Riordan Vetoes Plan on Bidding for Police Towing

Mayor Richard Riordan vetoed his first ordinance Friday by rejecting a Los Angeles City Council plan to offer the Police Department’s vehicle-towing contracts for competitive bidding, saying the proposal was too weak.

On Jan. 3, the council voted 11 to 2 to slowly dismantle the existing Official Police Garage towing system under which favored firms have held contracts for decades and bequeathed them to their heirs. The 17 firms in the program monopolize the business of towing vehicles impounded by police and traffic officers.

Under the council plan, the first of the new five-year contracts were to be awarded in 1998 after a competitive bidding process. The winners also were to pay only a minimal franchise fee to the city.

But a better system would be to start the bidding process immediately and generate higher fees from the winners to recover more of the city’s costs, Riordan said in his veto message.

“Testing these contracts in the marketplace is long overdue,” Riordan said. “It is the city taxpayers who are disadvantaged by the proposed delay.

“The council has moved toward the goals of full cost recovery and competitive bidding of OPG operations,” he said. “We have an opportunity to achieve these goals more rapidly if we work together.”

Riordan also announced that he would ask City Controller Rick Tuttle to work with his staff, tow truck operators and various city departments to work on an alternative plan.

Independent tow truck firms seeking to break into the system have also criticized the council plan as illegal and have threatened to sue to block it.

Councilman Nate Holden, chairman of the council committee that recommended the approach adopted by the full council, said Friday that he would not seek to override the mayor’s veto.