S.B. 120 Towing Modifications: transcript

Thank you, Mr. Chair.

Thank you. Um, this started out as a very simple bill. It was three lines, and it was basically set out to just tell 'em that we're gonna follow what's in the code right now. Since then, I've had, uh, the Towing Association, the Sheriff's Association, and one other. And, uh, and that's why we're on sub two is that we've thrown their, their ideas in there, but we've, oh, the state tax commission weighed into, so we've defined what, um, a highway is, and the state tax commission regulates the impound yards and have criteria. There's a couple more bills floating through, uh, this session that deal with different parts of, of that. So my bill just deals with identifying what kind of a highway we're defining, and, and so we've classified it as an AB or C road with pavement. That's what all that one does. That's on the one lines one 18 through one 20. Then we came down and they wanted to define when, uh, highway, highway patrol, law enforcement call dispatch and need a vehicle towed. There was a discrepancy how we define that. And so now it says non-consent. Police generated tow means that the towing of a vehicle vessel or outboard motor, made at the request of a peace officer, a person acting on behalf of law enforcement agency. And so now we know what, who's, who's, uh, di dispatching a tow truck to it. Uh, it re references several sections there. And then, uh, non-consent police generated towed does not include the towing of a vehicle vessel or outboard motor made at the request of a private individual where a peace officer assists in the tow. Now, you gotta keep this straight because it makes a difference. So what happens is now we, we have requested a tow truck. Now, there are county ordinances that say that in order to facilitate or operate a tow truck, if we have an ordinance, you've gotta listen to the county. And, and in some instances, they are requesting a tow, and then the vehicle ends up 30, 40 miles away from where the vehicle was actually towed from, which is causing a hardship if you run outta gas. And in the meantime of going and getting it come back, your car's gone. You have to find out where it is, pay the impound fee, plus the tow, and it may be a day or two before you get down there. And, and so this is directing them, that, that's why we want to differentiate who's dispatching. Now, if I run outta or I break down and, and an officer comes by and I request a tow truck, that's at my request and I know the consequences. And then the last thing here is, uh, the impound, uh, yard needs to be close to an adjacent county where I live in the basin. Ballard City lives on the county line, and we have a, uh, a towing of, uh, company there. Sometimes they're, they're on the rotation. They get dispatched to get a car outta Roosevelt City. Okay, we're talking two or three miles, and we wanna clear that up for the, the, um, law enforcement, the sheriff's brought that up. The other piece in here is what if we need to impound the car for, um, let's see. Uh, It's for evidence in that they can have it towed somewhere else where they want to because it's part of an investigation in that. And so that exception is in there also in the dispatch rotation on where that car's at car ends up. So with that, I'll, I'll close my presentation and entertain any questions.

Yeah. I move that we, that the committee, um, pass out with a favorable recommendation second sub, uh, one 20. Is that right?

Nation. Appreciate the motion. And, and thank you for your con consideration and hope you'll support us in this right

I'll waive. Okay. That is waived.

Yes. I, I'd like to first move that one and then I'll speak to that.

Yes. Uh, it was, uh, def definitions. Okay. If, if you look at the, on the, the bill that you have on line, uh, pay or line one 40, we changed it from non-government to non-consent police generated. And that came out of discussions last night with, uh, the Towing Association. Uh, we came to consensus. This bill is not changing anything. It is defining the parameters of how we operate.

Thank you. I move that we, uh, delete and title and body, um, SB one 20. Replace it with first substitute set Bill one 20.

I haven't heard one book. The, the biggest portion of this bill is just reiterating what we already have on the book. It comes down to dispatch centers and, and if it's law enforcement and they come upon a car, they call dispatch and they on the rotation, they get the next one in line. What's happening is there are counties that have ordinances that say you have to, the vehicle has to remain, remain in the county of origin, not going 45 miles, 60 miles away, because that's where the rotation towing company was from. And so it's caused a lot of conflict. Um, I'll, I'll use Morgan County because they're, they're in this fight in the fact that if you break down on Interstate 84 and the rotation, they come out of Weber County, they go get the car and then they towed away. And so all of a sudden now you, you have a higher tow bill, you might have a storage fee and uh, there's nobody blame because they're following Udo's rules and that's how the dispatch center operates. But in code we're saying no, just follow the law. The Loa local ordinances, they say that you have to have that and you get into it and the impound, um, lots are regulated by the state tax commission and they have what these lots are supposed to look like. Well, we find that they're just putting up fences wherever and saying that's our impound lot, which is not a secure facility. So this is just defining that we are gonna follow the impound laws and, and the local ordinances. If they say that you have to have facility there, then you're gonna have it there. Otherwise, to me, a simple line would say we're gonna have to have two rotation bases for dispatch. Those that are in compliance with this county, we'll call on them. If they're not in compliance with that, then they're not on the list. But they can be if it's in the region. And this is, this is more sophisticated than I realized and I realized Malloy is the one that should be running a tow bill, not me, but this came to me and, and I told him I would help to see that we get back on square one, that this is how we operate and that's the extent of this bill. I'm not creating any new things. There definitely are certain topics up here that you have to be very brave to run. Yeah. Well I could tell 'em go somewhere else. I guess it was my turn.

I suppose maybe I, I don't know, um, if I even want ask the question, but, 'cause this is just practical. I'm just thinking of practical terms. County of origin, you're on the county line. Let, let's say county doesn't have any tow, any ability to, I don't know that there is a county in Utah that doesn't have the ability to tow, but maybe there is. So what do you do in that county? Well,

Uh, that, that is a great question. Most of the time, and I looked at the, the facilities that we have, the impound lots, every one of them has it, but sometimes they might be to the far edge. And I go, well, you gotta realize that the rest of that county is federal land, public land. There's no population there. Yeah, I'm thinking Of San Juan County for instance. What do you, what do you, Yeah. And, and so they're gonna have to tow it to a facility within the county and, you know, down on the reservation.

So let me ask you how practical, this is really practical. That happens in the northern part of San Juan County. It's closer to Moab or Grand County than it would be a towing yard in Monticello. Logistically, it seems like we'd be stepping over ourselves. Well,

Um, sheriff Glover from the Sheriff's Association just brought that to my attention before we came in here. I says, get me some language. Okay. You will address that.

Is that a radius of 10 miles? Right. 15. I mean, if we're going 30 miles, well you can in where, in the basin That's across the county line. Two different directions and you could end up with the same situation. So if there's an easy way to address that, we can figure it out.

We can, we can do that. But that's what they're asking for is let's make clear definitions here. Yeah.

Okay. Alright. Thanks Mr. Chair.

Yeah, I, I said we all make a towing bill. We all decide to run a towing bill at least once in our careers. If you haven't, you know, I encourage you to, 'cause you, you know, you get to learn a whole lot like Senator Winterton Hass mentioned, um, you know, unintended consequences. So, uh, to, to representative or to Senator Musselman's point. Um, are we also worried about like each county having competing ordinances about location or that kinda stuff? Are you worried about that at all?

No, Mo there are just a few counties and most of them are rural. Mm-hmm. But they're trying to protect their business owner's investment. And when they have to compete with somebody from the urban side, that's where I find that they have ordinances that say we want it to stay in our county.

Yeah. So that it's rare from, From the toes perspective person being towed. I can see the perspective. It would be adv advantageous for them to be, you know, still to have a place inside, you know, the county. I mean, that seems reasonable unless you know, it's on, I'm just thinking Mexican hat or, you know mm-hmm. Just, you're out there, you know, there's all kinds of places you could create a lot out of. Right. Um, I guess the idea of protect, so are you telling me that this is, this protects local businesses that are in the towing business, such that the county is choosing their towing buddies to be the one towing? That's what I'm trying to figure out.

No, it, it's protecting those that have investments there, that are paying property taxes and that. Mm-hmm. And, and that's who, I mean, this, this doesn't, even if you break down highway patrol, somebody comes along and says, do you need a tow or something? You say, yeah, I'd like so and so. Okay. They're in another county, you requested it. It didn't come from law enforcement or the dispatch. That's what we're addressing.

Okay. I see what you mean. Okay. No, that's helpful. Thank you. Okay.

Thank you, Mr. Chair. Can you hear me okay? Yes. Hi, I'm Tracy Glover. I'm the King County Sheriff and the president of the Utah Sheriff's Association. Thanks for letting me testify. Uh, just quickly, I, I, uh, communicated with Senator Wend. Turn a little bit about this bill. Uh, I think we support the bill. Uh, two questions was, was just the question you all raised about, um, the situation where the proximity might actually be closer in a ne a neighboring county, and we'll work on some language for that. I talked to, uh, Mr. Burris about that. We'll work on a little bit of language for that. Then the second thing was just to possibly add, uh, an exception to the bill for if the vehicle is, uh, used in the commission of a crime and is therefore being held as evidence. We just wanna make sure that if, you know, if a vehicle that's used in commission of a crime in Cain County ends up getting picked up in Garfield County, that I can go get that vehicle as evidence in transported back to Kane County for the, for the process of criminal justice to take its place. But otherwise, we, we can support the bill. We appreciate the concept of the bill, which is to, to hopefully not see people get price gouged on, on long towing distances, et cetera. So thank you.

Thank you. Uh, I'm gonna make a motion that, uh, we favorably recommend first substitute Senate bill one 20, um, with the, uh, knowledge that Senator Winterton iss open to working on a couple of these issues, I think that have been brought up, uh, no sense to stop the bill. Seems like there's a consensus to, uh, to then incorporate in Sheriff GL Glover made a couple of, I think, really valid points. Yes, and I appreciate that because I did not have that perspective. Okay. They bring up valid points and, and if they'll gimme some language, we'll work out and, uh, I make that commitment to, you know, I don't want the bill stopped either. Thanks. Thanks. That's my motion, Mr. Chair.

Appreciate somebody, uh, you know, understanding that these are not easy. They're usually more into, into the weeds and we don't see that, so I've learned.

Yeah. I'd like to delete title embody first substitute one 20 and replace it with second substitute one 20 Reason being in committee, we, uh, heard from the Sheriff's Association, they wanted some language in there to actually address some of the concerns that they have when they impound vehicles or they're in there for, um, um, evidence. And so we put that language in the second substitute. That's what's in there.

Okay. The substance of this whole bill is to reiterate what's already on the books, but we haven't been honoring what we have on the books. And there are some county ordinances in which, uh, state that cars should stay in their counties. When we tow them, they sometimes end up 45 miles away and, um, that makes a hardship on the traveling public or the residents of the county. And then, like I said, the, the Sheriff's Association wa was concerned about, uh, evidence of vehicles and that, and, and so it gives an exception of where those vehicles will be towed. And that's, I'd be open for questions.

Yes. Uh, I have a question if I may.

I will. Senator Baldry.

In those exceptions, does it address, um, the allowance for counties where there is no, uh, in county impound yard or for temporary exceptions, um, such as, you know, your county is, you're right between counties, you're on the edge of the border. Does it allow for those provisions? Yes.

The winter didn't Go ahead. Yes, that was one of the concerns with, with the sheriff's has raised and they brought up the example right here in the valley, Sandy and that, and so it does address that.

Excellent. Thank you. Thank you.

I'll just move that. Uh, second substitute one 20. Be read for a third time.

Senator Vickers Spery Luin bra bus Aye. Colmore escamilla a Fillmore Grover Harper Kins Ipson Johnson k Juab McKay Macl Milner Musselman Owens pitcher a Plum Rebe Sandal Stevenson Stratton Vickers Weiler Wilson Winterton Aye.

Motion to encircle, uh, Senate bill one seven. Motion to Uncer Senate Bill 17 credit card processing fee amendments.

Okay. The substance of this whole bill is to reiterate what's already on the books, but we haven't been honoring what we have on the books. And there are some county ordinances in which, uh, state that cars should stay in their counties. When we tow them, they sometimes end up 45 miles away and, um, that makes a hardship on the traveling public or the residents of the county. And then, like I said, the, the Sheriff's Association wa was concerned about, uh, evidence of vehicles and that, and, and so it gives an exception of where those vehicles will be towed. And that's, I'd be open for questions. Thank you for the, again, the, the explanation.

Yes. Uh, I have a question if I may. Uh, go ahead. Senator Winter. Yes. Will you yield?

I will. Senator Baldry.

In those exceptions, does it address, um, the allowance for counties where there is no, uh, in county impound yard or for temporary exceptions, um, such as, you know, your county is, you're right between counties, you're on the edge of the border. Does it allow for those provisions? Yes.

The winter didn't Go ahead. Yes, that was one of the concerns with, with the sheriff's has raised and they brought up the example right here in the valley, Sandy and that, and so it does address that.

Excellent. Thank you. Thank you.

I'll just move that. Uh, second substitute one 20. Be read for a third time.

Senator Vickers Spery Luin bra bus Aye. Colmore escamilla a Fillmore Grover Harper Kins Ipson Johnson k Juab McKay Macl Milner Musselman Owens pitcher a Plum Rebe Sandal Stevenson Stratton Vickers Weiler Wilson Winterton Aye. President Adams Aye. Second substitute Senate Bill one 20.

Motion to encircle, uh, Senate bill one seven. Motion to Uncer Senate Bill 17 credit card processing fee amendments.

Thank you Mr. President. This is, uh, I wouldn't say an annual towing bill, cleanup bill, but it is defining the gray areas in the code. After meeting with the Sheriff's Association, we subbed it and got their language in it. And with that, uh, it's, I'm open for clarification on any questions.

Senator Vickers. Baldry. Bwin Aye. Brammer Aye. Bus Comore. More Escamilla. Aye. Fillmore Aye. Grover. Aye. Harper Kins Ipson Johnson Wan McKay Mikel Milner Musselman Owens pitcher Plum Rebe Sandal Stevenson Stratton Vickers Weiler A i Wilson Aye. Winterton Aye. President Adams Aye. Second

Thank you. Um, Mr. Speaker, can I move the First Amendment on the second sub please?

Yes. Thank you. We just had some feedback from law enforcement that when, um, a car is involved in different kinds of weather or if the timelines don't match up, that we can, um, call from different areas.

Motion to concur. What we did there is there was language from the highway patrol that wanted to address emergent situations in which the towing industry might be overwhelmed in one county. That's what they put in there. So

Senator Vickers. Baldy Aye. Lewin Brammer bus comore a Escamia Fillmore Aye. Grover Harper Aye. Kins ipson a Johnson. K Juab McKay a. Mikel Aye. Milner Musselman Owens pitcher Aye. Lum Rebe Aye. Sandal Aye. Stevenson a Stratton Aye. Vickers Aye. Vicars Aye. Weiler Aye. Wilson Aye. Winterton Aye. President Adams Aye. Second substitute Senate Bill one 20.

Mr. President and Mr. Speaker, the joint conference committee comprised of Senator Vickers Fillmore Escamia and Sandal