Salisbury City Council Meeting 2-13-12

PAC14 provided a bird’s eye seat for Monday night’s city council meeting. Now you can view the recorded meetings on YouTube from the PAC14 site. Several things about the city’s towing ordinance became a little scratch that, a lot more clear.

First, the law written by outgoing city attorney Paul Wilber for Mitchell and her self-appointed “work group” was deemed unenforceable and had to be changed almost immediately, (there was a special meeting a week ago for 1st reading of the changes and second reading at the meeting this past Monday night). Watch and listen to the comments by the new city attorney and Terry Cohen about that.

Then, Debbie Campbell asks for an amendment to the fee structure. Anyone who has been paying attention to this issue has heard victims of some of the really bad tow companies tell their horror stories to the council. You probably also heard the “administrative fee” being removed once before. Campbell questions the $30 administrative fee and asks her council colleagues to support removing it from the fee schedule. That’s when the chaos breaks out. An owner of a Fruitland towing company launches into Campbell. You really have to see this to believe it.

Then there is more discussion. Mitchell shills for the towing industry and makes it clear that she is more worried about their pocketbooks than those of consumers.

Here’s the thing that you need to understand. The council isn’t talking about regulating the prices for all towing business, just the towing that is the result of the police calling a tow truck.

Here’s how it works. The city has a list that a tow truck company can sign up for voluntarily they have to be licensed by the city and agree to the City’s towing policies, (including fees set by the City that apply only to police tows) this is intended to prevent price gouging and other possible consumer abuses. The police department uses these companies exclusively, on a rotating basis. If you are in an accident, if your car has to be towed by the police for being parked where it shouldn’t be in a snow emergency, etc., the police call the next company on the list and that’s who tows your car. As Campbell said, it is pretty much a “captive market.”

Over the past year or so we have heard horror story after horror story from people who have been ripped off by a couple of unscrupulous companies on the city’s rotation list. Comments, anyone?

Folks, the City Police called for a tow about 350 times last year, that’s less than one tow a day. If 24 tow companies are on the list, then that would be about 15 tows/company/year.

Back to the meeting, insults are launched at Campbell by tow company representatives. This was the second reading of an ordinance. For those council members who have been sleeping in class (Shields and Mitchell) hello, nothing is final with a law until it is passed TWICE and signed. Campbell had every right, and I would say even a responsibility, to make an amendment. The council then had the right to vote it up or down.

Campbell votes yes on the amendment and the other 4 members vote no.

After the amendment about the $30 fails the ordinance with the original fee schedule passes unanimously.

Shields starts to go on about how everyone should have been asked to participate when the legislation was first considered way back when. Hello, Shanie. I was at that meeting. The towing guys were there too. Campbell asked you and the other council members to vote to suspend part of the rules of order so that they could comment on what was being discussed. YOU, Louise and Gary voted no! Shanie, do the math. Your vote is what kept them from being able to comment at the very first meeting.

Whether you agree with Campbell’s position or not, the way that she was treated was disgraceful. She showed courage and grace under fire. Folks, believe me, it really is worth watching. If you’ve ever had a bad experience with a tow company, Campbell will be your hero.

Thanks to Campbell’s tenacity and the support of at least a majority of the council, the companies towing for the city will now be required to accept credit cards and bank checks. Some used to force customers to pay with cash only. At least now if you think that you have been treated unfairly you can dispute it with your credit card company. I bet we get some comments from victims on this one.

Hurray for the new city attorney who found and fixed the problem before the city got sued and, in just a couple of weeks? Maybe there is hope for the city.

Watch the whole meeting. Ireton give a great grand finale when he has one of the fits that we’ve come to expect. Some will say that Cohen should have shut things down, but there is something to be said for a meeting where the public can speak and the gavel isn’t abused. Lord knows how often even I have been subjected to that.

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