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Complaint filed over Phoenix towing contracts Company asks court to halt Phoenix's rebid by Emily Gersema and Dustin Gardiner - Jul. 7, 2012 12:00 AM The Republic | azcentral.com A Phoenix-area towing company wants a Maricopa County Superior Court judge to halt the city's pending rebid on police towing contracts, and alleges the city is illegally collecting fees from drivers through its current towing contractor. DV Towing, a limited-liability company with nine locations in Arizona, filed a special-action complaint with the court on Friday. The company alleges the city is illegally collecting towing fees from drivers via its towing contractor, United Road Services Southwest, a Mokena, Ill., company that also does business as United Road Towing and Shamrock Towing. DV Towing estimates the city collected $14 million in fees from 2008 through 2011, despite a state law that took effect in 2009 limiting the types of fees that cities could collect. However, city officials have said they collect only enough fees to cover the cost of managing towing issues for the Phoenix Police Department. City fees to cover administrative costs are legal under Arizona law. The city contracts with a towing company to tow away cars from accident scenes and illegally parked vehicles. Attorneys for DV Towing maintain the fees were not part of the original contract for United Road Towing, which began in 2006. "The general public has subsidized all the payments to the city of Phoenix and paid at least $14 million more than it would have paid under the original contract," they said in the complaint. City officials on Friday declined to comment, saying they were still reviewing the details of the complaint. A spokesman for United Road Towing didn't immediately return a phone call seeking comment late Friday. The case represents the final step in the company's protest against Phoenix. Because the city had rejected DV Towing's protest over the contract rebid in May and again in June, the company's last recourse in the city's protest process was to file a complaint in Maricopa County Superior Court. The city's four police-towing contracts are worth millions of dollars. Competitors have complained that the city's decision to rebid the deal has allowed United Road Towing to continue its monopoly over towing services for at least another eight months, or until the City Council has awarded the four contracts. In April, Phoenix officials canceled the initial call for bids after determining it had been unclear. The council voted in May to issue a new call for bids on the four contracts. A single contractor could potentially win all four, according to the parameters the council set for the contracts. Each of the contracts will serve two police precincts. Phoenix officials expect to call for bids on the contracts in the next few weeks. Arizona Corporation Commission records show DV Towing is closely tied to another towing company, Unique Heavy Recovery, that complained about the city's bidding process. DV Towing's agent, Randy Shipley, is business partners with the general manager of Unique Heavy Recovery, Tim Dietz. Commission records also show the companies are owned by immediate family members: Ron McClure of DV Towing and his son, Jason McClure, of Unique Heavy Recovery. Their companies appear to share facilities throughout the Valley. Ron McClure declined to comment on the complaint Friday. |