Chicago: Public Kept in Dark on Red Light Camera Bids

Secrecy in public meetings is nothing new for Chicago....

"Chicago's red-light camera program would cost taxpayers more and would rely on radar guns under one of seven bid proposals quietly under review by City Hall in its effort to replace the scandal-scarred company that holds the current contract.

How the new proposal compares with those of the other six bidders, only Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration knows.

Emanuel's office is following the long-standing — and completely legal — Illinois practice of withholding records related to bids until a contract decision is finalized. But while Emanuel portrays his administration as "among the most transparent cities in the country," his adherence to bidding secrecy means Chicagoans don't get the same opportunity to oversee the decisions of public officials as taxpayers do elsewhere.

An Emanuel spokesman said the city won't release the competing red-light bids in order to preserve its "negotiating advantage" with the potential vendors. The new vendor will replace Redflex Traffic Systems Inc., which Emanuel fired after a series of Tribune disclosures revealed the company may have bribed the former city official who was crucial to selecting Redflex and oversaw its contract since it began in 2003.

Redflex recently lost a similar competition in Florida, but unlike here the selection process played out in view of the public, including the unveiling of all bids months before a preferred bidder was chosen.

"It's very important to us that the public be included at every step of the selection process," said Johnny Richardson, head of public procurement in Orange County, Fla., which is negotiating its red-light camera contract with the preferred bidder. "It is important for them to know that no one is getting their palms greased along the way."

In Orange County, the evaluation committee met in public to open the bids, to debate the proposals and to score the bids. Taxpayers were invited to the offices of county commissioners for their individual meetings with the bidding companies. And the potential vendors discussed their myriad differences in a public hearing after they were scored.

In Florida, it's a crime for public officials to meet, discuss or even to communicate on public contracts outside taxpayer scrutiny. In Chicago, not only is the secrecy legal, it is policy."

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/ct-met-chicago-red-...