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Writer's pictureBrian Ceccarelli

Red-Light Camera Hearing - Wilmington, NC: Ch. 1

Updated: Nov 5, 2023

When you appeal your red-light camera citation, Denys Vielkanowitz and Drew Rosen (pictured below) are the people who sit on the admin hearing panel. They weigh your arguments then decide whether your red-light citation is valid. However, Vielkanowitz and Rosen refuse to consider the evidence of engineering malpractice. Drew Rosen told us that the City of Wilmington's legal department forbade them considering engineering malpractice issues, even when the NC Board of Engineers already decided Wilmington's red-light camera program is unlawful. If you were in Vielkanowitz or Rosen' shoes, would you do as the City of Wilmington says? Would you look the other way while your employer conspires in a multi-million dollar crime?



 

In 2018, the North Carolina Board of Examiners for Engineers and Land Surveyors [NCBELS] case V2018-026, ruled that Verra Mobility (the red-light camera company) has been practicing engineering in North Carolina without a license, and for producing engineering plans that were not certified by a professional engineer licensed in North Carolina. Both are crimes.


Without licensure and certification, a construction company cannot obtain building permits to install the cameras. In order to circumvent permits, Verra Mobility created its own construction company in North Carolina and submitted its unlawful engineering plans to it. The construction company then installed the cameras.


 

The lawful installations of cameras precludes the operation of the cameras.


 

Therefore, for decades the City of Wilmington has never issued a lawful red-light camera citation.


Under law in the State of North Carolina, the attorney general of North Carolina, was supposed to carry out NCBELS' ruling and charge Verra Mobility for engineering malpractice. As a consequence, Verra Mobility was supposed to remove the cameras. But under closed-doors, the attorney general, Josh Stein, would not obey the wishes of its own state agency. It looks like Stein gave Verra Mobility the opportunity to redraft the engineering plans.

In the summer of 2023, I received Wilmington's new red-light camera installation plans. The plans are still unlawful. Verra Mobility is still not licensed to practice engineering in North Carolina. The plans show the name of the engineer in the title block, but the plans are still not certified. Blackened blocks appear on the plans, suggesting that the certification marks were redacted. However, redacting certification marks is unlawful for final plans. There is also the possibility that Verra Mobility is pulling a "Greenville". That's another story. In any case, Verra Mobility is still not licensed to practice engineering in North Carolina. The new plans are as unlawful as the old plans. I filed case V2023-060 against Verra Mobility to the NC Board of Engineers.


Denys Vielkanowitz and Drew Rosen know about the unlicensed practice of engineering. Vielkanowitz is a licensed PE and head of Wilmington's red-light camera program. It is against the engineer's code of ethics for Vielkanowitz to be a part of engineering malpractice. His judgments against the accused are for engineering malpractice committed by others.


Rosen is not an engineer. Rosen is a professor at UNC Wilmington -- in operations management. As is typical for red-light camera hearings, there are never licensed lawyers present. Of interest to psychologists, is that Vielkanowitz and Rosen are amiable. Just like the Town of Cary's parks and recreation employees, the admin-hearing panelists are disarming. All you want to do is go out and have a beer with them. You don't want to see anything bad happen to them. And yet, these panelists have the power to right a wrong, yet if they do, they may lose their jobs. Perhaps Cassidy Hutchinson should give them a talk.


In the next post, Red-Light Camera Hearing - Wilmington, NC Ch. 2, I will discuss the actual traffic engineering failures at one of Wilmington's intersections which makes it profitable. I will post FOIA requests to NCDOT traffic engineers. I will post responses from those NCDOT traffic engineers. If these responses were given under oath, the traffic engineers would be guilty of perjury. I will compare the traffic engineer's half-truths to whole truths.



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