Columbus, Ohio Removing Red Light Cameras After Bribes From Camera Company Exposed

Columbus Mayor Michael B. Coleman announced the decision on Wednesday morning, less than 24 hours after the City Attorney’s office said the city could legally cancel the contract it had held with Redflex since 2005.

“Based upon the city’s contract authority, we will be terminating the contract with Redflex immediately,” Coleman said in a news release. “I support a photo red-light camera program because it saves lives; however, the actions of the Redflex executives have raised questions about the integrity of their program.”

City Attorney Richard C. Pfeiffer Jr. said Columbus could terminate the contract because a new state law enacted this year bans cities from issuing citations from photo red-light cameras unless a police officer is at the intersection when the driver runs the red light. The city has filed a lawsuit challenging that law as an unconstitutional infringement of home rule. The city’s cameras, which Redflex owns, have been bagged since March pending the outcome of the lawsuit.

Karen Finley, Redflex’s former CEO, said in federal court documents released last month by the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of Ohio that she gave bribes to Columbus elected officials over the years as the cameras were operating and the contract was renewed and expanded. The bribes, according to court records, were paid through Redflex’s lobbyist John Raphael.

Raphael is cooperating with federal investigators, his attorney has said.

The court documents refer to Redflex donations solicited by an elected Columbus official in 2009 through Raphael. When Redflex executive Aaron Rosenberg confirmed to Raphael that he had sent a check for $5,000, Raphael emailed back that he was with the official and the official said “THANKS.”

The Dispatch has confirmed through three independent sources that that elected official in 2009 was then-City Council President Michael C. Mentel. Mentel has been subpoenaed for records as part of the investigation, sources at City Hall and close to the investigation have said.

Mentel’s attorney, Sam Shamansky, said his client is innocent.

“If Raphael is cooperating with the feds, it means one of two things: Either he is innocent and has nothing to hide, or he has a great criminal liability and is trying to save his own ass,” Shamansky said. “If it is the latter, I think what he says is going to be viewed with grave suspicion.”

Shamansky said he’d be “more concerned if my client had accepted a $20,000 contribution.”

Mentel, a lawyer, announced in late 2010 that he would resign from the council in January 2011 because he wanted to spend more time with his family. Since then, he has worked in the private sector as a lawyer and served as lead counsel for the Solid Waste Authority of Central Ohio from 2011 to 2013.

A $20,000 contribution that Finley said was a bribe was traced to current Columbus City Council President Andrew J. Ginther. Several sources have confirmed and campaign finance records show that Raphael received $20,000 from Redflex, then gave $20,000 to the Ohio Democratic Party, and then the party gave $21,000 to Ginther’s campaign in 2011.

Raphael gave Coleman’s campaign $5,000 in 2007 at a time when federal court records say Raphael was distributing $30,000 from Redflex to officials in Cincinnati and Columbus. Coleman has said he did not know whether the money came from Redflex and wouldn’t have accepted it if Raphael was acting inappropriately.

Coleman and Ginther have both denied any wrongdoing and said they have responded to subpoenas from federal investigators seeking records.

Ginther is now running for mayor of Columbus. His campaign issued a statement on Wednesday in which Ginther said he supports Coleman’s decision to end the contract.

“While the city attorney found that the law was followed in awarding the contract, we now know that Redflex clearly had a culture of doing things that were inappropriate; improper; and, in some cases, illegal,” Ginther said.

Finley, the former Redflex CEO, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit federal programs bribery. U.S. Attorney Carter M. Stewart has said in court documents that she and others “known and unknown” conspired to bribe Columbus city officials.

In June, after news broke of Finley’s plea, Ginther asked City Attorney Pfeiffer to review the process that led to the city’s contract with Redflex and to determine if that contract could be severed. Pfeiffer’s office sent Coleman a memo on Tuesday that his office had determined that the contract could be voided, according to records obtained by The Dispatch.

Pfeiffer plans to have a conversation with George Speaks, the city’s public-safety director, about whether the city will move forward with its lawsuit against the state even as it removes Redflex’s cameras.

Speaks said in an email that he wants to continue the lawsuit.

“There is a higher principle at issue with the lawsuit above and beyond photo red-light cameras,” Speaks wrote. “Specifically at stake here is the constitutional principal that municipalities have ‘home rule’ power which the state should not infringe upon.”