Council Awaits Staff Report From ‘The Weeds’ of Proposed School Zone Speed Cameras Contract

At its August 7 work session, the Front Royal Town Council revisited the discussion of calibrated speed cameras to be utilized initially in four high-traffic area public school zones to supplement in the most cost-effective way town police enforcement of reduced speed limits, particularly during school arrival and departure times. August is the fourth month during which the topic has been discussed without a decision on whether to proceed with the initiative brought to council in May by Front Royal Police Chief Kahle Magalis.

Council initially appeared to be somewhat taken aback by some public criticism of what would be civil prosecutions with typical $100 fines but no criminal or insurance consequences being perceived as a “Big Brother” technological, governmental intrusion on citizen privacy and rights. Though exactly what rights other than to speed in school zones endangering the community’s youth was less clear. However, “Big Brother” wasn’t a topic of the August 7 discussion.

The 35-minute-plus discussion opening the work session, chaired initially by Vice-Chairman Wayne Sealock until Mayor Lori Cockrell’s arrival from a school open house about 2 minutes in, revolved around the dynamics of taking advantage of Virginia Procurement Act parameters that allow municipalities to “piggyback” on contracts negotiated by municipalities that have already gone through the Request For Proposal (RFP) and contract processes on items of mutual interest.

Council eventually agreed by a 4-2 consensus (Roger, DeDomenico-Payne dissenting) to direct the town manager and town attorney to continue to explore a contract with Blue Line Solutions through the Virginia Procurement Act.

Issues with accepting a contract negotiated by others was a primary concern of Melissa DeDomenico-Payne, and more particularly “Skip” Rogers, in suggesting council not trust the judgment of other municipalities in establishing the most favorable contract achievable. During the discussion Town Attorney, George Sonnett noted he had not yet vetted the forwarded contract with Blue Line Solutions because council had yet to agree to pursue the Virginia Procurement Act speed camera initiative. Sonnet observed that the Virginia Procurement Act process might limit a municipality’s ability to alter contract terms previously accepted by the initially involved municipal governments.

Given the directive to explore the proposed Blue Line Solutions contract with the town attorney, Town Manager Waltz suggested, they bring the matter back to council in a week at the scheduled August 14 work session so they could “get down in the weeds on the contract” with council. How those “weeds” deal with various concerns expressed by council and how much leeway the Town has in proposing possible adjustments to a contract with Blue Line Solutions will ultimately determine the Town’s path forward in the FRPD initiative to augment school speed zone enforcement.

It was noted that starting unilaterally from ground zero on sending out an RFP seeking contractual proposals would delay the implementation process from as much as 80 to 120 days. But even moving forward on the state procurement act path following next week’s discussion of the contract parameters and adjustment options would not likely see implementation before the next calendar year, Councilwoman Amber Morris observed. The implication appears to be that were council to proceed independently, beginning with its own Request For Proposals, add that 80 to 120 days to whatever 2024 starting date actually would see the implementation through the adoption of the existing Blue Line Solutions contract forwarded to the Town through the Virginia Procurement Act process.

Time frames for implementation seemed of some concern, even to Councilman Rogers, who commented that from his professional experience, it was “always” better to control a contractual process directly regardless of the time involved. He pointed to statistics presented to council previously that he termed “extremely concerning” and “really dramatic.” We believe he was referencing nationwide school zone accident numbers; we recall around 25,000 accidents per year with 1,000 fatalities.

Amber Morris was the most adamant about maintaining the jointly achieved state procurement act process. And she seemed to be the one who has done the most background research. When Mayor Lori A. Cockrell polled council for their preferences moving forward, Morris explained her adamant support of pursuing the existing Blue Line Solutions contract: “My answer remains the same (in support of the proposed contract). In doing my research, even with other localities outside the state of Virginia, Blue Line seems the only company (in this field) basically on the eastern coast where we are that is all law enforcement owned and operated. And with the staff (FRPD) recommendation … and we’re not spending the time and money on this project, this is only moving it forward to the contract negotiations, which is what it would have done on the Consent Agenda that I forwarded last month, I am in favor of moving forward with Blue Line,” Morris reiterated strongly.

And at this point, Morris joins Vice-Mayor Sealock and Councilmen Bruce Rappaport and Josh Ingram, forming a majority favoring that path. In fact, it was Vice-Mayor Sealock who reacted the most harshly to Rogers’ stance on rehashing the entire RFP and contract negotiation process from ground zero rather than benefiting from what others have done in the same regard before you.

Looking at Finance Director B.J. Wilson’s way following Rogers’s proposal to start again from scratch outside the state-authorized group procurement process in order to control that process step by step, Sealock said, “Okay, B.J., from now on, you have to show us everything you do — Is that what you want,” the vice-mayor pointedly asked Rogers.

Stay tuned as we await the Blue Line Solutions contract analysis from “the weeds” by Town Manager Waltz and Town Attorney Sonnett at the August 14 work session.

See previous stories on this topic at “Council supports FRPD school zone speed enforcement cameras, okays move toward maintenance of unimproved alleys” (May 10) and  “In face of ‘Big Brother’ and cited ‘misinformation’ criticism, Council delays approval of school zone speed camera contract” (June 27).

See this discussion and council’s other topics being approved for coming meeting agendas in the Town video. Among those are public hearings on short-term tourist rental requests at 912 Virginia Ave. and 417 Kerfoot Ave., and a Special Use Permit for two apartments at 1127 North Royal Ave. Those discussions came immediately following the speed camera discussion 38 minutes into the work session.