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Aldermen Pass Bill To Make Chicago's Insane Towing Companies Record Video
by Mae Rice in News on Jun 22, 2016 2:00 pm
A Chicago car getting towed in a snowstorm (photo via Paul Kehrer on Flickr)
Updated 2:20 p.m.: The ordinance passed the City Council Wednesday afternoon unanimously . Towing in Chicago is notoriously shady. Lincoln Park Towing is basically Voldemort and could lose its license any day now ; United Road Towing was raided by the FBI but somehow still lands city contracts . A new ordinance, up for approval in City Council on Wednesday, aims to make towing in the City of Big Shoulders and Hella Rogue Tow Trucks a bit less rogue. The ordinance, widely termed a "Towing Bill of Rights," has been spearheaded by Ald. Ameya Pawar (47th). Its goal is to  "ensure that there is proper consumer protection" when it comes to towing, Pawar told the Tribune . Under the ordinance, tow trucks would have to have video cameras (with audio) on their front and rear ends, documenting tows as they happen. The footage also have to be made available, for free, to the city and car owners. (This requirement piggybacks on an existing rule that tow trucks must photograph every tow, according to the Tribune. )
Towing companies would also have to give Chicago police a list of the parking lots they work with, specifying whether they tow from each lot on request or patrol it at their own discretion. "Tow truck companies need to exist," Pawar told the Sun-Times . "They just need to learn how to behave. "
This is likely an allusion to consumer claims that Lincoln Park Towing employees lie, drive unsafely, and once knocked a guy off a 16-foot ladder, breaking his leg. Many of these complaints are documented in a Change.org petition to suspend Lincoln Park Towing's license , which has 3,000+ signatures. Contact the author of this article or email tips@chicagoist.com with further questions, comments or tips.


City Council Pass Bill To Make Chicago's Insane Towing Companies Record Video

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Shady-Sounding Towing Company Lands City Contract, As It Has Since 1989
by Mae Rice in News on Feb 15, 2016 2:36 pm
A Chicago car getting towed in a snowstorm (photo via Paul Kehrer on Flickr)
The same towing company that has handled city towing needs for the past 26 years will continue to do so. United Road Towing was the only bidder on this year’s city towing contract, the first one handled by Mayor Rahm Emanuel's administration, according to the Sun-Times . Two other companies showed interest in the contract, but didn’t go beyond that, according to a Sun-Times review of city records. This wouldn’t be much of a story except that United Road Towing has always been, for lack of a better term, kind of shady. They’ve held onto the city towing contract since 1989, through a name-change—they were once called Environmental Auto Removal—and a 2003 FBI raid, in which the company’s records were seized and thought to show connections to an interstate car-theft ring, according to the Sun-Times. Even the way the towing company landed its first city contract was a bit odd. The company got the contract just days after it came into existence, the Tribune noted in 2004 , likely due to the founders’ ties to then-Mayor Richard M. Daley and his allies. This has an especially strange ring to it because during 2010 bidding for Chicago's towing contract, the city turned down a bid from Tegsco—a competitor of United Road Towing—because the company didn’t have enough experience to handle Chicago’s “volume,” the Sun-Times reports. That’s not to mention a 2004 Sun-Times report, which revealed that the city sold 70,000 cars a year to the towing company for the price of scrap metal, regardless of the cars' condition. The towing company then sold the cars at auction. Meanwhile, the cars’ owners got no cut of the money changing hands, and still had to pay towing fees. Luckily Chicago isn't known for back-room deals or corruption or anything, so we can all be sure this whole towing thing is totally above board! Contact the author of this article or email tips@chicagoist.com with further questions, comments or tips.


Shady-Sounding Towing Company Lands City Contract, As It Has Since 1989

May 18, 2012
Judge Allows EEOC Disability Discrimination Suit to Move Forward
A federal judge in Illinois has handed the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission a much-needed win, ruling that a disability discrimination suit may go forward even though the agency did not individually investigate and attempt to settle every class member's claim before filing suit. The decision contrasts sharply with a holding earlier this month from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, which tossed a massive sexual harassment suit because it found the EEOC did not adequately investigate the plaintiffs’ claims up front. U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo of the Northern District of Illinois (part of the Seventh Circuit) reached the opposite conclusion last week when faced with a similar issue in EEOC v. United Road Towing Inc. The EEOC sued on behalf of 19 current and former United Road employees, alleging the company violated the Americans with Disabilities Act and Section 706 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. The EEOC alleged that the company discriminated against the workers with its unpaid medical leave policy, that it denied them reasonable accommodation, and that it illegally refused to rehire them after they returned from leave. Initially, two employees complained. The EEOC investigated their charges and invited the company to attempt to conciliate, as required by statute. The agency went on to add 17 more plaintiffs. United Road Towing argued that the court should grant summary judgment for all but the two original plaintiffs because the EEOC failed to satisfy all of its administrative requirements prior to filing suit. The judge was unimpressed, stating flat out that “the court will not inquire into whether the EEOC’s administrative investigation adequately supported the claims.” Citing a Sixth Circuit precedent, Castillo wrote that “If defendant employers were permitted to challenge whether an EEOC investigation provided sufficient reasonable cause for subsequent claims, the focus of employment discrimination litigation would become the EEOC’s administrative efforts, rather than the validity of the actual claims of discrimination.”
By comparison, the lower court judge in the Eighth Circuit sexual harassment case against trucking giant CRST Van Expedited Inc. conceded that “dozens of potentially meritorious sexual harassment claims may now never see the inside of the courtroom” when she threw out the EEOC’s case for failing to fulfill the administrative prerequisites. Castillo also ruled that it was “clear the EEOC made an attempt to conciliate, and that this attempt was sufficient,” even though it didn’t involve all 19 plaintiffs. He did, however, stay the proceedings for 14 days to give the parties a chance to conciliate all the claims. Posted by Jenna Greene on May 18, 2012 at 10:10 AM | Permalink


Judge Allows EEOC Disability Discrimination Suit to Move Forward

Phoenix council to decide number of contracts for bid
by Emily Gersema - Oct.  5, 2011 09:50 AM
The Arizona Republic
The Phoenix Police Department has relied on one company, United Road Towing, to tow cars for five years - a monopoly in Arizona's biggest city. As United Road Towing's contract nears expiration, the city has an opportunity to write new towing contracts and allow for more companies to compete for them. At a meeting this afternoon, the nine-member City Council will decide the number of towing contracts that will be released for bid. Already, friction is flaring over this massive contract for the Police Department, which last year collected around $3 million in administrative and impoundment fees for towed vehicles and produced an undisclosed amount of revenue for incumbent United Road Towing. The Mokena, Ill.-based company, which does business as Shamrock Towing, is jockeying for an advantage over All City Towing, a spinoff of Cactus Towing - before city calls for bids. Meanwhile, Phoenix staff members and council members disagree on the number of contracts that will be issued, which could range from two to eight. City staff recommended that the Phoenix Police Department release eight contracts for bid - one per police precinct. Assistant finance director Susan Perkins listed several benefits of this option in a recent report to Assistant City Manager Ed Zuercher:
-  Small towing firms would have a better chance of getting a contract. -  Eight contracts also could "provide lower costs and higher service levels, since it is likely more firms will be able to compete. "
-  If one towing firm falls short of fulfilling its contract, the city would have an easier time switching to another firm. Last week, the Public Safety and Veterans Subcommittee ditched the staff's idea and voted for issuing two contracts, which some council members fear could continue the monopoly United Road Towing has now. "My preference was four as opposed to two to give some of the smaller companies a chance to compete," said Councilman Claude Mattox, the subcommittee chairman. If Phoenix issues two or more contracts, a single company could win all of them. City officials are unlikely to preclude the winner of one contract from bidding on the others, said Mattox, who represents residents in west Phoenix. Phoenix took a similar approach with the food and beverage service contract at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport's Terminal 4. Under criticism for letting HMS Host hold the sole contract for the terminal since the 1990s, the City Council decided last year to issue two contracts, each for half of the restaurant and bar spaces in the terminal. Although Host already won one of the deals, it has been allowed to bid on the second, which is still under review. Such opportunity for monopoly bothers Councilman Sal DiCiccio. He said that the towing contract could end up the same way. In 2006, United Road Towing won all six Police Department contracts for towing. "What's the justification for leaving it bigger? I mean, why leave everybody out? " said DiCiccio, who represents residents in Ahwatukee, Arcadia and the Biltmore area. "I think we ought to go with eight (contracts). The small guy has to have a shot at this thing. "
If the Public Safety and Veterans Subcommittee meeting last week is an indication, the towing contract likely will be just as contentious as the Terminal 4 food and beverage deal. A disagreement between All City Towing and United Road Towing has pushed to the fore an issue that has less to do with the quality of their towing practices, and more to do with their reputations as employers. Two women, one of whom works for All City Towing, told the subcommittee last week about United Road Towing efforts to hold them to a non-compete clause in their contracts. Tracy Morgan, of Goodyear, said she left her job as an account representative at United Road Towing to work for All City Towing on Aug. 2, but her first day was cut short. She said her old employer had called and told All City Towing that she was violating a non-compete clause that bars her from working for another towing firm. All City "did tell me if I could prove to them I didn't have a non-compete, then there would be no issue," Morgan said. Morgan, 52, grabbed a copy of her United Road Towing contract and found it did not have a non-compete clause. She showed it to All City but was not allowed to return. "There was no reason I could not go work for All City," she said. Angela Dominguez, 36, told the subcommittee she faces a legal threat from the same ex-employer, United Road Towing, because she took a job with All City. Dominguez, United Road Towing and All City didn't respond to phone calls seeking comment.


Phoenix towing contract to end for police

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