Council Set to Approve Sole Source Contract with Van Lingen Towing

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.

6 comments

  • Bill M

    Secure??? Mine and wife’s expensive sun glasses went missing when our car was towed to Van Linden facility on Lomita Blvd. They knew nothing about them.

  • Anonymous

    Omg are you just out of things to write? Have you ever met the Van Lingens???? Fine people who don’t deserve this kind of speculation. The end of your post is just an attempt to rile people up…

    • Guest

      What speculations? The end of the post is called reporting facts!!

    • I am definitely not out of things to write, but unfortunately I am short on the time it would take to write them. I did not make any speculations in my article. My intent was to provide some factual information surrounding an agenda item that was before the Council this evening. People can draw their own conclusions.

    • Ken christiansen

      If you want to see some facts about Van Lingens tow and Frank Scotto watch the city counsel meeting tonight.

  • Anonymous

    They contribute to candidates? Bought another business? Who cares? Have they ever done anything wrong?

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