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Report regarding a resolution amending the City of South San Francisco's Master Fee Schedule to reduce the service franchise fee for police-generated tows.(Master Sergeant Danny Gil)
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RECOMMENDATION
Recommendation
It is recommended that the City Council adopt a Resolution to amend the Master Fee Schedule to lower the specified franchise fee for police-generated vehicle tows from $50 to $20 per vehicle.
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BACKGROUND/DISCUSSION
The City of South San Francisco (City) has a regular and ongoing need to have tow companies available to tow vehicles from public roadways for a variety of reasons, including the removal of vehicles disabled by mechanical breakdowns or collisions, vehicles left abandoned, vehicles with excessive unpaid parking citations (five or more unpaid citations) and vehicles being driven by persons with suspended licenses or who are being arrested. These City requested tows are regulated by California State law and are facilitated through the Police Department. The City regulates all tow services, including police-generated tows, through Chapter 6.64 of the Municipal Code. Over the past five years, the City has averaged more than 748 police-generated tows annually.
Section 12110(b) of the California Vehicle Code (CVC) allows a municipality to establish franchise agreements for police-generated tows and to charge a fee to reimburse the municipality for the reasonable costs incurred with managing the towing franchise program. Based on this State law, the City established a franchise fee of $50 for each police-generated vehicle tow to be paid by the tow company to the Police Department to defray the costs of administering the program.
Through the police-generated tow program, the Police Department utilizes the services of three approved towing companies (Action Towing, Bob Jr's Towing and Courtesy Tow) who are all parties to a franchise towing agreement with the City to perform police-generated tows on a rotational tow program....
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