Baltimore City has decides to remain in violation of Maryland state law

[KSweeley]

on speed cameras, planning to pay new speed camera management company Brekford $11.20 per $40 ticket with the city claiming they're well within state law to do so however the director of the city's DOT stated publicly their goal was to move away from the "bounty system".

Link: http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/mar...,5678323.story

Baltimore plans to pay its new speed camera contractor $11.20 per $40 citation — continuing its use of a so-called bounty system that Gov. Martin O'Malley and key state legislators say is illegal under Maryland law.

"Talking to our attorneys here, we're within state law," said Adrienne Barnes, a spokeswoman for the city Department of Transportation. She said no contract has yet been signed with the new vendor, Brekford Corp. of Hanover.

The city's plan for how to pay Brekford had been unclear until Thursday. Last month, the Transportation Department's director, Khalil A. Zaied, publicly called it "our goal" to abandon a pay-by-citation model, which critics say gives contractors a financial incentive to process dubious citations. Officials with the city and Xerox have said profits never played a role in the citation approval process.

What sort of attorneys does Baltimore City have??? Both O'Malley and state lawmakers are saying this system is illegal:

But a sponsor of the 2009 law, Sen. James N. Robey, a Howard County Democrat, has said his aim was to bar any contracts that paid vendors a cut of each ticket. The approach has been called a "bounty system" by opponents in court. Robey said he thinks governments should pay a set fee, regardless of how many citations are generated, to remove any incentive to issue questionable tickets.

O'Malley said last month that arrangements such as the city's violate the law: "The law says you're not supposed to charge by volume. I don't think we should charge by volume. If any county is, they need to change their program."

So what will happen next I wonder, a lawsuit filed by the State of Maryland against the Mayor and City Council of Baltimore City?

[Wizard777]

Have the SAG send them a letter stating that it is his legal opinion that paying per ticket violates the law. If they sign the deal anyway then have the State Prosecutor go after them for Misappropriation and Malfeasence in Office.

I'll have to check on this but to the best of my knowledge since this is a state law they can only claim that they were acting in good faith if they proceed upon the legal opinion of the SAG. His is the only one that is binding.