David Brauer wrote: Again, all I seek is a reasonable limit on private towing fees; reasonable includes building in the cost of city rules.
But c'mon - Cathy Leighton's $300 fee is shocking! As Jan said, I hope councilmembers are listening. At the very least, I would STRONGLY advocate that any parking lot with a towing contract be required to post the fee amount in the lot. Mark Anderson responds: David is correct -- there needs to be some regulation of these fees. Otherwise, what's to stop a towing company from charging $1000 to get your car out of hock? In my opinion, this NOT like usury laws; in that case the government is butting in between two willing parties and saying NO! With the towing situation, there is only one willing party. I understand that if I park illegally in a private lot, that the business has a claim against me. But why does that give them a right to steal my car? (Even if they contract out this theft to a towing company) And when the tow company locks up my car in their lot, why can't I ask a cop to make 'em give it back, because it's MY car?! Okay, these are rhetorical questions; I realize the businesses need some way to punish offenders without taking them to court. But I think the power has gone too far to the business side. I am very interested in the law that allows the towing and any restrictions on the towing company. I found Bill Cullen's statutory quote interesting, but it didn't say anything about what price the tow-ers could charge to get your car out of hock. I don't have a lot of faith in our fair City to set a reasonable price, but I have even less faith in price setting by a private enterprise that has no incentive to keep the price down. This is not the free market we're talking about here; this issue is about a legal dispute between two parties, with one party apparently having the right to fine the other whatever it sees fit. Mark V Anderson Bancroft REMINDERS: 1. Think a member has violated the rules? Email the list manager at [EMAIL PROTECTED] before continuing it on the list. 2. Don't feed the troll! Ignore obvious flame-bait. For state and national discussions see: http://e-democracy.org/discuss.html For external forums, see: http://e-democracy.org/mninteract ________________________________ Minneapolis Issues Forum - A City-focused Civic Discussion - Mn E-Democracy Post messages to: mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Subscribe, Un-subscribe, etc. at: http://e-democracy.org/mpls
