Tuesday night’s public hearing on a proposed set of restrictions for tow truck companies included horror stories of cars being illegally towed or quickly snatched up, such as when one man who patronized a Kensington shopping center briefly walked across the street to drop off some mail.
But the County Council hearing also included testimony from plenty of property owners and homeowners’ association representatives who cautioned that some aspects of the proposed restrictions would prove too burdensome and potentially hurt their businesses.
“People don’t understand the damage that they do when they park where they’re not supposed to,” business owner Matthew Palmer said. “They really do not have a concept that the few minutes they’re parked there can cost us a customer, and that’s long-term damage.”
Palmer, who owns a business in downtown Bethesda with seven parking spots, declined to name the business for fear that he’d be associated with towing companies.
The bill, which would outlaw the use of “spotters” to find illegal parkers and require a property owner’s permission for a tow in the middle of the night, was proposed by Montgomery County’s Office of Consumer Protection and County Council member Roger Berliner after scores of complaints about the practices over the years.
Fred Scheler, owner of local towing company Henry’s Wrecker Service, said he would’ve preferred the county come to him and other towers to talk about changes similar to ones made elsewhere in the state.
Scheler also is a member of the Towing and Recovery Professionals of Maryland.
“We understand not every tower is a good tower, but not everybody in this room is perfect,” Scheler said. “There are laws already on the books that aren’t being enforced that would stop trespass towing.”
Supporters of the bill sometimes refer to trespass towing as “predatory,” referring to tactics used by some tow companies that include posting spotters to watch for drivers who walk off the property where they parked before pouncing on that vehicle and hooking it up to a tow truck in a matter of minutes.
Eric Friedman, director of the county’s Office of Consumer Protection, said the towing situation has been “a powerful force in discouraging people from returning to business districts, including Bethesda.”
Friedman said the county enacted its towing laws in 1989 to try to find a balance between discouraging drivers from parking in spots for businesses they weren’t patronizing and “fairness and civility with respect to enforcement.”
“The balance has tipped and several towing firms have taken advantage,” Friedman said.
He testified on behalf of County Executive Ike Leggett, who announced a few additions to Berliner’s bill before the hearing Tuesday.
Perhaps the biggest would be banning the so-called “drop fee,” a $50 fee drivers can pay tow truck drivers if they return to their cars while they are in the process of being hooked up to a tow truck, but before that tow truck has left the property.
Tow truck drivers would have to release the vehicle back to the owner at no cost. The average cost to reclaim a vehicle in Montgomery County once it’s put in an impound lot is $160.
Many homeowners’ association representatives complained at the hearing that it was unreasonable to require them to wake up at 2 or 3 a.m. to give permission for a trespass tow.
Berliner, who has support from all eight of his fellow council members on the bill, said he will amend the measure so that it only applies to commercial properties.
“The bill failed to distinguish between commercial and residential and the amendments I will be offering will be rectifying that situation,” Berliner said. “The [homeowners’ associations] all said, ‘You need me to answer the phone at 2 in the morning? Are you kidding me?’ ”
It’s possible the bill will face a legal challenge from at least one tow truck operator, Rockville-based G & G towing, which also goes by the name G & C Gulf Inc.
Rick Einhorn, an attorney representing the company, testified against the bill Tuesday.
The company challenged a 2012 state law that outlawed the use of spotters, claiming that it was unreasonable and unconstitutional to require tow truck drivers to both take photos of walk-off parkers for evidence before towing and ban spotters.
An Anne Arundel Circuit Court ruled in favor of the tow truck company, but the case was later dismissed on appeal by the Court of Appeals of Maryland because the company had yet to actually be prosecuted based on the law.
“With respect to the legal issues, I’ve got good counsel,” Berliner said Tuesday, referring to the county’s attorneys. “We are going to push the envelope on this as far as we possibly can because we do see this as the No. 1 consumer issue our county is facing.”
