North Cook News

As the former mayor of Oakbrook Terrace is being federally charged for accepting thousands of dollars in secret payments in exchange for renewing a contract with a red-light camera company, Illinois State Rep. Deanne Mazzochi is criticizing the use of red-light cameras in the state.

Mazzochi took to Facebook to voice her opinion against the use of red-light cameras in Illinois.

"I've been fighting against red light cameras, especially the ones in Oakbrook Terrace, for years," Mazzochi wrote in an April 18 Facebook post. "They're intrinsically tied to corruption and municipal greed. What's worse is that studies have shown they produce no safety effects."

According to Fox 32 Chicago News, former Oakbrook Terrace Mayor Tony Ragucci is facing federal criminal charges for secretly accepting thousands of dollars in exchange for renewing a contract with a red-light camera company. The bribery scheme continued until Sept. 2019, when federal agents raided Ragucci's home and seized $60,000 in cash. Ragucci previously told the Sun-Times that the contract with SafeSpeed LLC was "legit." 

"On Friday the former Mayor of Oakbrook Terrace was formally charged with criminal offenses," Mazzochi continued in her Facebook post. "The offenses include bribery, in a scheme that saw payments tied to the revenue SafeSpeed got from the red-light cameras in his city and contract renewals. Illinois desperately needs ethics reform because we deserve elected officials that work for the people they represent and not for themselves."

The state representative filed HB4102 in June 2021 and has not advanced out of the House. More than 15 Republican representatives signed on as co-sponsors of the legislation.

"Over the past year and a half I have been appealing to IDOT to remove the suburban red light cameras plagued with corruption," Mazzochi wrote on Facebook in July 2021. "If IDOT won't remove these revenue-grabbing red light cameras, then you should at least be empowered to fight back. State law currently limits the defenses drivers can raise to red light cameras, making them practically impossible to challenge. My latest bill, HB4102, will explicitly allow members of the public given red light camera citations the right to challenge the tickets in court if the cameras in question are 'associated with civil or criminal corruption charges.' I believe the role of government should be to empower and support its citizens, not the other way around."

Former Crestwood Mayor Louis Presta and the late state Sen. Martin Sandoval have also been federally charged in connection with SafeSpeed, but SafeSpeed itself has not been charged, according to Fox.