I know Councillor Rousser had a question.

Oh, yeah.

Um what is uh what is the uh school in school days?

Is that Monday through Friday or Monday through Saturday?

Because I I know some when I was growing up, kids went to school on Saturdays, and I think sports still happen or sports practice might still happen on Saturdays as well.

So my understanding is that it would the program would not be allowed when just on for sports, it has to be when when academic uh classroom is in session.

Um that would include summer school.

Um I can't speak to any Saturday schedule.

I don't even know if Saturday school still exists.

I've just we did provide an optic with the school calendar and times as well.

Um, and we will do that again once summer school begins too.

So there is no Saturday schools.

No, that's correct.

Okay, that's great.

Question for you, right?

Because you know how people give you get calls and people are complaining.

They're complaining about the fact that let me ask you this.

I know it's in the Syracuse City school districts per view.

What about the charter schools?

Are we camera in the charter schools as well?

Our primary focus has been to ensure that all of the city school districts have uh at least one speed camera and one red light camera in and around their their campus facility.

Because we have more, we're allowed a higher number than the number of SCSD campuses.

There may be one or two charter schools that also have uh a camera.

But within the city boundaries.

Yeah.

Well, you you know, to President Hudson's point, uh it's important.

I know commissioners probably are aware of this, but the traffic, I mean the speed zone and the traffic uh outside of some of those charter schools, we got to make sure that we have you know proper signage there too.

I mean, I know counselor Caldwell talks about the same school I talk about, the charter school in West Gen of C Street.

And I noticed there was a sign there the other day that said slow 20 miles on West Gender C Street with those kids crossing, even though it's farther away because they have to get past park app to or something.

Yeah, I don't understand why we wouldn't do all schools.

Uh I think we've done as many campuses as the numbers allow.

So this the state says you can only have X number.

Oh, that's why you say cameras, locations.

Um that growth we that goes.

We would have to petition our local legislators to to ask for additional camera locations.

Right now we're in a demonstration program period.

So this is a three-year Leah demonstration program, maybe a two-year two to three year demonstration program to say, hey, how did how does this work in your community?

Uh and then they would need to re-up that legislation to allow us to continue after that period.

Anything to add to that?

Each one's a little different.

Some go up to five, most of them are set to sunset in the end of 2023, I believe.

2027.

What?

They're gonna sunset in what 23.

You're going back.

Yeah, sorry.

I was thinking at that one of the local laws.

2029.

Sorry.

Thank you.

Yeah.

Hey Connor, I got a question.

So now we have red light camera, school go school zone camera, and the bus camera.

Right?

The three cameras.

All right.

Now people, because I've gotten a lot of calls that are so they're listening.

What about the cameras on the highway?

That's the question.

So the three programs that we are that are empowered to provide are the three that you just mentioned: bus cameras, speed cameras, and red light cameras.

Uh, we're the first city in New York State to have all three.

And we're implementing all three in this year.

So it's a it's a very significant change to what residents and drivers should be expecting.

The highway cameras are um administered through NISDOT, New York State Department of Transportation, and those are focused on protecting uh construction zones, particularly when construction workers are on the ground.

Yeah.

Uh we can continue to communicate with our partners over at NISTOT to make sure that there's a you know abundance of communication around that program.

So I know that the with the amount of construction that we have in our city right now, I think the numbers are you know two billion dollars of construction activity going on between I 81 and they say boy, the city's sure gonna get us for something, and that's not even us.

We're not on the highway.

That's not us, that's right.

So NISTOT is doing this, and I know we're off the camp, but it's about the cameras.

Who are making sure that the construction people have the necessary flaggers and the people to let people know that they're coming up, right?

So if they're the speed zone is one thing, but who's checking to make sure the construction are doing what they're supposed to do, letting people know like they're coming up, you know.

So my understanding is that um, so there are contractors who are doing the actual construction work for I81, right?

Right.

And that it's the responsibility of the New York State Department of Transportation to ensure that they uphold all of the traffic safety, the signage, uh, this the um uh work zone safety requirements from New York State law.

So it's the it's the State Department of Transportation to ensure that the contractors are doing their work correctly and safely.

This is my last one, and y'all can take over.

So three things.

So with this just so that people so I can answer the questions, and I'm gonna get we for the red light camera and the school zone camera and the bus camera.

What are the three things that people need to make sure they understand?

Red light camera is what?

24-7.

24-7.

$50.

Right?

And how much?

$50.

All right.

That's also set by New York State.

$24 okay.

School zone camera.

The speed cameras uh only on days when school's in session from 7 a.m.

to 6 p.m.

That's also $50.

And bus camera.

So that one's set by New York State as well.

So that's anytime the bus has its amber lights flashing and it's red stop arm out.

Have to stop.

Can't not travel up from behind or from in front of.

You can at a T intersection, you can go through, right?

And that's where there's some there's some context around.

This is a little confusing.

You know, that's that's just per vehicle traffic law, right?

But if a bus is stopped, it's amber lights are flashing, should have given you a good 20-second warning.

It's it's a red stop arm comes out, you must stop, right?

The New York State law says that uh the first violation within 18 months is 250 dollars.

If you get a second bus stop arm violation within that 18 month period, it rises to 275.

And if you get a third within that 18 month period, it rises to 300.

And and you know, as Jeff said, because of the dollar, the high dollar amount of those, uh, because of the urgent safety needs around that.

Uh we've the industry has found that 98% of people who do get one bus stop arm ticket never get a second one.

I don't know what that's not what about school camera.

Can you do something like this?

We would be open to that conversation, but um New York State law says they're all $50.

I think that would be good if you're could I add one to your question because I think it's constituency-based.

Yeah.

No points, no insurance notification.

You'll get very important.

You'll get those questions too, as we talked about earlier with the points and go up.

That's because we're ticketing the registrant, not the driver.

But if uh if Chief Schoff pulls over the driver for that, he tickets the driver.

Right, different ball game.

Okay.

Dr.

DeFlorio, question for you.

Because we talk about the amber lights and uh stop arm out, but I've traveled behind a lot of school buses, and they'll sit there for a long period of time.

Maybe you could take that up with transportation, and then they'll flip down the stop sign.

So they don't necessarily do it in a timely manner.

We did have uh training with them um prior to the start of the school year, so we hope that has improved.

We were aware that um in May when we first started the pilot, that that those things were happening, that they were coming out a little too fast.

So we have done training with the bus drivers um and made them aware of that, those issues.

Well I have you here.

Um just to go back to the question about the school schedule.

I know we're gonna have questions about this.

Um when it pertains to a snow day, the cameras are gonna be disengaged at that time.

How how quick can we, or will SPD be the ones to determine you're not gonna issue a ticket or anything like that?

I don't know if anybody thought I don't I don't know the answer to that off the top of my head.

A snow day, school's not in session, kids aren't there.

Sure.

So the only ones that would affect would be the school speed zone, and we would notify uh Yen Optic, and so they would um disable the cameras, or if any have come through, we would notify them before it got through their two rounds, and probably even before they pulled the plate before it got to PD.

So I'm pretty sure that's in our business rules just to notify them, obviously.

We haven't come up on that yet.

So um, but it is in our business roles.

Okay, we just want to double check.

Good question.

Thanks.

And we're hoping for no snow days this year.

So uh the steam school and ITC both are gonna have they're both because those are two they're right next to each other.

And we and we know that warrant uh Adam Street, excuse me, is um uh area of of particular attention.

When are we starting the construction for that?

Uh for the underground conduit.

So uh uh we gave them an approval after Monday afternoon to go ahead and move forward, so they should be starting that in the next week or so.

Okay.

So Adam Street, I mean, you know what?

Jeez, you're so you're gonna slow everybody up on AM Street as they're trying to get on.

That's going to be a very difficult feat for the circuits police department.

So the speed cameras and the red light cameras shouldn't really slow traffic.

The more the bigger concern that I believe Councilor Nave was talking about was when buses are stopped for loading and unloading.

I know that we've worked very closely with SCSD uh to ensure that the proper locations for the bus unloading points there, and also that it's you know directly across from the uh central transportation center.

So the vast majority of students, if they're not dropped off by a personal vehicle, we'll take the central bus there.

Did you say speed cameras on it?

No fast people would have it is I I bet that's probably gonna be where the most ticketing comes from.

Well, there will be a couple of locations.

Yep, a couple locations.

I uh I um probably want to just have Chief Shaw uh give us some quick information.

Um I'm not even sure where we are with it, but because we have talked about a mirror of cameras stuff.

What uh can you just refresh us about the um exit cameras?

Um I'm talking about about the highway, the ones that you're talking about the LPRs?

Yeah.

So the one with the ones we discussed were at uh Calvin and State or Calvin and Slana, those are no, this was well, it was about um we being responsible for some cameras that were supposed to come off the exits.

You know what?

Maybe it's not cameras, they might be lights.

Okay, it might be lights okay.

All right.

It's not cameras.

One more question, and then we just put in my ear.

But I have seen it.

Some of the signs say 20 miles, and some of the signs say 25 miles.

Correct.

So what is it?

So it so they're almost all locations are 20 miles per hour for a school zone speed camera.

There are a couple, I believe, on James Street is the one that I can think of, and maybe one other one.

Um, that the state speed limit is 25.

The school zone speed limit is 25.

Um, that's because of just the higher threshold for that for that um the higher baseline speed uh limit on that road.

It's a 10 mile hour reduction, is what a school speed is.

I agree.

Well, we're gonna start taking the bus, I think.

Well, there's uh no more questions or statements.

So let me say thank you to Jeff.

Thank you, Connor, for everything.

This has been great, very, very informative.

Thank you to President Hudson.

Thank you to President Hudson, thank you, Council Cartoon and all the other counselors.

Uh this meeting is now done.

Thank you very much.

Thank you.

Uh we'll be ready for uh uh one o'clock for last parking.