Thread: CA-San Rafael council takes closer look,car impound policies

San Rafael council takes closer look at car impound policies
Jennifer Upshaw Swartz
Posted: 04/05/2010 09:32:44 PM PDT


Sue Murphy knows far more than she'd like to about Marin's unlicensed drivers.
"It's affected my life drastically," said the San Rafael mother of three, whose husband and two sons were embarking on a Boy Scout camping trip March 20 when the van they were riding in was broadsided at Third and B streets by an unlicensed driver.

"My husband can't work for two months," she told the San Rafael City Council in a special session Monday on impounding unlicensed drivers' vehicles. "That driver ran a red light and mowed down that van with my kids in it.

"I think people think unlicensed drivers aren't dangerous," she said. "They are."

The issue of impounding the cars of unlicensed drivers in accidents, traffic stops, during street-sweeping days and as part of drunken driving and driver's license checkpoints was the subject of a lengthy session Monday as the council received a comprehensive briefing on the hot-button topic with a long history in San Rafael.

City officials are looking to the council for guidance on whether to continue pursuing grants for checkpoints, and if a temporary program to halt impounding on street-sweeping days should become permanent.

The council made no decisions Monday, but asked many questions about local practices, legal precedents, state and federal law and whether it was truly necessary to impound the cars of unlicensed drivers for 30 days as part of checkpoints or following accidents, as is required by California state law, officials said.

Mayor Al Boro urged the council to set aside "social justice" politics and focus on public safety. Enforcing federal immigration law is not the city's job, but obeying state law is, he said.

"Whether you be white or brown or yellow if you are stopped and you don't have a license there's something we have to do," he said. "I don't think we can look the other way and I don't care who the person is or where they come from.

"I think we have to look at the safety of the whole community," Boro said. "That's what we're really about."

Lately, the conversation about impounding has intensified.

The topic was a centerpiece of city politics two years ago, when critics began making regular appearances before the council urging members to abandon the checkpoints, which they said unfairly targeted illegal immigrants who could not legally earn drivers licenses. Others turned out in support the program, saying the laws should apply to everyone equally.

In the past, the council has repeatedly thrown its support behind the checkpoints, which are funded through the state Office of Traffic Safety, and police say the checkpoints are legal, appropriate and a necessary tool to combat drunken driving in Marin.

The issue resurfaced again after a New York Times article in February listed San Rafael as among several Bay Area cities that aggressively impounded vehicles and then split the revenue with the towing companies.

San Rafael officials were quick to say Monday the practice is no money maker. The city's $165 towing fee and daily storage fees, rates that have not been adjusted since 2004, do nothing more than cover costs, city officials said.

Most recently, hundreds of people from congregations throughout Marin packed the gymnasium at Saint Raphael Church in San Rafael last month to tell stories about the economic and social cost of losing their cars because they cannot get a driver's license in California.

The event was hosted by the Marin Organizing Committee, a coalition of religious congregations and nonprofit groups in Marin that works on public-policy issues. The committee has formed a team to learn more about the policies and practices of impounding cars driven by unlicensed drivers, and plans more meetings to educate the community about civil rights and actions to help get the law changed.

In the city's Canal neighborhood, residents for years have complained about losing their cars on street-sweeping days, and last year youth volunteers began cleaning up the neighborhood hoping to prove to the city that towing parked cars was unnecessary.

Late last year, city officials and neighborhood leaders struck a deal. As part of a new pilot program, the city for six months has suspended towing for street-sweeping violations and just issues citations instead.

Tom Wilson, executive director of the Canal-based advocacy group Canal Alliance, said at Monday's session that he believed the city had the power to make permanent the pilot program - an act that had nothing to do with honoring state law.

"Whether or not the car should be taken and impounded, I think there's an area that there is some discretion," he said.

"If there is discretion on that, I would support that," Boro said.



http://www.marinij.com/marinnews/ci_14826840

Why are they complaining? Americans have their cars towed all of time. Do they think they are above actual citizens? Then they bring up the excuse that they don't have licenses. They don't deserve that right. So in that respect they should not drive motor vehicles then.