The Manteca City Council may ease the financial hit for those caught by cameras running red lights at five intersections.

The council concurred with a request made by Councilman Mike Morowit under council comments on Tuesday to have staff bring the issue back before them at an upcoming meeting.

The city has the ability to go from a $490 moving violation ticket of which roughly $100 goes to the city and the rest to the state and the court system to a $100 misdemeanor with 100 percent of it going to the city.

Morowit noted the misdemeanor route eases the financial hit and avoids adding a point to a violator’s driving record that could lead to higher insurance premiums.

The only possible road block would be making sure the change would not subject the city to legal action regarding the contract they signed with American Traffic Systems to install and operate the cameras.

The switch to citations handled in house by the city and not the courts would not mean repeat offenders — those drivers who keep running the red lights despite knowing the consequences after being ticketed — wouldn’t pay a heavier burden

That’s because the civil penalties would be:

*$100 for the first violation.

*$200 for the second violation within three years.

*$350 for the third violation within three years.

*500 for the fourth, and each subsequent violations, within three years.

And if someone refuses to pay a citation within a set period, their vehicle can be impounded resulting in impound fees and storage fees on top of paying the fines to get their vehicle back.

On the surface, switching to the $100 citation would still allow the city to cover the contract charges plus have money that can be plowed back into additional traffic enforcement measures.

The only entities that would “lose” would be the State of California and charges that help pay to operate the court system.

Manteca, as of Sept. 24, has issued 27,524 red light camera tickets since the first one was issued during the fourth week of April 2025.

The city, under state law, can’t lose money in any given year with a red light camera contract. That means if the city doesn’t collect enough to cover the cost within a 12-month period, that amount is forgiven.

A speaker earlier at Tuesday’s council meeting, wanted the city to stop issuing red light tickets for right turns on a red light contending they were harmless maneuvers.

Police Chief Stephen Schluer noted the Manteca Police have upped the threshold above the state requirement in the vehicle code that requires a driver to come to a complete stop before proceeding to turn right on a red light.

As such, Manteca Police only issues a right turn red light violation ticket if a vehicle is moving at 10 mph or more.

To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com