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Mostly Cloudy School bus cameras are coming
Motorists in Glen Cove who drive around a stopped school bus with its stop arm extended will now be caught on camera, thanks to the city’s new agreement with Bus Patrol America LLC to install and operate monitoring systems on school buses for the purpose of recording vehicle violations.
The city passed a resolution authorizing Mayor Pam Panzenbeck to enter into an agreement with Bus Patrol America to install the stop-arm cameras. Panzenbeck said she would sign the contract and send it to Bus Patrol within a month.
All of the members of the City Council voted in favor of the resolution except Kevin Maccarone, an attorney, who said that agreeing to the resolution was premature without understanding the process of adjudication of the violations, which could involve Nassau County.
According to the agreement, revenue generated by violators’ tickets will be shared, with Bus Patrol receiving 45 percent and the city, 55 percent. Fines will start at $250, and will rise to $275 for a second offense and $300 for a third. A late fee of $25 will be charged if drivers do not respond to citations within 30 days, and payment plans will be available. Once Bus Patrol receives a signed contract from the city, the agreement will go into effect.
“I think that is a great idea,” Kathleen Kielczewski, the mother of two Glen Cove High School students, said of the new cameras. “I see so many people go (past buses) and think there should be consequences.”
According to the State Education Department, the youngest
students, ages 4 to 8, are most often the victims of fatal school bus-related incidents simply because of their small stature, which makes them more difficult for bus drivers and motorists to see.
In 2019, state officials estimated that drivers passed school buses illegally more than 150,000 times statewide during the 180-day school year.
City Councilwoman Danielle Fugazy said she was concerned that violators would have to face the consequences in Nassau County Traffic Court instead of Glen Cove’s court.
“We have a way to take care of tickets here in Glen Cove,” she said. “If somebody gets a ticket in Glen Cove, you don’t go to Nassau County, you go to Glen Cove traffic court.”
Fugazy said she didn’t understand why Glen Cove shouldn’t handle the issuance and resolution of the violations, instead of the county.
At a City Council meeting on Sept. 27, City Attorney Tip Henderson said that the contract the council OKed is between the city and Bus Patrol, and that Bus Patrol is in separate negotiations with the county over the adjudication of bus stop-arm violations.
Steve Randazzo, executive vice president for customer experience at Bus Patrol, said that no such discussions had taken place with the county. “We’re not directly negotiating with the county as it pertains to the City of Glen Cove,” Randazzo said.
Fugazy expressed concern over the uncertainty surounding the involvement of the county. She said she cared about children’s safety, but cautioned against approving a contract without knowing all the details of the county’s role — and especially the potential for its sharing in ticket revenue. But she did vote in favor of going forward with the contract with Bus Patrol.
Henderson said he understood Fugazy’s concerns about the revenue generated by the tickets, but insisted it is not a direct concern to the city.
“If the county does not work out a deal or contract with Bus Patrol on how these tickets are going to be adjudicated, the programs won’t go forward,” he said.
Henderson said the programs in the towns of Hempstead, North Hempstead and Oyster Bay are dealing with the same details.
“All of us are working with the county to try to make a determination on how they’re going to adjudicate,” he said.
Henderson emphasized that the contract the council approved was solely between Glen Cove and Bus Patrol. “There’s nothing that is unknown and at risk for the city in going forward with completing its contract with Bus Patrol as Bus Patrol tries to work out a contract with the county,” he said.
County Legislator Delia DeRiggi-Whitton said the county has nothing to do with Glen Cove’s contract with Bus Patrol. She doesn’t know why Glen Cove won’t be able to handle tickets in its own courts.
“But if they do reach out to Nassau County to have them process it, I guess there’s a possibility that there could be a fee for that part of it,” she said.
Henderson said that if a contract with the county impacts the city’s deal with Bus Patrol, the county would have to seek approval to amend the contract.
When Fugazy, who brought the program to the city’s attention last year, suggested waiting until the city had a contract in hand to look at in its totality, Henderson replied that when it comes to getting the cameras on buses and getting the program moving, waiting for a contract delays camera installation.
“(Glen Cove’s) programs would be one of our smaller programs, by comparison,” Randazzo said.
He designed and implemented a program in Suffolk County involving nearly 5,000 school buses. Cameras were installed over a period of about 180 days, with each camera taking four hours to install.
