According to an article in The (Riverside, Calif.) Press-Enterprise, the city of Grand Terrace, Calif., last week borrowed more than $72,000 from fees collected from developers to pay the company that supplies and operates its red-light cameras. The city hasn't collected enough in fines to pay the company. The city is reconsidering whether to take out the cameras, undermining the premise that the cameras were installed purely to promote public safety.
What happened to the Money that was collected from the tickets? Where was it spent?
When and HOW will the money borrowed from the Development Fees be paid back to that fund?
These are the questions that need to be answered and learned from.
Clearly the City Council on the advise of Steve Berry and or Tom Schwab and the "Staff" spent the funds that should have been used to pay for the RedFlex Services. What were they thinking? What did they buy with RedFlex's money fund?
This practice of raiding this fund or that fund has got to stop some time. Perhaps the next one will come out of Mr. Schwabs Retirement Fund.
I am not impressed that the council voted to raid a fund with a specific obligation for its use. This will require some of those funds to be repaid, will the fund theft just continue and continue and we'll never know what was purchased with Redflex Money under Schwab and Berry?