In a comfortable fifth-floor conference room of Aventura’s Government Center, the City of Excellence is printing money.

It happens almost every Friday morning when a hearing master works through the formalities of adjudicating appeals from motorists caught in the city’s web of red-light cameras. It’s a well orchestrated dance -- read the docket number, play the videotape, check the still photo of the license plate, listen to a few bars of ‘Yes, but…’ and levy a fine.

An array of cameras monitor the Lehman Causeway interchange north of Aventura's Government Center.

Over the past 12 months, the city has printed $1 million this way but the fun may come to a halt soon when a Miami judge is expected to rule on a suit challenging the legality of the system. A ruling that halts the program could be uncomfortable for the city, which is counting on $400,000 from the red-light cameras to balance the city’s budget this year. An eventual class action ruling ordering refunds could be really bad news. But it would come as welcome relief for residents like Patricia Delgado and James Garib, just two of the motorists unsuccessfully appealing fines at the Oct. 30 hearing session.

Delgado had come seeking some leniency. Yes, she said after watching the videotape, she had made a right turn on red without stopping. She’d looked both ways and the roadway was clear. She didn’t realize she also needed to come to a full stop but she’s willing to pay the $125 and learn from her mistake. But, she explained, in one day’s mail she’d received notices of two violations that took place five days apart. Shouldn’t the city give her a chance to mend her ways rather than issue multiple fines for the same offense?

Actually, this is your fourth offense, a city employee chimed in. It seems Delgado had also been caught on camera at the same intersection in May and July. Her Jaguar is registered to an Atlanta company and the city had just learned that she was the leasee. Delgado’s jaw dropped as she learned she was now looking at over $1,100 in fines -- $125 for the first, $250 for the second and third and $500 for the fourth, plus a 10 percent ‘administrative fee’ for forcing the hearing.

For Garib, the issue was a split second or perhaps six feet. The light had turned yellow, he explained, while he was checking the intersection for bicyclists and pedestrians. He didn’t see it change in time to stop. He thought he’d made it into the intersection before the light turned red but the videotape revealed he was a few feet short. He argued a clock counting down to the signal change should be in place. He said that as a 21-year resident of the area, he hadn’t known the cameras were in place. The signs have been up for a year and the yellow light is on for 3.5 seconds, he was told, and your only recourse is to appeal in Circuit Court.

That’s exactly the route Aventura resident Richard Masone has taken. He enlisted a traffic attorney he met in a local gym to press his objection to two citations issued via red-light camera. He says he wasn’t driving in either instance. Masone’s case will serve as the first legal test of the red-light cameras that are spreading across Florida like the flu.

That gym encounter cast Bret Lusskin, who runs the Ticket Cricket in Hallandale Beach, in the role of David challenging the Goliath that is the legal muscle of Aventura and dozens of other cities that run similar red light camera operations.

From his barebones office on Biscayne Boulevard adjacent to the Mardi Gras flea market, Lusskin says he’s looking forward to the hearing and feels his case is strong. He says the red-light cameras are “blatantly illegal” under Florida law. He pulls down a well-worn legal volume and reads a passage that proclaims the traffic code shall be uniform across all jurisdictions. Red-light cameras are in many places these days – Aventura, Miami Gardens, Pembroke Pines, Fort Lauderdale with Sunny Isles Beach and Bal Harbour on the way – but they aren’t uniform across the state.

Lusskin and a handful of other attorneys who have mounted class action suits also will argue that it’s inherently unfair to assign the ticket to the owner of the vehicle without regard to who is driving.

After a hearing Nov. 10, Miami Circuit Court Judge Thomas Wilson Jr. has postponed a decision, saying he needs more information. No date has been set for another hearing.

American Traffic Solutions is the largest operator of red-light camera systems. The Arizona firm sets up the cameras, which may be installed on city-controlled land but not state-controlled land including rights of way, and install the software. And for that service, it receives a cut from every fine.

Lusskin says the lack of discretion and the lack of a human to cross-examine are additional legal flaws.

A legal opinion written by Gov. Charlie Crist when he was state attorney general in 2005, will be cited by both sides. In responding to an inquiry from Pembroke Pines, Crist wrote that cities can set up cameras, take pictures and inform motorists they’ve broken the law. However, opponents will point out, the memo also says cities can’t write tickets without changes to state law.

Aventura has largely held its tongue ahead of the court challenge. City Manager Eric Soroka declined comment, citing advice of counsel. Mayor Susan Gottlieb has been quoted in the media as saying “If we don’t protect our residents from accidents at red lights, then who is going to do that? You never know when you go to court what will happen. But that doesn’t mean that everything that doesn’t hold up is wrong.”

Lusskin, whose practice includes a steady diet of beating drunk driving and speeding citations, is convinced the use of cameras is just wrong and worries a Juno Beach experiment with trapping speeders via camera will soon be as common as red light cameras.

But he’s also a pragmatist. He recognizes that cities and the state itself are facing financial problems that make aggressive traffic enforcement measures attractive.

Last spring, the state legislature was prepared to pass a statewide red-light camera law but time ran out on negotiations over the division of revenue. Lusskin is certain the measure will be back next session and he sees little reason to believe it will fail.

That means Lusskin and others may well be fighting little more than a short-term holding action. But for motorists fined over the past year and for cities counting on the money, it’s a big deal.

They all are hanging on every word from Judge Wilson, who will have the first judicial say whenever he finally rules.