TAMPA, Fla. — Hillsborough County has hired five paid hearing officers to oversee appeals of red-light and school zone speed camera citations, replacing volunteer special magistrates who had been serving as neutral decision-makers in those cases.
The new hearing officers are all members of the Florida Bar in good standing. County officials said having attorneys hear the cases could help when appeals involve complex issues of state law.
County documents estimate that the hearing officers will cost about $22,500 a year. They will be paid $250 for the first three hours of a hearing session and $100 for each additional hour, with pay capped at $500 per docket.
The change marks a shift from the special magistrates, who had been volunteering their time.
Thomas Santarlas, a Hillsborough County code enforcement special magistrate, has handled citation appeals since the program began.
“Florida law is fairly simple when it comes to traffic law. Either you did it or you didn’t do it,” Santarlas said.
Santarlas, though, likely won’t oversee many more appeals after Hillsborough County decided to move away from special magistrates, like Santarlas, in favor of new hearing officers.
“There’s several jurisdictions around the state of Florida where the magistrates aren’t members of the Florida Bar — they’re members of the community, which makes it even more important that they’re not in the justice system,” Santarlas said. “They can be more impartial and look at things in a more even-toned way.”
Spectrum Bay News 9 repeatedly asked Commission Chairman Ken Hagan for an interview about why commissioners approved the change. Hagan declined.
The county instead made Veteran Community Services Director Frank Strom available. Strom manages the appeal hearings.
“I can’t answer why the Board of County Commissioners decided to do this,” Strom said. “I can only speculate that it was probably in the best interest of the citizens because a lot of these cases have a lot of legalities with them, and we want to make sure we’re giving the citizens the best service we can.”
Strom confirmed that the previous magistrates were not paid and that the new hearing officers will be paid. When asked why the county is now paying hearing officers, Strom said, “I don’t know, you’d have to ask our county attorneys about that.”
County attorneys cited “the recruitment and retention of qualified individuals” as the reason the new hearing officers needed to be paid.
The change follows months of our Watchdog reporting on Hillsborough County’s school zone speed and red-light camera programs, including questions about how driver appeals are handled.
In February, Spectrum Bay News 9 reported county officials reassigned Santarlas away from school zone speed camera appeals, leaving him to hear only red-light camera cases. County officials said the reassignment was because Santarlas raised concerns during hearings.
Santarlas said he believes the reassignment happened after he dismissed several cases because he determined there was not enough evidence to uphold them.
Strom, who reassigned Santarlas, said the decision was not tied to Santarlas’ rulings.
“The decision was made based on the needs of the organization,” Strom said. “It had nothing to do with his decisions. Matter of fact, I can’t even tell you what his decisions were, or his neutrality or his objections to that were other than what he stated that he had issues with the program.”
In the formal letter notifying Santarlas of the reassignment, Strom wrote that he was “hopeful that [Santarlas] can continue to facilitate the red-light proceedings in the exceptional manner you have done so in the past.”
Santarlas said that the explanation did not make sense to him.
“If you’re impartial and professional when you’re doing the red-light cameras, and I take the same approach to the school zones, how can there be a difference?” Santarlas said.
Mustafa Ameen, an attorney and adjunct professor at Cooley Law School in Tampa, said magistrates and hearing officers are supposed to operate independently.
“In both scenarios, the hearing officers and the magistrates are supposed to be independent, and they’re allowed to make their decisions,” Ameen said.
In April, Spectrum Bay News 9 reported that a surge in appeal requests for school zone speed camera tickets had created a backlog of more than 1,000 cases. With Santarlas reassigned, those cases were left to one magistrate.
“The amount of appeals was a surprise to us as well,” Strom said. “Administratively, trying to conduct these and then, operationally, how we can support those.”
The county has not said when the new hearing officers will begin hearing cases. County officials said the officers were selected in July, but only recently signed their contracts and are about to begin training.
Ameen said the issue involves multiple parties.
“There’s a lot of players involved in this and no one wants to accept responsibility over it because it’s bad for publicity,” Ameen said.
Santarlas said he remains available to hear appeals, but his docket is currently open.
The citation programs also involve significant revenue. Since Jan. 1, Hillsborough County’s school zone speed cameras have generated $10.3 million, while red-light camera citations have brought in just over $2 million.