St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay “Chillin’ Like A Villain”

By Chad Garrison

Somewhere in Arizona a CEO by the name of Jim Tuton is smiling.

In early 2006 I took a look at how St. Louis awarded Tuton’s American Traffic Solutions (ATS) with a multimillion-dollar contract to install red-light cameras in the city. My reporting revealed that Mayor Francis Slay’s office, at the behest of ATS lobbyist Joyce Aboussie, bent over backward to help ensure Tuton’s Scottsdale-based firm won the lucrative contract.

According to my findings, Slay’s attorneys tailored an ordinance in such a manner that it would eliminate nearly any other company that might compete for the camera contract. Later, the police department selected ATS without testing any of its products or assembling a selection committee before making its decision, as required by the ordinance. Read more...

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