Email Address
Site Index by Subject

If you haven't already done so, please read the Solana Beach section on the Camera Towns page

City of Solana Beach Documents
(and Information)

  Solana Beach, pop. 14,000, is on the coast 15 miles north of San Diego.

The City signed a contract with RedFlex on Dec. 30, 2003, and began issuing warning tickets in Oct. 2004.

Some of Solana Beach's tickets can be ignored.  If your "ticket" does not have the Superior Court's name and address on it, it is what I call a "Snitch Ticket."  For more details, see the Snitch Ticket section on the Your Ticket page, and Set # 1, below.

Vote No on Sheila Kuehl

Do you live in LA County?  Was Zev Yaroslavsky your County Supervisor?  (He represented the Third District, which includes the central and western San Fernando Valley, Malibu, Santa Monica, Venice, Beverly Hills, the City of West Hollywood, and part of Hollywood.)

Zev "termed out," and in the Nov. 2014 election Sheila Kuehl won the race to succeed him, by a narrow margin.

Sheila "Kuehl Cams" Kuehl, in 2007

During her career in the California Legislature, Kuehl made three attempts to pass bills to allow the use of automated speed enforcement (photo radar) in California.

As an LA County Supervisor, she has a seat on the MTA/Metro board and she will be a vote to continue and expand Metro's huge (101 cameras, so far) red light camera system.  She also voted to put an additional LA County-wide sales tax, going to Metro, on the Nov. 2016 ballot - and it passed.  (See Measure M on the Action/Legis page, for more about that tax.)

Kuehl may be up for re-election in Nov. 2022.

Solana Beach Docs Set # 1
Ticket Counts

Total Violations Recorded, Notices Printed, and Citations Issued [4]

New 11-14-05, updated 3-5-19

Snitch Tickets

The City's use of Nominations (a.k.a. Snitch Tickets) probably explains,
(A)  the discrepancy between the figures for Notices Printed and Total Cites Issued (filed with the court), and
(B)  the month-to-month overlap in the serial numbers (in 2005).

See the table's footnotes for further details.

Cam #	101L 01	LOSH 01	SHLO 01
	Hwy 101 SB @ Lomas Santa Fe	Lomas Santa Fe EB @ Solana Hills	Solana Hills NB @ Lomas Santa Fe				[3]	Serial Number Range of Citations Issued This Month, per Invoices	Total Notices Printed as % of Violations Recorded	Total Violations Recorded/ Notices Printed/ Per Official Monthly CMR Reports and Citations Issued per Invoices [1] [4] [11]	All Citations Issued Rolling Right Citations per CVC 21455.5(i) Annual Reports: [10]	Revenue from Court (thou- sands) [12]
Oct04
Nov04 [11]	74	17	92					[7]		183
Dec04 [11]	138	56	262					00737- 01698		456
2004
Jan05 [11]	218 129 90	129 92 48	296 154 129					00812- 02005		643 375 267
Feb05 [11]	205 125 81	77 55 53	212 102 96					01442- 02332		494 282 230
Mar05 [11]	117	53	79					01137- 02616		249
Apr05 [11]	91	51	38					01910- 02834		180
May05 [11]	85	55	49					02139- 03047		189
Jun05 [11]	76	53	44					02494- 03251		173
Jul05 [11]	215 52 64	121 60 36	65 25 20					01231- 03408		401 137 120
Aug05 [11]	13	54	21					02930- 03509		88
Sep05 [11]	12	25	25					03357- 03595		62
Oct05	[5]
Nov05	[5]
Dec05	[5]
2005
Jan06	43 18	95 67	87 53							225 138
Apr06										240 107
Jul06	92 52	116 61	90 42							298 155
Oct06										252 156
2006 [2]	810 420 (proj.)	1266 768 (proj.)	1062 570 (proj.)						56%	1668 (proj.)
Jan07	15 10	59 52	72 46							146 108
Apr07										247 147
Jul07	65 34	123 74	90 41							278 149
Oct07										231 161
2007 [2]	480 264 (proj.)	1092 756 (proj.)	972 522 (proj.)						61%	1695 (proj.)
Jan08	40 24	72 54	63 37							175 115
Apr08										224 149
Jul08	33 11	118 62	82 37							233 110
Oct08										162 105
2008 [2]	438 210 (proj.)	1140 696 (proj.)	870 444 (proj.)						55%	1437 (proj.)
Jan09	18 10	100 81	43 26							161 117
Apr09										173 103
Jul09	37 18	115 73	61 33							213 124
Oct09										194 133
2009 [2]	330 168 (proj.)	1290 924 (proj.)	624 354 (proj.)						64%	1431 (proj.)
Jan10	30 22	66 54	36 24							132 100
Mar10	31 26	66 54	139 100							236 180
Apr10	35 20	82 72	184 134							301 226
Jul10	19 16	102 79	169 119							290 214
Sep10	36 26	63 50	163 92							262 168
Oct10	24 16	71 63	146 105							241 184
2010 [2]	350 252 (proj.)	900 744 (proj.)	1674 1148 (proj.)						73%	2924 2144 (proj.)
Jan11	32 19	62 53	143 108							237 180
Feb11
Mar11	28 22	65 53	143 90							236 165
Apr11	31 21	63 47	148 95							242 163
May11
Jun11
Jul11	36 20	94 60	156 88							286 168
Aug11
Sep11	22 11	82 67	139 99							243 177
Oct11	24 16	81 59	146 95							251 170
Nov11
Dec11
2011 [2]	346 218 (proj.)	894 678 (proj.)	1750 1150 (proj.)						68%	2990 2046 (proj.)
Jan12	33 17	58 48	120 76							211 141
Feb12	25 22	67 54	117 83							209 159
Mar12	17 12	77 63	128 73							222 148
Apr12	33 21	91 75	135 93							259 189
May12	26 19	102 85	149 82							277 186
Jun12	35 28	101 91	123 92							259 211
Jul12	33 16	99 77	129 89							261 182
Aug12	0 0	100 87	168 118							268 205
Sep12	0 0	88 71	123 72							211 143
Oct12	0 0	105 94	174 121							279 215
Nov12	0 0	67 60	121 86							188 146
Dec12	0 0	63 54	119 82							182 136
2012 [2]	202 135	1018 859	1606 1067						73%	2826 2061
Jan13	0 0	65 52	152 121							217 173
Feb13	0 0	63 54	131 92							194 146
Mar13	0 0	92 76	154 102							246 178
Apr13	0 0	93 72	131 75							224 147
May13	0 0	97 71	161 108							258 179
Jun13	0 0	110 91	145 99							255 190
Jul13	0 0	117 85	101 66							218 151
Aug13	12 7	117 92	176 117							305 216
Sep13	25 17	114 99	175 107							314 223
Oct13	28 18	115 96	198 124							341 238
Nov13	27 18	75 63	165 98							267 179
Dec13	27 7	92 79	142 68							258 154
2013 [2]	119 67	1150 930	1831 1177						70%	3097 2174	1715 1124
Jan14	37 14	81 63	141 50							259 127		18
Feb14	27 11	83 52	123 33							233 96
Mar14	34 6	106 76	179 59							314 141
Apr14	39 20	125 94	187 79							351 193
May14	69 45	151 115	156 110							376 270
Jun14	25 16	171 113	184 88							380 217
Jul14	33 12	147 98	157 86							337 196		18
Aug14	59 40	133 108	170 109							362 257
Sep14	83 63	119 94	198 112							400 269
Oct14	61 47	124 99	182 109							367 255
Nov14	48 39	111 88	163 108							322 235
Dec14	46 35	109 80	157 102							312 217
2014 [2]	561 348	1460 1080	1997 1045						62%	4013 2473	1946 1092
Jan15	54 33	106 76	143 75							303 184		21
Feb15	53 30	122 90	147 77							322 197
Mar15	76 44	172 128	188 101							436 273
Apr15	39 27	121 101	184 103							344 231
May15	47 26	154 101	144 64							345 191
Jun15	69 32	117 84	148 61							334 177
Jul15	72 39	141 98	164 83							377 220		16
Aug15	63 38	182 140	154 82							399 260
Sep15	59 35	189 146	177 89							425 270
Oct15	60 32	185 128	175 102							420 262
Nov15	62 30	148 102	194 107							404 239
Dec15	70 39	159 113	186 109							415 261
2015 [2]	724 405	1796 1307	2004 1053						61%	4524 2765	2190 1075
Jan16	50 33	137 100	146 68							333 201		24
Feb16	81 34	170 123	192 119							443 276
Mar16	58 26	184 140	170 87							412 253
Apr16	72 53	181 146	197 131							450 330
May16	90 65	174 111	190 117							454 293
Jun16	66 44	204 146	186 117							456 307
Jul16	82 53	234 175	184 127							500 355		27
Aug16										498 315
Sep16										435 277
Oct16										461 242
Nov16										489 294
Dec16										433 254
2016 [2]	834 510 (proj.)	2100 1532 (proj.)	2162 1278 (proj.)						65%	5364 3397 (actual)	2848 1465
Jan17										343 184		25
Feb17										422 265
Mar17										494 313
Apr17										449 270		27
May17										499 261
Jun17	122 42	296 143	208 92							626 277
Jul17										602 349		25
Aug17										554 362
Sep17										511 308
Oct17										454 302		18
Nov17										435 257
Dec17										436 270
2017 [1]	1118 615	2620 1635	2087 1168						59%	5825 3418	2926 1315
Jan18										402 211		15
Feb18										399 245
Mar18										430 229
Apr18										452 262		18
May18										445 281
Jun18	58 34	246 173	178 118							482 325
Jul18	74 49	295 174	184 105							553 328		19
Aug18	81 53	303 199	199 136							583 388		22
Sep18	35 24	219 159	186 111							440 294
Oct18	41 26	231 153	177 107							449 286
Nov18	54 37	148 102	184 121							386 260
Dec18	59 41	212 152	188 140							459 333
2018 [1]	648 391	2747 1785	2085 1266							5480 3442
Jan19	52 37	191 126	188 127							431 290
Feb19
Mar19
Apr19
May19
Jun19
Jul19
Aug19
Sep19
Oct19
Nov19
Dec19
2019
Cam #	101L 01	LOSH 01	SHLO 01
	Hwy 101 SB @ Lomas Santa Fe [4]	Lomas Santa Fe EB @ Solana Hills [4]	Solana Hills NB @ Lomas Santa Fe [4]				[3]	Serial Number Range of Citations Issued This Month, per Invoices	Total Notices Printed as % of Violations Recorded	Total Violations Recorded/ Notices Printed/ Per Official Monthly CMR Reports and Citations Issued per Invoices [1] [4] [11]	All Citations Issued Rolling Right Citations per CVC 21455.5(i) Annual Reports: [10]	Revenue from Court (thou- sands) [12]

An official report showed that in 2014, 56% of the City's tickets were for right turns.

Solana Beach Docs Set # 3
"Late Time" Graphs

The City provided bar graphs of Late Times, etcetera, for all of its cameras.
These graphs track violations recorded, not tickets issued.
Where there is a large number of long Late Time violations in a curb lane, it is believed to indicate heavy ticketing on right turns.
(The curb lane will be the lane with the highest lane number.)


The picture above is an example from another city.

101L - July 2005
101L - July 2010

LOSH - July 2005
LOSH- July 2010

SHLO - July 2005
SHLO - July 2010

All cameras, July 2012

All cameras, Oct. 2014

All Cameras, June 2016

All Cameras, June 2018

Bar graphs are available for more than fifty other cities - see the list in the expanded version of Defect # 9.

Solana Beach Docs Set # 4
The Contract (Renewed in 2017)

2003 Contract
2009 Amendment


The 2009 amendment appears to be flat rate except that it contains, in Exhibit B, this "deficit" clause: 

Except where a balance remains unpaid due to a deficit in the gross cash received as described herein, the City agrees to pay the provider within thirty (30) days after the invoice is received.

The 2009 amendment, for a five-year extension ending in Oct. 2014 (plus three optional one-year extensions), allows the City to terminate the program with 30 days notice.

Per City documents received in June 2013, the City was paying $2364 per camera, per month.

U-T Editorial

On Oct. 10, 2013, several days before the hearing scheduled for the city council in Poway to consider their staff's recommendation to remove the cameras from that City, the Union-Tribune published an editorial which recommended:

"Let’s eliminate every trace of this bad civic memory.
And to city leaders in Oceanside, Vista, Encinitas, Solana Beach and Del Mar — it’s time to do likewise.
The cameras are simply not doing the intended job."

In early 2015 we heard that staff was negotiating a new contract with RedFlex and the parties were very close to agreement, so we wrote to them about the following concerns.  

The program should be evaluated, for effectiveness, before a contract is negotiated or signed. Among other things, an explanation is needed as to why ticketing has not decreased after years of enforcement but is in fact rising, with 2014 and early 2015 ticketing much higher than in previous years. (Any evaluation should be done by a person having professional credentials in statistics and who is completely independent of the City and the sheriff; and after such an evaluation is published, and before any hearing is held before the Council, there should be a review period of a couple weeks to provide time for the public to comment on the evaluation.) Also, there is the question of the rent. For the last five years [2009 - 2014] the City has paid $2364 to $2386 per camera per month, and the proposed new contract may continue at that same amount, despite the fact that the City has had its RedFlex cameras for a long time, since 2004. Here is how RedFlex has agreed to reward another City's loyalty. Table from the Mar. 2014 contract between the City of Elk Grove, California and RedFlex, for that City's system of five cameras. If Solana Beach agrees to another five year extension and continues to pay the old price, the City will pay an extra $155,520 over the five years (compared to Elk Grove's prices), and to cover that extra rent the City will need to issue an extra 1556 tickets (assuming that the City receives $100 of revenue from each ticket issued). From March 3, 2015 email to Solana Beach City Council

Instead of negotiating a new contract in 2015, the City took the second and third of the optional one-year extensions, resulting in a new expiration date of Oct. 2017.

This list of contracts and amendments was up-to-date as of Sept. 12, 2017.

Solana Beach Docs Set # 5
Info on City's Website?

I have not been able to find a red light camera program info page on either the City's or the sheriff's website.