Author: Clint Paulson

At its upcoming meeting, the City Council is expected to approve a sole source contract award to Van Lingen Towing to provide towing and storage services for the Torrance Police Department. Van Lingen is a long-time provider of such services to the City. The proposed contract is a for a three year period beginning December 13, 2016 with an option to extend the agreement for two additional years after that.

The Police Department requires towing services at traffic collisions, crime scenes, and to remove illegally parked vehicles. The Police Department also requires that impounded vehicles be kept secure after being towed. The contract will be at no-cost to the City as the costs for the towing and storage services will fall upon the vehicle owners.

The request for proposal (RFP) was sent to five local towing companies including Van Lingen, but only Van Lingen responded as the others indicated they could not meet the minimum requirements of the contract. Based on the staff report, it appears other companies were deterred by RFP requirements that the towing company have its own heavy lift equipment and that they maintain the towing and storage business within Torrance City limits.

One company, Carson City Towing, complained that there were no appropriate lots within the City that a new tow company could move into. The Community Development Department, however, rebutted that argument by advising that there are appropriately zoned sites within Torrance that could be utilized as a tow yard. Where those sites are and whether they are available for purchase or lease by a new tow company was not made known in the staff report.

Robert Van Lingen, the owner of Van Lingen Towing, is a well known contributor to candidates for the City Council often giving hefty sums to many of the candidates including significant contributions to all of the winners in the recent election (i.e. Milton Herring, Mike Griffiths, and Geoff Rizzo).

The Van Lingen family also made headlines earlier this year after it was reported that former Torrance Mayor Frank Scotto had sold his towing business to two sons of Van Lingen.

The Council is set to approve at its forthcoming meeting this Tuesday a series of annual sewer rate increases. The increases, if implemented, will likely double to triple the cost of service to the average consumer.  Under the proposal, initial rate increase will take effect as soon as 01 January 2017 and it is projected that a service that currently costs the average consumer $3.96 will jump to $8.05 by January 2018. That rate will then continue to go up through 2021.

The rate increase will yield substantial additional revenues for the City. The staff report indicates that revenues generated by the sewer rates are currently projected to yield $2.8 Million for FY 2017. Once the new rates come into effect, revenue is expected to increase by nearly $5 Million to $7.7 Million.

Under Proposition 218 revenues generated through sewer rates should be proportional to the costs it takes to provide the service. A public notice sent to affected residents indicates the increased revenue is needed to offset operating cost increases, to fund needed wastewater system infrastructure replacements, to implement new regulatory mandates, and to stabilize long-term wastewater rates.

Residents could block the proposed rate increases by a majority protest. For that to occur a majority (50% plus one) of account owners would have to submit a formal protest of the action to City Hall by the end of the public hearing to be held at the Council meeting this coming Tuesday. Protest forms, with instructions on how to complete them, were mailed to all account holders.

If the rate increase passes, it will apply to all residents receiving sewer collection service from the City of Torrance.

The School Board is proposing to extend their current terms of service by one year. The move will change TUSD School Board elections from odd years to even years. As a result, the next School Board election currently slated for November 2017 will be moved to November 2018.

The stated intent of the change is to comply with Senate Bill 415 and to enhance voter participation by holding the election on a date that coincides with statewide general elections. SB 415 passed the California legislature in 2015 and requires local municipalities and School Districts to consolidate local elections with statewide elections if holding an election on a non-concurrent date has previously resulted in voter turnout for a regularly scheduled election in that political subdivision being at least 25% less than the average voter turnout within the political subdivision for the previous 4 statewide general elections.

Torrance state representative David Hadley, who recently lost his re-election bid to Al Muratsuchi, had opposed SB 415 expressing concern that consolidating city and state elections would mean fewer volunteers and higher costs for the municipal candidates. He was quoted at the time as saying, “This bill would transform the election process and governance of a number of these cities. In many of our cities, it is relatively inexpensive to run for office.”

No information is provided in the TUSD staff report indicating whether turnout for the last School Board election was 25% less than the average turnout for the previous 4 statewide general elections thereby subjecting TUSD to the election consolidation mandated by SB 415. Under SB 415, local entities not meeting the voter participation requirement also have until November 2022 to make the change.

If the measure is approved, it will extend the terms of service for Mrs. Deutsch, Mr. Steffen, and Mr. Wermers to November 2018 instead of the earlier November 2017. The terms of service for Mr. Lee and Mrs. Ragins will also be extended to November 2020 instead of November 2019.

The Board will discuss the matter at tonight’s meeting.