County leaders weigh options in ‘second-signature’ towing proposal

Some say requiring real-time, in-person authorization of tows from private property is a needed consumer protection.

Others, however, believe it can endanger those working in local retail outlets, apartment-management offices and other front-line businesses.

Later this month, Arlington County Board members will have to decide which side has the better argument.

Following changes in state law providing localities with more discretion on towing issues, Arlington officials are considering whether to add a "second-signature" requirement to the county's trespass-towing ordinance .

If enacted, it would require that, during regular business hours, a representative of the location where towing takes place give real-time authorization for the tow.

That would be the "second" signature. The first signature would be the original contract signed between property owner and towing company.

Opting to impose a second-signature rule would put Board members at odds with their own advisory body on towing matters.

"We didn't support it," Trespass Towing Advisory Board (TTAB) chair David Kennedy told Board members on Oct. 19 , when preliminary steps were taken in advance of a Nov. 16 public hearing and vote.

TTAB members listened to both sides of the issue at their early-October meeting, Kennedy said, and unanimously concluded that a second-signature requirement was not warranted.

"It actually can lead to violence," he said.

That was the same argument made by several business organizations at the Oct. 19 meeting.

Slowing the towing process, and putting employees of businesses where the tow is taking place in the middle, is a danger, said John Musso, government-affairs manager for the Arlington Chamber of Commerce.

"There are clear safety concerns," he told Board members. "These can be dangerous situations at times."

Scott Pedowitz, representing the Apartment & Office Building Association of Greater Washington, had a similar argument.

"In an emotional situation, passions run high," he said. "That is a serious concern."

Pedowitz asked Board members to "put a lot of stock" in the conclusion of the TTAB, which includes representatives of the public, towing industry and county police department.

But Del. Alfonso Lopez (D), who successfully backed towing legislation in Richmond earlier this year, said second-signature requirements already are in place in the Hampton Roads area with "no major issues."

"It actually helps the businesses," he told Board members.

On Oct. 19, County Board members opted to keep the second-signature provision in the legal advertisement that will precede the Nov. 16 meeting.

Leaving the requirement in "gives us time to talk about it," Chair Libby Garvey said, but does not mandate it will be incorporated into the final action.

"It could be taken out at adoption," said Garvey, who seemed to be hunting for a compromise, such as allowing virtual second signatures.

While not giving an indication how she might vote, Board member Maureen Coffey acknowledged that towing episodes hold the potential for danger.

"You just don't know" what might happen, she said.

This will not be the first time a second-signature battle has raged in Arlington. In 2016, one was proposed, drawing many of the same concerns that are being leveled at the current incarnation.

Of the five current members of the Board, only Garvey was in office at that time.