After I posted Anchor Towing owner Dan Hunt’s objections to the ordinance being considered by the McHenry County Board, Nick Provanzano, Law & Justice Committee, emailed the following, which I thought might be of interest:
Cal,
As a conservative, I take regulation of small businesses very seriously and have tried to find an alternative to the ICC oversight. Sometimes its appropriate for government to protect the people from each other. President Reagan said Government should never due for people what people can do for themselves. Our citizens of McHenry County have no way to protect themselves from predatory towing operators.
You need to understand that this regulation would only pertain to “Relocation Towing” and not emergency or safety towing.
Relocation towing is when a vehicle owner trespasses onto private property and parks their vehicle. The private property owner contracts with a commercial vehicle relocator to remove these vehicles from his private property.
Safety towing is when you call AAA or whomever to tow a vehicle because it is no longer operational, either from an accident or malfunction. A police tow is when a law enforcement agency orders the vehicle removed from a public road. The proposed resolution does not cover any aspect of a safety tow or a police tow.
The goal of the resolution is to fairly spread out the responsibility for the safe removal and subsequent storage of a trespassed vehicle amongst the vehicle owner, the private property owner and the commercial towing relocator.
Please keep in mind we are discussing the safe return of a very important asset that can range from a few thousand dollars up to one hundred thousand dollars. How much would you pay to get back your $28,000 mini-van?
As we have seen from relocation towers who are operating in McHenry County, the amount ranges based on the value of the asset and the perceived ability for the person to pay.
That is wrong.
As I mentioned previously, sometimes its appropriate for government to protect the people from each other. President Reagan said Government should never due for people what people should do for themselves.
Our citizens of McHenry County have no way to protect themselves from predatory towing operators.
One would say that the people who have been victims were to blame because they chose to trespass onto private property to park. I have heard from several people about how easy it is to end up on private property and not truly understand you have trespassed.
Having said that, nothing in our resolution or in the state statute would diminish the civil liability a trespassed vehicle owner would face as a result of his trespassing.
Nor does it diminish a private citizen from maintaining his right to remove trespassed vehicles from his private property. It merely regulates the operational rules of the commercial relocation towing process.
The question regarding $7.50 ICC invoices was raised to ICC Police Commander Baner and his response was that this is a revenue generating tool to help offset the cost for oversight and complaint resolution. On the back of this invoice are the complete instructions to assist a person to file a complaint with a relocation tower.
I have also attached a few documents that you may find helpful. One is the consumer’s guide to relocation towing which was prepared by the ICC. The other document is the results of my review of the State Statute on the benefits to the consumers of McHenry County if we as a board opt in to the ICC regulations. I also have been receiving questions from fellow board members during our research and have compiled these questions and answers along with an ICC Relocator fee schedule.
If you have any further concerns or questions please feel free to contact me.
Regards,
Nick Provenzano
Chairman
Law & Justice Committee
McHenry County Board
Provenzano also provided
ICC Regulation of Relocation Towing, Benefits to McHenry County Constituents and
Mr.Provenzano, I think this will still affect the property owner as I’m quite sure no towing company (within a 10 mile radius) would ever sign on to this. 1. Its not the great money maker that you make it out to be. 2. Too much red tape. 3. Not enough business. Now, give me an account in Chicago or O’Hare and I’d sign up in a heartbeat. Respectfully,David Hunt
Your resolution absolutely diminshes the property owner, how can you say it doesn’t.
The property owner is being forced, through your resolution to locate a Licensed ICC towing company to remove abandoned vehicles. How is that not hindering or diminsihing ??
You still are ill-informed Mr. Provenzano.
Mr. Truth says even if you do sign on to be a relocator for the state of Illinois pay the license fee, buy invoices @ 7.50 each, make signs and have a fully signed contract between your company and the private property owner you now have to register your contracts with the state before one vehicle can be removed(if you dont file them the tow has to be refunded and the relocation company gets fined and a $50 fine for each not listed in time(we pay and do their job) before the law was to just have signs posted 24hrs before anything was towed and have the contract faxed to the ICC office in Des Plaines). Like David Hunt states there is just way to much red tape and the people violating the law get away and the ones providing service are the ones to suffer. Instead of the ICC getting rid of the “predatory” relocation companies they figure to raise the fees to do business and that will get the ones breaking the laws 10 times over out of the industry. There is a body shop in my area that wanted to make some easy money on the train commuters to the city without a license and making thier own prices up and charging storage when 24hrs hasnt lapsed but only by the date change and an after hours fee as well. When I complained to the ICC and sent photos of the signs and where they were located the ICC just gives them an application for a license and doesnt fine them for towing from private property with out a license which is grand theft auto and doesnt pull any records to refund those people their money. Most recently I complained about a company in Aurora IL that was charging people an extra $35 to use a credit card as a form of payment but when we told them the responded to me that they dont have the budget or man power to perform stings anymore and the case is closed. Thats some real A-1 bulls***. So when you think that ICC will provide some great over site to the Industry please think it over hard because they dont do a good job for what costs. This is comming from someone that is a license relocator the county of Dupage for the last 10 yrs and have watched a steady decline in their services and duty but an increase in the fees of license renewals and invoices arent I a consumer as well that should be protected. The honest business members shouldnt be penalized for the crooks or held under the same blanket policy and the ones breaking laws shouldnt be able to continue business. We personally aided in the removal of Royal towing that were car thieves in the industry but no thanks to us,at the time the ICC hadnt the slightest clue to what was going on.(great oversite) Its truly the saddest time of my life.2-21-09