Have you ever gotten one of those tickets from the red-light camera robots and been completely pissed off at the 1984-ish world we live in where a live cop doesn't even have to be there to catch you anymore? Yes, so have we.

Well, then you should enjoy this story out of South San Francisco, where the City Council forgot to ratify a contract it had with an Arizona-based maker of the cameras, who also collect fees from each $446 citation issued -- only about a third of that fine actually makes it back into the city's coffers.

The city installed red-light enforcement cameras at two intersections along El Camino Real last summer, but all the tickets issued between August and January 27th have now been invalidated by this snafu, and the city is issuing refunds both of the fines paid and of traffic school costs. "It'll take a lot of staff time to undo this," said newly elected Mayor Mark Addiego. "It's a nightmare. It's embarrassing, but we have to unravel this."