Red-light Timing

San Diego — High-dollar political consultant Tom Shepard, who is currently working on the campaign by San Diego mayor Jerry Sanders to privatize city services, has a lucrative side business as a county lobbyist. Among his most recent clients is Redflex Traffic Systems of Phoenix, an outfit that runs 38 so-called red-light cameras in six North County cities. The devices have been so successful at nabbing red-light runners that thousands of citations have swamped the county's court system, virtually gridlocking the Vista courthouse. The situation was reported in the Union-Tribune on July 2. Coincidentally or not, Shepard had filed his lobbyist registration with the clerk of the county board of supervisors just the day before.