To Tow or not to Tow, who asked the question?

The City of Long Beach is the only City that operates its own towing service; the division is comprised of over 40 city employees and 5 sub-contracted tow providers to assist with the overflow. The City only tows at the request of the Long Beach City departments, the Police Department and parking enforcement being the most frequent users. The Towing Division does not do private property tows and the public cannot find them in the Yellow Pages or towing at the request of a private party. Presently, the City of Long Beach Towing and Lien Sales Division contributes close to $3 million to the general fund, after it pays its overhead costs such as fuel, maintenance and personnel.


Last month, Financial Services issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) for City Tow Services, a service already available in the city, a service that is not losing money, pays for itself and contributes $3 million dollars to the general fund a year!


So who asked Financial Management to issue an RFP if no vote was taken at the council, no discussion was held at the Budget Oversight Committee, and no outcry from its primary customer, the LBPD was received? In fact, a petition was signed by Police and Public Work's employees asking the city not to contract out towing. So with this opposition and lack of outcry for a towing RFP, why do we have one?


Let's consider the fact that towing services can be a lucrative business. It can also be rife with corruption. Recently, a LB City Auditor's report stated that no abuse was present in the Long Beach towing operations but that it was possible given the amount of money that exchanges hands. So ..... a large amount of money exchanges hands and the city wants to contract out that service?


Great..... we know how the city provides scant oversight on all its contracts and MOU's (i.e. LB Museum of Art, Queen Mary, etc.). It would seem logical, then, to recommend that we tighten our controls, maintain our Long Beach City employees and keep our Long Beach-based tow sub contractors and keep the towing business in house and out of the hands of LA conglomerates: Hands that will certainly be handling our money if we allow the towing RFP to move forward. More to come.......