Sharing law override

Egay Uy

THE city council has finally overridden the veto of Mayor Oscar Moreno of the ordinance that repealed the “sharing law” where certain percentages of administrative fines collected from traffic law violators are allocated to the apprehending officers (police officers, RTA traffic aides, deputized volunteers) and to the offices or organizations to where they belong.

The city council may be thinking that on the part of the Roads and Traffic Administration, the override did the final blow on the efforts of the Moreno administration to improve the traffic situation in the city.

Probably the sponsors of the ordinance that withdrew the “sharing law” thought that by totally removing this incentive, the RTA and the lowly paid traffic aides will lose steam.

It may be best to recall that the traffic aides of the past did not implement the laws and rules because of fear, fear of the ire of city hall who pampered favored individuals with concessions and skewed application of laws.

Now that the traffic aides have regained the lost enthusiasm and dedication, the city council struck what they thought was the final blow.

Months ago before the repealing ordinance was passed by the city council on the prodding of the majority members of that supposed august body based on a proposal submitted by no less than a former RTA overseer himself, the current RTA leadership and most, if not all, of the traffic aides have already agreed in principle to apprehend more traffic violators.

The city council members that favored the repeal of the sharing law even accused those on the roads (traffic aides, traffic police, deputized volunteers) of apprehending traffic violators because of the sharing law. How lowly those local legislators regard those who are overworked in doing their best to restore order on the streets.

Remember the “zero budgets” that the city council gave to various departments of the executive branch of the city? I will discuss what happened to the proposed 2015 budget of the RTA in the next column.

It is necessary to do this because the override of Mayor Moreno’s veto of the ordinance that repealed the sharing law has its ill effects on the operations of the RTA.

(Egay Uy is a lawyer, city hall consultant, and chairman of the Task Force Hapsay Dalan.)