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Just days after a task force recommended changes in the controversial red-light camera program, several city councilors say the city's hands may be tied.

They say the contract with Redflex Traffic Systems is not the one they approved, and that changes made by the administration of Mayor Martin Chavez benefit the Arizona company more than the city.

"This is absolutely outrageous," Councilor Michael Cadigan said in a news release issued Wednesday evening. "Clearly, Redflex had the upper hand in the negotiations."

Cadigan, Council President Brad Winter and councilors Debbie O'Malley and Trudy Jones sent a letter to Chavez on Wednesday outlining their concerns over the contract.

They say several elements in a draft contract approved by the council in 2005 never made it into the final agreement. In particular, language was stripped from the contract that would have allowed the city to cancel the contract at any time with 15 days notice. The contract expires at the end of 2009.

"We're stuck. We're really stuck now, unless we want to get sued," O'Malley said of the contract. "We don't have a termination clause, we don't have all those provisions in there."

The Safe Traffic Operations Program uses cameras mounted at nearly two dozen city intersections to catch drivers running red lights.

Chavez convened a task force to evaluate the program. It issued a report on Monday recommending the city continue the program until the contract expires, but that the fines be lowered to match the citations issued by Albuquerque police.

The panel also suggested the city renegotiate the contract's terms to change how Redflex is compensated.

But O'Malley said she's concerned that many of the task force recommendations can't be addressed because the city signed a "bad contract" with Redflex.

"What did we go through this for, making all these recommendations, when we see that the contract is very, very tight and it is absolutely in Redflex's favor," she said. "I think we have to really be realistic about what we can change without getting sued."

Among the councilors' concerns:

• The council in 2005 approved a "recommendation of award" to Redflex. It included a draft agreement stating the contract could be terminated at any time with 15 days' notice. The final contract negotiated by the city, however, apparently contains no exit clause prior to its expiration in 2009.

• The task force report, the councilors say, raises concerns about a lack of data provided to the city by Redflex. The council-approved draft agreement required the company to provide information requested by the city, but that language was excluded from the final contract.

• A Dec. 2, 2005, memo from Chavez indicated Redflex would adjust its prices monthly "to ensure cost neutrality" - something the task force said should happen. In the final contract, however, Redflex was instead given a fixed percentage of fines, which the task force said creates a perception that the program is a "governmental revenue generating program, instead of a public safety program."

The councilors also are asking for the Chavez administration to provide documents showing the city's communication with Redflex before the council acts on the task force's recommendations.

City Attorney Bob White on Wednesday said he has studied the Redflex contract and believes the city can cancel the contract. His premise is that "all contracts are based on funding for the contract. If the funding goes away, the contract goes away," White said.

"Through that, it gives us leverage to address the issues the task force wishes to be addressed," White said.

The four councilors and White said it's not unusual for the council to not receive the final draft of a contract. The council typically defers the responsibility of negotiating the terms of a deal to the mayor's administration.

But the councilors in their letter to Chavez said it's inappropriate that the final contract "bears no resemblance" to what they approved in draft form.

"This was not a case of the administration working out final details of a contract after council approval," they wrote. "This appears to be a case of bait and switch."