City Council - Regular Meeting

¦ ¦ ¶¶ Thank you. ¶¶ Thank you. ¶¶

go ahead and call this special meeting to order at 432 p.m. welcome everyone so today is one topic and one topic only this is a follow-up to our our deliberation at our last City Council meeting and before we do that let's move into City Council roll call

Council Member Bowie?

Here.

Council Member Constantine? Here. Council Member Grandes? Here. Vice Mayor, Vice Chair Harper?

Here.

Mayor, Chair Kenean? Here. All members are present. Thank you.

Next is public comments. And we'll go ahead and.

Do you want to have public comments before? Because the only public comments are for the agendized item. There's no non-agendized public comments. Do you want to have it before the presentation or after the presentation?

We could do presentation first. It's just in the order of the agenda. OK. Why don't we go ahead and have a presentation by, so discussion regarding the procurement process and towing services request for proposal. Presentation by our finance director, Ryan Smith. Welcome.

Good afternoon, mayor, council members. So today I'm going to generally go through our procurement process and the towing RFP that was conducted. So in general, we have two types of competitive procurement methods that we use. One is an RFP process. This is used when qualifications, methods, and approach matter, not just price alone. There's multi-criteria that we evaluate. The awards are based on qualifications, and this is really governed by our purchasing policy, our municipal code, and any applicable policies that go with the item. The other type of procurement is a public works competitive bid, and this is required by California law on any capital improvements, building improvements, and these awards have to go to the lowest responsive and responsible bidder. There's very little discretion that the city has in these types of bids, and it's governed mainly by the California contract code. And they also have a lot of other requirements that may apply, such as prevailing wage, bonding, those types of things. So the Police Towing Services RFP was issued in April. And this was for a towing service contract for two vendors beginning July 1st. The term is for five years. The format is a revenue contract. So that's important that it's a revenue contract that the city goes into an agreement to share the receipts in exchange for the exclusive right to provide the service in the city. The governing authority on this is our municipal code and our towing policy guidelines. This was advertised on planet bids and city website. We received six firms downloaded the RFP and four responded. So our evaluations went through two rounds. First was evaluating the proposals, and this was done based on the qualifications, work plans, past performance, references. And the second round of evaluations was on a facilities inspection that was done by the police department. So based on our panel's evaluation, staff's recommendation was, and council approved, awarding contracts to G&W Towing and Southside Towing. So the fiscal impact of this contract, again, this was a revenue contract. So instead of the city paying for services, the city enters an agreement to share the revenues associated with the towing of vehicles as directed by the police department. The towing fees are paid directly by the vehicle owners and operators, and this creates ongoing general fund revenue for the city. So questions arose at the last council meeting about requirements in the RFP, specifically about a five-mile radius. And since this is an RFP, the city retains the discretion for how we apply the requirements. Whether we decide to move on a proposal that doesn't meet all the requirements or stop evaluating and end it there with that firm is completely up to the city's discretion. As it was discussed in the RFP, all requirements must be met at the time of proposal. If these requirements are not met, the proposal may not receive further consideration as determined at the sole discretion of the city. So the city has discretion whether or not to move forward with a proposal or not based on the requirements that we have. So why did we move forward this time with the outer radius firm? One was preserved an expanded pool. And this is to ensure competitive and higher quality RFP results. And the second one was the firm was 0.3 miles outside of the five mile radius, which was determined to be within a total range to be able to still provide responsive service to the city. So the key takeaways, the procurement was correctly applied as an RFP format. This was a service that the city was looking for proposals. They went through a multi-round evaluation by an evaluating team. This included proposal evaluations and inspections. The RFP is a revenue contract, so the city collects revenue rather than paying for a service. And two firms were selected, mainly for their superior qualifications and ability to deliver a high level of service as determined by the evaluation team. So with that, I'm available for questions, as well as the police department. So if you have any questions.

Yeah, I actually want to start with just a quick clarification. So in the RFP, there's mention of the Fountain Valley Municipal Code chapters 4.85 and 10.76. Okay. And I just, I didn't look those up, but I was just wondering what kind of effect that had on the RFP process, actually referring to the municipal code.

I would need to know exactly what those sections say.

And maybe we can move on to other questions from council. Sorry to throw that at you, but caught that. Any other questions from council at this point?

Vice Mayor Harper.

So with regards to the evaluation team, how is that constructed? I mean, who's on the team? Is it multi-jurisdictional? How many people?

So the team on this evaluation, I believe I have it somewhere here. There's one lieutenant, one sergeant, and two corporals from our police department that were on that team.

Any other questions from council at this point?

I'm sorry, Ryan, was there also, you said the consultant has to do with part of the scoring or the evaluations of it, not just our officer?

No, it would just be the- Just want to clarify that. Okay, thank you.

OK. We can maybe move on to public comments, and we'll revisit some of the municipal code. Yeah.

Perfect. First speaker is Kelly Moses. For those of you who haven't spoke here, there's a board up here that says current items. Once you start speaking, a three-minute timer will start. When it goes red, it means your time is up.

So I just want to interject, and I think Mayor has a prerogative on the length of speaking. Is that correct, City Clerk Miller? You are correct. I would like to double your time to give you six minutes to speak, just for you. Okay.

Would you allow me to do three minutes now and three minutes at the end?

If you're more comfortable with that.

just because I've only prepared three minutes. In case you go over three and you have extra time starting with the clock. All right. Honorable Mayor and members of City Council, I appreciate you coming out for the emergency meeting. I'm here to address the approval of the service police contract service fees. First, I do want to apologize for my reaction to the vote on June 16th. I should have not let my emotions take over. I promise to be more respectful tonight. Best Towing has provided the city of Fountain Valley with police-directed towing for the past 40 years. Best Towing meets all the requirements related to storage. We have 24-hour-a-day on-site personnel, block wall with razor wire, electric security gates, 24-hour video surveillance. There's a log of any person that enters our secure lot, and all individuals are escorted to their vehicle and are never left unattended. In our outside evidence storage, we exceed the requirements. We have the ability to store 26 vehicles in a locked, secure garage with limited access to owners, managers, and dispatchers. In addition to our evidence storage, we also keep a separate file for each evidence vehicle. We record all notes in the file, but we also log everything in our computer system. We have one centrally located business, so it is much quicker and easier for people to retrieve their vehicle rather than go to multiple sites like Southside. In addition to meeting all the requirements, I believe the service we have provided to the City of Fountain Valley for over the past 40 years should be considered. We have always maintained a professional working environment and have done nothing that would warrant us not being awarded this contract. We are always open to making any adjustments requested by Fountain Valley PD. We have never been asked to make any additions or changes to our facility and the storage of our cars. We are currently storing five evidence vehicles from 2023, 24, and 25. Police have been to our facility multiple times and have always complimented us on our services. These actions alone tell us that Fountain Valley PD believes we are a secure evidence storage. If they didn't, why would they surely inform me that why would they not inform me that I may address any of their concerns and make the necessary changes. Also, we have never had any disciplinary action taken against us or a single written infraction made aware to us. I am sure in 40 years we have made mistakes, but nothing significant enough that Fountain Valley PD informed us that it may put our contract in jeopardy. After dedicating 40 years of service to Fountain Valley, I believe it is only right to allow us the opportunity to remedy your concerns rather than pulling the rug out from under us and putting my entire business in jeopardy. He did mention that they would make the exception for Southside to go beyond that five-mile radius. So I think that it's just fair to make the exception to revisit our facility and rescore us, given the fact that we have not had any instances with secured storage at our facility. And we have made some major improvements just in the last week and a half. So if you're going to make exceptions to one of your six minimum requirement rules, I believe that you surely should make an exception for Best Towing that has been here servicing the city for over 40 years. The officers love us. They love our drivers. They constantly say that we're their preferred towing contract that comes out to service. Just the fact that we have... We do AAA in Fountain Valley. So the people of Fountain Valley, they know us well. We're either there to help them when their car is dead and we have to jump start or we have to tow it to the mechanic. So when we show up at the scene of an accident, there's a feel of comfort because they already know Best Towing. They already know our company because they've used us. They trust us. They know that we are a trusted pillar of the community. They see our trucks. throughout your city, all day, every day. Southside is all the way past, almost to Hoag Hospital. They have nothing to do with Fountain Valley City like we have. We have the knowledge, and we have the entire package. We have everything that you require and then some. Like I said, I would. prefer that if we're going to make exceptions to the six minimum rules, because if you look at that, it has six minimum rules. If you don't meet the six minimum at the time of the proposal, they don't even look at you. So there's a whole list of other requirements that are required to get this service contract. But in those In the writing in that, you can ask us to commit to, say, installing a certain keypad that you want us to install. And we would commit to providing that service for you. So there is negotiations that the PD can do with the contractor that they see fit. So we've been a trusted contractor for 40 years. We will continue to be in your city every day for 40 more years with AAA. And so we ask that you please give us the opportunity to remain your police directed towing service. And you take into account the time that we've committed and the fact that you can negotiate with us. And we can promise to provide anything just like we did with memorial care the other night. There was a promise that they would do this or a promise that they would do that. I give you my word, my promise, my dad is here with us in this building and I can't let him down. I can't disappoint him. I can't disappoint all these guys behind me that rely on Best Towing Service and the revenue from this contract that brings in half a million dollars. If we lose a half a million dollars, what am I to do? We still do rotation for Huntington Beach PD and AAA. I still have to pay my $450,000 insurance bill. I still have to pay my worker's comp, my health insurance, my utilities. I can't get away from The expense by losing this contract, you're going to put me either out of business or you're going to put these fine gentlemen that have been here for 20, 30, 40 years that have provided this. They're first responders. They're putting their lives at risk every day that they come out.

Kelly, that's six minutes.

Perfect. Can I just say my one last sentence?

Sure.

I am asking for you to review the facts I have brought to your attention. I ask the committee to re-evaluate our facility and revise their recommendations to award Best Towing and GNW the towing contract. Thank you for your time.

Brian Seitz. I wasn't sure.

Here's the blue card.

Oh. Welcome. Yeah, thank you. Good evening, Mayor and city council members. And I want to especially say thank you, and I appreciate the officers that are behind me. My name's Brian Seitz. I served as a police officer for 32 years, including 27 years with the Huntington Beach Police Department. I retired a few years ago as a captain. And I want you to know I enjoyed every minute of it, but it's okay to be retired as well. I'm here tonight because I have a firsthand experience working alongside Bestow for nearly three decades. I also think it's important to be transparent and I've known Dave Moses since high school. And his wife, Kelly, for years, and the three of us, my wife included, the four of us, still attend the same church. And I ran into him a few weeks ago, and that's how I heard about this situation and offered to come down and speak on their behalf. I'm here because I want to address what I personally witnessed throughout my law enforcement career. When officers are handling collisions, disabled vehicles, DUI arrests, crime scenes, or difficult roadside situations, the tow company often acts as an extension of the police department. Reliability, professionalism, response time, sound judgment, and integrity matter to us, and I'm confident it matters to Fountain Valley Police Department as well. Those qualities affect our officers, it affects our officer safety, and it affects the public and the public safety. And the confidence our public has in its police community is often reflected through that tow company. Over the years that I saw, that I witnessed, Best Towing was a good ambassador. They were professional, they treated people with respect, they worked cooperatively with our police officers, and they worked under some very difficult circumstances. They earned my trust, at least, throughout those years. I understand that contracts need to be reviewed and evaluated, and as a retired captain, I've been through the RFP process many times. But I would simply encourage you guys to give significant weight to a track record that's 40 years long. And I don't know what happened. I heard a little bit. I don't know what happened to get you to this moment. But that track record's not three months long or six months long. It's 40 years long. And in public safety, consistency and trust are built over years. And those qualities should never be overlooked. So thank you for your time. I wish you well.

Mark Salas.

Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council, my name is Mark. I have worked for the Best Towing Service for the past five years. I'm here to show support and give you some insight into Best Towing Service. Releasing of an impound or stored vehicle and personnel property is available 24 hours a day. Access to the public is controlled through the front office. Security is maintained with video surveillance equipment. The office is staffed 24 hours a day. For customer comfort, into storage and logged into inventory and assigned an internal control number which follows it throughout the storage. Lean and release process, any vehicle can be located in our system by several means. license number, VIN number, date of loss, or DR number. This is an indicator for needing a release form. They must have a government issued photo ID that matches the name. Any request for personal property to be removed from an impound or police stored vehicle requires proof of registered owner and also requires a government issued photo ID. If the registered owner wants to put a tarp over the vehicle, they may do so. The registered owner may retrieve any personal item from the vehicle with the proper identification. They may also give authorization for others to retrieve personal items or take photos. Anyone that comes through our yard has to present ID and sign paperwork. Whether it's released, getting personals, taking photos, no one is allowed back to their vehicle without these documents. We know every time someone comes into our facility, so to maintain an accurate chain of custody. All paper records are filed according to the internal control number and kept for at least seven years. Dispatch keeps a written record of every call, time in, time on scene, time in tow, and time finished. The record is also recorded through tow books, our computer program that keeps track of all data and inventory. We are also able to send monthly reports to Fountain Valley PD of released vehicles requested. This company has allowed me the opportunity to provide for my family. Callie has been there to support me through all my ups and downs. She really cares about her employees. She is in hands on with an open door policy. Thank you for your time.

Travis Axel.

Welcome. Mayor, city mayor, council members. My name is Travis Axel. I've been employed at Best Towing for two years now. I'm here just to show my support and give you some insight on Best Towing. When I first started here at Best Towing, I came from scratch. I had nothing about towing. I knew nothing about towing. And they had trained me for a flatbed tow truck driver. I loved working for Best. I thought I would never leave. I had to make some personal decisions for my family, and I moved to Arizona have a career in the police force for an officer. When things didn't go my way and work out for me, I texted Kelly Wednesday night at 7 PM. And I asked, I texted her, I said, can I come back to Best Towing? She said, absolutely. If you're serious, come home. And within ten days, I moved back to California in Huntington Beach and was working for Best Towing. Working at Best is like no other job. It feels like I'm home. They care about us individually more than I have worked for another company in my life. And I've worked for a lot of companies and I've never felt that love before besides working for Best Towing. I don't want to see... There's not a better company to work for than Best Towing and I've never had... a boss or an owner love me personally and care about me more than I have with Kelly and her husband. So yeah, I just wanted to give my support and say thank you.

Ricky Popka.

Welcome. All right. Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council, my name is Ricky Popoka, and I'm here to address the approval of the service contract for police towing services. I want to address the five-mile radius from the address 10200 Slater Avenue. Officer Pratt stated that she asked for clarification, which you cannot get any clearer than the exact address in which Southside falls out of the radius. I went back and pulled up the agenda items from the 2020 contract, and the language is exactly the same except two sentences that were intentionally left out to mislead the city council members. In 2020, the sentences read, at the start of the proposal evaluation, all towing facilities were verified. if they were located within a five-mile radius as required by the RFP and the city needs. Out of the eight proposals, two were disqualified for being outside the five-mile radius requirements. The chart shows that Southside was disqualified and the proposal was rejected without any further consideration. There's really no room for interpretation when you're talking about addresses and locations as buildings do not move. As well, there's an opportunity to ask questions and the answers are given by deadline and all companies submitting their proposal must sign off acknowledging that they have read the addendum. The 2020 RFP contained the following question and answer. Does the tow yard have to be within a five mile radius of 10200 Slater Avenue, Fountain Valley, 92708? And the answer was yes. The business office and tow yard need to be within a five mile radius of the police department. In addition, I would like to bring to your attention the scoring for the visual view of outdoor storage and indoor storage, vehicle capacity, which is indoor and outdoor. distribution of towed vehicles, who has access to storage facilities, surveillance resources available for vehicle damage inspections, customer service and driving distance. From 2020 to 2026 and how it drastically changed when our facility has never changed. In 2020, G&W scored an average of 90%, while Best Towing scored an average of 88%. So we have a 2% difference there. In 2026, GNW scored an average of 86%, and Best Towing scored an average of 58%. So that 2% difference jumping to a 28% difference when the facilities have not changed. These are the facts. The rules spelled out intentionally. The rules are spelled out intentionally, so there is no confusion. In 2020, Southside was disqualified. Their application and site were not even considered. Southside knows they were outside of the radius and do not meet the minimum requirements, so I don't understand how they were even submitting their proposal. And I guess I got 13 seconds. So the last thing was noticing that the firm was 0.3 miles outside of the radius. If you go on Google Maps, it's about just under seven miles. So, I mean, if you're thinking about someone having to drive, getting their car towed already sucks. Having to go that far, even worse.

Ricky, your time's up.

Yeah, thank you.

Nick Polasek.

Welcome. Thank you. Hello. My name is Nick. I'm here to support Best Towing Service. At the city council meeting held on June 16, Sergeant Pratt presented the recommendations to the council for the towing contract. At that time, we had four people from Best Towing speak to the council, and then Sergeant Pratt was asked to return to the podium for questions. Multiple council members questioned if Southside meets the minimum requirements. The map shows they do not. and the city attorney was asked if we break the rule and allow a company outside of the radius, what does that mean for future rules? The city attorney confirmed they are outside the radius as the crow flies and that if we break this rule and make an exception for Southside, then we open ourselves up to scrutiny from other companies that would have for other companies that would have bid. It was very late past midnight and the mayor closed advising any company that does not win the bid should not do a bid protest and ask for a debrief from the police. This incentivized members to just vote on it and we can work it out after. Kelly and Dave Moses went to City Hall on that Thursday, June 18th and spoke to Rick Miller, City Clerk. asking what forms we need to fill out and what the deadline is to file a bid protest. He did not have the answer that day and said the timeline would not start until we have given that information. Rick allowed us 45 minutes to discuss the multiple issue you heard tonight and promised that he would take the concerns to the chief and city attorney and it would be thoroughly investigated. I want to thank Rick Miller for all his communication and throughout this process. We also called and emailed the chief asking to meet with him to discuss what happened. He responded that we, should continue and communicate through Rick and did not schedule a time for a debrief with Best. We later found out that we are not eligible to do a bid protest because this was an RFP. And the only thing we could do was retain an attorney and go through the courts or get the mayor to call an emergency meeting and have the council members hear from Best and try to make them see that awarding Southside the towing contract would be the wrong decision and to really listen and see everything we have brought to this meeting and change their mind. Best Towing does not want to get attorneys involved and sue the city. All we want is to have our 40-year contract renewed so that we are able to prove to the city that they made the best decision. It's simple. The contract has not been signed. You still have the ability to award Best Towing or at the very least extend the current contract while taking more time to investigate and inform decision. And I'd just like to say that I've known the Moses family for a very long time. And both as friends, they've helped me throughout my life a lot. And even as a towing company, they've saved me a couple times. So just wanted to add that there as well. Thank you so much.

Martin Young.

Welcome, Mayor, Council. This is kind of a weird meeting, but... We provide service to the officers. We go out in the middle of the night, raining, freezing cold, hot, dangerous situations at all hours. This crew has been doing it on time and without fail. for 40 years i've been here for eight years and we haven't missed once on any of them and to have this our crew that take it away it's like an extension of us it's like we work with the police and all of a sudden we're taken out when we feel we've been doing the best we can which has been no problems All the officers like us were out there all the time with them. And this was, to hear news that we could lose our contract was devastating. I mean, it was kicking the gut because we try so hard. I just want you guys to consider that.

Thank you. Thank you, Mark. Marco Ramirez.

Welcome. Thank you.

Honorable Mayor and members of the council, my name is Marco Ramirez. I have been employed by Best Towing Service for 25 years, and I am here to show my support to Best Towing. I want to address the many reasons Best Join is better suited to serve the city of Fountain Valley. Best Join service started in Fountain Valley by John Vaughan. He started with a few trucks and a dirt lot and went on to invest in a large security facility to provide the best to the city of Fountain Valley. Best Towing Service has been towing for the City since 1982, more than 40 years, and never once has a disciplinary action taken place. We are a trusted pillar in the community. We service the City of Fountain Valley every day through AAA and police towing. The people who live and work in the city know BestJoin because we show up to help them through AAA along with being there for the for them when they get into an accident and the police call us to assist them. The people know and trust us because of the relationship we build. I feel This is a major asset best to bring by awarding that contractor to Southside. You are bringing a company into your city that does not work there daily. They have not built a relationship. They are unknown to the people of the city. I know that there was mention of best not having indoor storage space that Southside has to offer. That is simply not true. As you have seen, today we have a secure storage space for 26 vehicles. At the last meeting, you were told that we shared that space with HB and CHB. We actually... Only store inside evidence vehicles for Fountain Valley and Huntington Beach Police Department. GMW Towing and Southside both have police directed towing contracted for four or more different agencies to the storage space they have to offer would be shared by at least five different cities.

Marco, your time is up. Thank you. Sorry. Andrew Brown.

Welcome. Honorable Mayor and member of the City Council, my name is Andrew Brown. I've been employed with Best Towing for five and a half years. I'm here to show my support and give some insight on Best Towing. We currently have 23 full-time drivers, four full-time dispatchers, two full-time office personnel and one company manager, a yard supervisor and a full-time mechanic. All vehicles are maintained by our mechanic in-house. All services are done in-house as well. Having drivers with tow trucks available at all times makes it easier for us to respond to any police request at any time. They leave their trucks at the storage facility on their days off for routine maintenance. Our drivers are responsible for a weekly truck inspection and a monthly equipment check as well. and we also have to notify our mechanic of any problems as they occur. Our mechanic keeps the repair log for any vehicle and the need of the routine maintenance. A storage room is kept stocked with brooms, shovels, straps, etc. for any driver needs. Best Towing employs 23 full-time drivers. Usually 14 drivers are on shift at any time throughout the day. That's more than enough to completely cover the city. A 20 minute response time is no problem with Best Towing. Most of our drivers live within the city limits, such as myself, and can respond to any allotted time frame. Calls are rotated amongst the drivers as they are received. If the driver feels they cannot respond to the request within the time frame, we will pass the call to somebody who can. Our drivers communicate with each other very effectively and help each other whenever they need it. Our communication center is completely computerized with the internet access for mapping and road traffic conditions. Dispatch is covered 24 hours a day. We never use an answering service. There's always somebody there. Communication between dispatch and drivers is by two-way radio. Our drivers can be contacted by any company phones or cell phone as well. Kelly also carries her radio at all times from home and basically everywhere she goes. All phone lines transfer to her house and or cell phone. This allows her to take over the phones for dispatch at any emergency. Communication with the police dispatches through a dedicated landline and another dedicated landline is available for contact with AAA. Our standard response to a police tow request is 10 to 15 minutes. Police tow requests take priority over all other calls, and most drivers that we have here reside within Huntington Beach or Fountain Valley. They have extensive knowledge of the area in which they work. Thank you.

Nick Schrieffels.

Welcome. Thank you. Members of council, thank you. My name is Nick Schreifels. I've been employed at Best for the past nine years and want to show support and insight into Best Towing. On a personal side, I had a serious medical issue last November. This emergency surgery saved my life but still have not been able to return to work. Just to tell you a little bit about my boss, Kelly, and how she just cares for me and all of us. She's continued to take care of my health insurance for the past eight months out of her own pocket. As I continue to get better and be ready to return to work, there's nothing more that I want to show my appreciation and return to work. Sorry. Our computerized dispatch system is very thorough, making it easy to understand. Any employee can look at the screen and know which calls are waiting, driver on scene, and tow or who is complete. Call takers can receive all information and input into the network system, and the call is sent to the dispatcher. The first available driver or with the appropriate truck and equipment is sent to that location. The driver then notifies the dispatcher of the ETA. Dispatch keeps a record of every call in time, time dispatched, time on scene, completion time. All of our record keeping is accessible through internet access. We are able to utilize the system to do a hands-on inventory of every vehicle in our possession every two weeks. This allows us to maintain an accurate account of every vehicle that comes in and out of our yard. I feel the key to our success of being selected to provide towing services to the city of Fountain Valley is keeping our drivers trained with the newest procedures to ensure safe, undamaged service, while maintaining a professional relationship and work well alongside with the city personnel, whether it be over the phone, on the scene, communicating with records, or providing the city with anything they request of us. How we address quality control, each driver is held accountable for their actions. We have an extensive employee handbook, which details our company policies and disciplinary actions. We also hold employee reviews yearly and with quarterly meetings. We are always willing to work with PD to do the best job possible for the city. Thank you.

Jorge Ramirez.

Welcome.

Thank you. Good evening, Your Honor, Mayor, and Council members. My name is Jorge Ramirez. I'm 50 years old. I've been employed with Bestow for 26 years. And this 26 years, I've worked and interacted with many officers from Fountain Valley, Highland Beach, CHP, state parks. I've learned how to work regular accidents, parking control stuff, and how to handle fatalities in a professional way. I've never had a problem with any officer, and actually I've been complimented multiple times on how I've done my job. I would like to continue working for the city of Fountain Valley, for your community. It's a beautiful city. We love Fountain Valley. And also, they've been talking about the radius. Southside being 0.3. miles out of the radius. But I would like for you guys to pull out your phone and enter their address. You could actually see they're actually at 6.7 miles from here. That 5.3, if you would drive directly through Houses, Santa Ana River, Goat Hill, and straight to Placentia. So I don't know if that makes a difference, because now if you go through the actual street, it's 6.7 miles. So there would be more than 5.3. And, you know, we would like the opportunity to continue working for Fountain Valley. Thank you for your time. Jim Van Dorn.

Council Members. So I'm in a unique position. I've worked for Best Towing for 21 years, and I'm a flatbed driver. But we have lots of drivers here to give you our perspective as a driver. But Shirley is our night dispatcher, and she really wanted to get her point across, so I brought her statement for her. My name's Shirley Jenkins, and I'm one of the night dispatchers at Best Towing Service. I've been employed here for seven years and counting. I have been an emergency road service dispatcher consecutively since 1991. I have worked for seven different tow companies including Best Towing, In that time frame, all the other towing companies were in Los Angeles County. Best is the only tow company that I worked for in Orange County. One of the reasons I picked Best to work for is the same reason I've remained in this industry for so long, is because I have had the good fortune to work for companies that have outstanding records for being professional and providing good service. Showing pride in providing a good work environment is important to me. I know many companies that operate under the radar and underhandedly, but Best Towing Service is not one of those types of companies. We have a AAA contract as well, and AAA has high expectations and standards that we require to provide good and professional service. The employees in the office as well as the employees in the field operate with that level of professionalism for Huntington Beach PD, CHP, and Fountain Valley Police Department. That's our company policy. We're provided with the correct equipment and tow vehicles to service the customers, whether it's AAA or police agencies. All information received from the police department is documented with detail and the request for service is sent to our tow drivers. When we are requested on the scene, we operate with a great sense of urgency. Our goal is to arrive on scene no longer than 20 minutes and most of the time it's less. Many of our tow drivers have been working for Best Towing Service longer than me and are very knowledgeable and able to get the job done. We have safe, clean, secure storage lot, all the vehicles, are able to be taken care of. As a collective we follow all rules and procedures required by all the agencies and the storage procedures. Dave and Kelly are great. They are very fair and knowledgeable people that treat their employees and customers with dignity and professionalism. I will be here. until I retire in two years. Thank you.

Michael Reza.

Welcome. Hello, thank you. All right, honorable mayor and members of the city council, my name is Mike Reza. I've been working with Best Towing for about 13 years now. I'm here just so support for the company and the family that runs it. So I did feel necessary that out, I know a lot of people in the tow industry. So I've been hearing a lot about there could have been some bribery involved in the whole bid contracting. I don't know if it's true or not, but I did hear about it. I don't want to mention any names or anything, but I mean, that is out there that it was around $10,000 that was given to somebody. I don't know if that's true or not. So I did share this with my boss, my manager, which is Kelly Moses. There she had an emergency meeting just to basically make everybody aware of what is being heard and said out there in the streets. I guess she must have known about this before me because I didn't know about it until I was told in the streets about it. Let's see, she was very disappointed that this was the way her employees found out about the vote to approve Southside over us. She was very transparent. about what had happened and what she plans to do about it. I know Kelly will fight for us as her employees and will not allow this to happen, at least that's what we're hoping for. I'm here asking you to reconsider the decision to award Southside the towing contract. Please do not allow this contract to be signed and go into effect at midnight tonight. After 40 years of service, I asked the police chief and council members to extend the current contract and allow best towing service to be re-evaluated and given the opportunity to continue serving the Fountain Valley Police Department and those that live and work in the city. And that's it.

Thank you. Steve Homsony.

Welcome.

Thank you. Mr. Mayor, city council members. My name is Steve. I am the full-time mechanic for this company. I have been with this company for 43 years. There's a reason why I've been here for 43 years, because her father and Kelly and Dave are very good people. Wouldn't be here had opportunities to go other places, always stayed with them because they're genuine. They take care of their people. They're there for you. They treat people right, and it shows up in how the business is run. Now to explain something about how we take care of the vehicles, I notice this hasn't been brought up. Our vehicles go through many safety inspections, CHP requirements. Our vehicles are inspected every 90 days. goes through an intensive list. I can share that with all the members if you would like. And then once a year, all the vehicles go to the CHP to be inspected by their officers. To pass that test is not easy. It is very involved, and a truck can fail for the smallest thing, as much as a light bulb out. So we pass this test regularly. We have never been red flagged for a vehicle or anything else. Each vehicle is documented. I can show you everything that we have. Everything maintenance-wise is recorded, written down. If the truck ever needs anything, it happens to be a very expensive repair. Kelly never flinches when I come to her and tell her, hey, this is going to cost $8,000 to fix. It's just how long before you can have it fixed and up and running. So her dedication to this business is like her father's. He's very dedicated. She works hard, especially in a very male-run business. For her to come in as a woman, she's gone through a lot. She gets stereotyped like, oh, she's just a girl, doesn't know what's going on. So it's a tough industry, but she has stood up to it, and she has done great. She cares about everything that goes on. She's passionate, and she's doing her father proud. I was here when we started with Fountain Valley PD. I know what this company went through to go through this, the changes that we made, building this business from a single tow truck to what it is now. We're passionate about it, and I think we deserve a chance. Forty-plus years of service to get cut off is not right. I would request that you rethink your thoughts on this and give us the opportunity. I think we've earned that. Thank you for your time.

Kent Heminovir.

Welcome. Thank you. Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council, my name is Kent Hamanover and I'm a dispatch driver manager at Bess Towing Service. I've been employed at Bess for 20 years and I've never had a complaint from Huntington Beach Police Department, CHP, AAA, or Fountain Valley PD regarding our ability to securely store vehicles. I want to stress to you the importance of having the full package. Best towing not only meets all the requirements set forth in the RFP, but we have something that others do not. We have been servicing the city of Fountain Valley for over 40 years. This business was built by John Vaughn when he started at a gas station on Magnolia and Garfield. Joined forces with Fountain Valley PD, To be the police directed towing company back in 1982, the city of Fountain Valley prides itself on supporting businesses that work in the city. To go against our own rule and allowing an outside company into the city and taking this contract away from the company that has provided excellent service for over 40 years will impact the business so severely. we may not recover, which inevitably will put us out of business. The loss of this contract we have worked so hard to build will result in more than a 25% loss in revenue, which we cannot afford to lose. You will hear from multiple employees that, or have heard, that have dedicated their lives servicing the people of Fountain Valley. Our employees are our family. They put their lives at risk every day helping those that live and work in Fountain Valley. Our employees know the city, the people of Fountain Valley, and Best Towing Service. We have become a pillar in the community through the relationship we built with the police department and the officers and AAA members. When we arrive on a scene, the officers have confidence in our company members. And our drivers as well as public feel safe and taken care of because they already know our company through AAA calls. They know we are trustworthy and honest. I am here asking you to reconsider the dedication we have given to working alongside police. There was mention at least council meeting that we need to trust the police. I completely agree. We are here to work with the police and support them however they need. I know that the city and police have the authority to award the contract to Best Towing Service because we meet all the requirements. They can also negotiate about our inside storage facility. Best Towing was provided- Ken, your time's up. Okay. Sorry. All right, thank you. Matt Brannon?

Welcome.

Honorable Mayor and members of City Council, my name is Matt Brannon. I have been employed at Best Towing for nine years. I'm here to show my support and give some insight into Best Towing. I'm going to take this three minutes to help illustrate how important Kelly and Dave Moses are to me, their family, their family to all of us. I think I can say for all of us. Over the years I have grown up in service, they have truly treated me like family. Most recently I had a personal struggle and a disaster which involved me and my son. I was able to call Kelly at any time on or off duty and she would help me. Knowing it was not business related at all, she listened to me, she gave me advice, helped me financially. She even bought me and my son new clothes and provided us shelter in our time of need when I had lost everything. Dave and Kelly have been there for me in so many ways, more than a boss could ever do. She is family. I am always able to go to Dave Moses and talk to him about life and God and our passion for Jesus and the role that he plays in our lives. The relationships I have built with every single person in this building is invaluable to me, and I wouldn't trade it for the world. They're truly great people, running an honest business, providing help all over the city of Fountain Valley every single day. This is the type of business owner you want in your city, providing service to the fellow public. Kelly would do anything the PD asks us to do for them to be satisfied, for us to retain the contract. As a driver, I can attest that the police officers love every single one of us. We have built personal relationships with them on and off duty. Most of us see several police officers off duty and they recognize us because we live in the corresponding areas. I just can't believe that they would want to throw everything away that we had built in 40 years to bring an outside company into Fountain Valley to lose the contract that would be detrimental to my family and every single family in here. I rely on the revenue of this contract to feed my family. We all do. Most importantly, Best Towing is the only towing company running the AAA calls, all AAA calls, in Fountain Valley. We work this city. No other tow company is in this city. We would like to keep it that way, and we are prideful of that. So please, do not make the mistake. It is never too late to make things right. Thank you for your time.

Madison Moses.

Welcome.

Here are some photos. Hello again. Thank you for meeting with us. I wanted to be here tonight to support what is being presented to you. You have been informed that Southside Towing does not meet the minimum requirement per page 749. Toe operators should submit documentation to meet the following minimum requirements. All requirements must be met at the time of the proposal. If these requirements are not met, the proposal may not receive further consideration. Business office must be located within five mile radius of Fountain Valley Police Department. 10200 Slater Avenue, Fountain Valley. I have printed out photos for you to physically see the five mile radius in green. You can see Southside is located on the far south side of Costa Mesa bordering Newport Beach. I have also printed out a zoomed in image showing the radius that they must be in colored green. And it clearly shows Southside is outside the five mile radius, which will automatically disqualify them. This is the main reason Southside should not be awarded the contract. There is a reason there are six minimum requirements. If you do not meet the minimum at the time of the proposal, the proposal should be thrown out and not even considered. It states that all revisions of the RFP by the city will be made in writing and will be posted on PlanetBids in accordance with the procurement schedule. If you wanted to change the requirements to say six mile radius, this should have been done prior to the submittal date. At this point, if you want to change the rules, you can do so in five years when the next RFP comes up. I also want to bring to your attention the inside storage evidence. Southside has 1,300 square feet of indoor storage at their business address. Their other inside storage is located at different addresses. Best Towing has an enclosed windowless impound garage that can fit six vehicles. It is locked with a dead pole at all times and well lit. In addition, we have an enclosed warehouse garage that can accommodate 20 vehicles to be stored as inside evidence. This warehouse has a keypad entry. The only people that have access to these garages are owners, managers and dispatchers. So someone is always on site to allow police in at their request. Our outside storage is approximately 105,000 square feet with the ability to store over 300 vehicles. As you can see, we exceed the requirements for storage. I ask that the evaluation team come out and reevaluate our facility while remembering the many other qualifications that set us above what Southside can offer. You will hear from multiple people why best towing service is the best choice to serve the city of Fountain Valley. I ask that you hear what they say, take it to heart, and remember the dedication they have given to the city of Fountain Valley. Thank you.

Amir Toddy.

Welcome.

Honorable Mayor, council members, thank you very much for allowing me to come up here and speak. My name is Amar Toudy. I've been employed with Best Towing for 23 years. I came to this job with computer experience and some other experience. Her father hired me, Mr. John Vaughn. Expecting me not to do that good because I came from computer backgrounds, but I learned the job. I'm doing very good. I've left the company. I've come back. They've rehired me three times with open arms every time. This family standing behind us, including their kids, And the brother, Mr. Rob Vaughn, are very caring people. They do everything, as you heard from numerous drivers so far, they will do everything and anything for us. And that extends into the city. The police officers love us. We love them. The community loves us, as you heard from other drivers. AAA calls are taken in the city of Fountain Valley and a lot of times we do repeat calls and people remember us. They love us from the bottom of their hearts and they tell us truthfully they love us. I'm not just saying this to try to impress anyone here. We work hard for the city of Fountain Valley. We want to provide very, very good service for them and I think we are. For whatever's going on in the city, I hope that the city of Fountain Valley reconsiders that best towing is the best job for this city. Thank you very much. Dave Moses.

Welcome.

Thank you, sir.

Honorable Mayor and City Council members, my name is Dave Moses. I am Kelly Moses' husband. I have worked at Best Towing for the last seven years. Prior to that, I was an outreach pastor at First Christian Church, working in the community of both Huntington Beach and Fountain Valley with our parishioners being out there. And I was in charge of benevolence, helping people get back onto their feet. Helping them with bills, helping them stay in their houses and stay housed. I joined Best Towing after my father-in-law, John Vaughn, passed away from, I'm sorry, he was a great man. He passed away from colon cancer. I joined the team, and as I've witnessed the dedication of our employees, and many of them are here today speaking on our behalf. The way that they put themselves out there and the dedication to this community and the risk that they take every time when they step out of their trucks to help people is inspiring. It truly is. They help people on their worst days. There's nothing worse than an accident. There's nothing worse. And we're there to help them. We've built a relationship in Fountain Valley over the past 40 years. We have been here supporting the police. We are committed to making improvements. Everyone has blind spots. And thankfully, we took a hard look at our business and where we had blind spots. And we made improvements already to our yard. putting in deadbolts, putting in keypads, doing stuff before we were asked or we even had to sit down with the police to see where those blind spots were. We are the closest business. We are the closest tow company to Fountain Valley out of all the three that we're reviewed, we are the closest. Our response time, our towing knowledge and ability and familiarity with the city and easy access to the location. All of our storage is located at the same address, right down the street from here, less than three miles. From this police station and from these meeting spot right here as well. Like I said, I love working there, I love our employees. I just want to share one experience that I had that was awesome because it tied in both My family and what I did, a gentleman was driving and someone jumped out in front of the car and committed suicide. I was able, because of my background in counseling, able to counsel that person, able to point them in the right direction, able to give them healing, which is important. Other companies don't have that. They don't have an ordained pastor on site to help in bereavement situations. We do. We are blessed to be able to do that for the city of Fountain Valley and for Huntington Beach. So what I ask is that you guys reconsider and I thank you for extra time. Thank you. Kevin Kelly.

Welcome.

Thank you, Mayor and Honorable Council. I have a picture too. My name is Kevin Kelly. I'm here to support best towing and to convey to you some important facts that should be known going into making a decision to award the police towing contract. This morning, PD had GW Towing come to our facility to pick up six vehicles, evidence vehicles. During this visit, the owner of GW Towing, Wayne Miller, brought to our attention that the Hassan Group is a silent 50% partner at Southside. Why is this important? A few months ago, the owners, Mark and Ahmad Hassan, who own Hadley, were arrested for multiple felonies that directly involved crimes committed within the towing business. Overnight, AAA revoked their towing contract, and as they did, the multiple agencies they worked for. This is a critical piece of information that the owners of Southside are in business with the Sasson Group. You are putting the city of Fountain Valley at risk. While the officers were at our facility today, they witnessed that we had cleaned out our main warehouse. garage that can support up to 20 vehicles and added a keypad entry only access to the secure inside Evans storage. They also witnessed that our impound storage garage that fits six vehicles is free of clutter, welded garage door that close and uses keypad to enter as well as the deadbolt lock doors. The officers there were present, said that they wanted to tell us things that we could do to improve because they love working with us in the field and want to keep best as they're police towing. Also considering that we have had been here for 40 years, but they were told they cannot tell us anything. Under general requirements in the staff report, it states the city reserves the right to negotiate with the qualified contractor. The city may require the qualified contractor to participate in negotiations and to submit such technical fee or other revisions for their proposal as may result from negotiations. This allows the police or the council to negotiate with Best Towing Service to commit to making any changes to our facility as they see fit. If we meet the six minimal requirements at the time of the proposal, the many of the other requirements needed may happen after being awarded the contract. Best Towing Service is formally committed to making any changes PD asks for We have already implemented changes and we are vowing to uphold the standard in the city. This is a picture of the other place that basically says they don't have 24 hours and on weekends you have to make an appointment to get your car. Thank you very much.

Sir, I have a question for you. So I just want to make sure I understood what you said. So between the inspection period of the RFP and when the officers today went to pick up the vehicles, you said you cleaned everything up, you added keypads, you changed a lot of things since the actual inspection of the RFP. Is that right?

Can I answer your question? He doesn't know the answers.

I don't know. You're the one who said it, right? Yep. Okay. If you want to answer, Kelly, sure.

Would you please approach just because we're on camera?

Thank you. It's just a simple question.

So, yes, we.

So the date of the inspection after the date of the initial inspection of the RFP, that's when you cleaned up, you changed things, you added locks, you fixed the doors, et cetera.

Yes, the buildings and the facility were still there. We just cleaned things up and we added a keypad lock. We just cleaned it up and made it more secure for you. It was mentioned at the time of the inspection that the warehouse could be utilized for indoor storage if need be. And so that was presented to the officers. Because in the initial proposal, you only have to have space for two vehicles. So we have space for six. So we meet the requirements. But if you want space for 26 vehicles, we now have that for you as well. The building has always been there.

That was the only question. Thank you.

So Rick, this was, I don't know if that was the photo that you presented. That was one of them you gave me. I already gave it to you? Okay.

Yeah, we received that. Thank you. Tyler Moses?

Welcome.

Thank you.

Honorable Mayor and members of the City Council, my name is Tyler Moses. I'm the son of Kelly and Dave Moses. And my grandpa is John Vaughn. He built this company that's so important to my family. I want to take this opportunity to show you our facility. You guys should have photos. That could show you an accurate view of our storage capabilities. The first photo is shots of our quarter mile outside storage facility that could store over 300 cars. The next photos are of our deadbolt police impound garage keypad entry opened with evidence vehicles being stored for Fountain Valley Police Department. The next photos are of our outside. Of our secure inside facility, along with shots of the inside of that storage space that can store up to 20 cars. And a shot of a keypad entry that only managers and three dispatchers have access to. Next is a shot of our company inventory tow books system, which makes it easy to keep track of every detail on every call. Next is a shot of the individual files that store evidence, vehicle information. And the last photo is a shot of the long time group of employees that are here behind us as well that have been working at BEST ranging from years 43, 26, 20, 15, and two years at BEST Towing. I would like you to look at that photo just one more time and see truly and understand that you have a dedicated team at Best Towing. There is no other better company to serve the city of Fountain Valley. You cannot get better than the best. What I have shown you through these photos is proof that Best Towing will commit to providing the most secure storage facility required by the police department. We will continue to upgrade by any means necessary changes needed to remain a trusted security facility for your city. We have not had any problems in the past with being secure. And there was mention of possible future problems, but do not fault us for something that has not happened. And allow us the courtesy to ensure that there will be no need for concern. Thank you.

Robert Vaughn.

Welcome. Thank you. Good afternoon. My name is Robert Vaughn. I'm the President and CEO of Best VIP Chauffeur Worldwide, employing over 300 team members across Orange and LA County, including many residents of Fountain Valley. I'm also the son of John Vaughn, the founder of Best Towing Service, and the brother of David Kelly Moses, who owned and operated today. I'm here to speak. On behalf of Best Towing's employees and to acknowledge the legacy this family has built serving this community for over 40 years. I grew up in this business. I worked the pumps at my father's 76 gas station on Magnolia and Garfield. I dispatched Best Towing for several years before starting my own company. My father dedicated his life to this city and Best Towing was built in 1979 with one purpose, to serve Fountain Valley and to support the Fountain Valley PD. That commitment has never wavered. Best Towing has been a long standing partner to the CHP, Huntington Beach Police Department, AAA. This company has staged multiple mad education events in local schools, provided transportation to the families of fallen officers, supported local businesses for decades. These are not transactions, these are the work of a company that belongs to this community. When I learned the fat molecule PD towing contract was up for renewal, I was troubled by what followed. The contract was awarded to a company that, based on the plain language of the RFP, does not appear to satisfy one of the six minimum requirements to respond, including the five mile radius requirement measured from City Hall. This same company was disqualified from the 2020 RFP, on these grounds and addendum one of the 2020 RFP contained the following question and answer. Does the tow yard have to be within a five mile radius of 10200 Slater Avenue, Fountain Valley 92708? Answer, yes. The business office and tow yard need to be within a five mile radius of the police department. This clearly demonstrates this issue has been addressed and was also included in the 2026 RFP. Also at the prior council meeting, the city attorney confirmed that the five mile requirement was written as intended when questioned. And that staff suggestion to measure from the city border rather than city hall was not supported by the RFP language. This is a significant statement and it deserves a serious response. And I challenge this slide again with this 0.3 miles. I also want to address the scoring. Best Towing's facility was built with a multi-million dollar investment as a dedicated police impound yard. It has met and exceeded the city's requirements for over 30 years. A 28 point drop from the 2020 score attributed to indoor storage efficiency is difficult to reconcile with that record. Best Towing has never received a deficiency notice from the city and no recommendation to improve the property has ever been issued. The facility also now includes additional evidence storage with electronic access control systems that logs every entry and exit which far exceeds the two space requirement. Best Towing was built to serve this community, to support the families of the employees who have spent years serving alongside the Fountain Valley PD. The impact of losing this contract is significant, and those families deserved to be considered in this decision. In light of these concerns, I respectfully request that the city council rescind their prior vote, disqualify any applicant that does not meet the minimum requirements set forth in the RFP, revisit the best towing facility for rescoring, and vote to approve the two incumbent vendors, G&W Towing and Best Towing Service. Thank you for your time.

There's no further request to speak.

Okay, thank you. So I'll open it up now to council for comments and inquiries. No questions.

No, I mean, I heard a few disturbing things I'm not going to get into, but there were a few disturbing things mentioned. Thank you.

Councilman Bowie. Thank you, Mayor. I just want to get a little bit of a clarification on the miles clarifications. Ryan, could you address that? Since you brought up it was only 0.3 miles. So confirming the address, is it 1643 Placentia in Costa Mesa? Is that the correct address?

That sounds right.

Okay. Yeah. That is correct. Okay, so I'm having a little bit trouble to understand how we came up with 0.3 miles as I just Googled it, it was 1.7 mile difference.

The RFP is done on a radius. So you take a five mile radius from Fountain Valley Police Department. It's not driving on roads. It's taking a five-mile radius.

Okay. So that way they can understand how we come up with that 0.3. But, you know, 0.3 miles, I mean, it sounds very small, right? It's less than a mile. But the way I look at it, it's not five feet. It's not 200 feet. It's 1,584 feet. That's 0.3 radius. So when you point out it's 0.3, it sounds very small. But when you do this by feet, it's quite big, 1,584 feet distance. Just put that on perspective. First of all, thank you, Ryan, for that clarification. First of all, I want to thank you to all the 21 speakers that are here tonight. We have 40 years of service in the city. It's tremendous to the city and the community. If we no longer be able to service our community, that's a shame. 40 years is not small. We're talking about four decades here. What I find a little bit trouble and I think perhaps there's some room for improvement in the near future is all applicants the city received was on April 30th. But our first hearing on this issue is June 16th. But the contracts expire in two weeks. For having service with someone for four decades, I think we should have had this discussion way ahead of time. So if there's any issue, we could address it. Or as the vendor themselves, if they find out they're out the door, they have time to address themselves and find work somewhere else or whatnot because the whole entire family that works here, their life's going to be affected. So that's a little bit troubling for me. What I would talk about, you know, what I hear from all the speakers, you know, the way how the owner is, she's very compassionate how she treat her employee. And for us to have this matter two weeks before they expire is not the right thing to do. I don't know. That is something to look into and perhaps somehow find a way to improve it in the future. And next question I will have is, do we have a policy that will give extra considerations for business that are located in the city? If we do have such policy, have those consideration has been applied to this company that are located in business?

I believe we do have a local preference for .

Are you guys actually in Huntington Beach or Fountain Valley?

Our business is in Huntington Beach, but we do our business in Fountain Valley.

Okay, so they had a Huntington Valley business. Our address is in Huntington Beach.

Huntington Beach.

Okay.

We started in Fountain Valley. Okay, you started in Fountain Valley. That's what I heard last time. It was your dad, Fountain Valley. That's what I remember.

Yeah, we started there.

Okay. All right. What was that? Oh. Okay, that's all I have to say for now.

Okay. Mayor Kenean.

Yes, Councilwoman Constantine.

Okay, so I don't know if Councilmember Bowie is familiar with rounding down. You know, at times when we do certain things, we have to round down. So the point three is rather insignificant. As far as the RFP, we've been doing RFPs for many years. This is not our first. And the deadline to receive the applications was April 30th, am I correct? So you have the month of May. You have to schedule... All the interviews and all the particulars and have the staff, the police review everything. We're not talking months in between here. So we had city council meeting in June. We haven't done anything wrong in that regard. So business is business. And personally, I don't see anything wrong with that. Thank you.

My point is we could do way ahead. Instead of April, perhaps we have the deadline in February. Give more cushions. Instead of less cushion. There's nothing wrong with that.

Yeah, I'm not in agreement. Thanks. Okay. Which is okay.

Any other questions from council? Just wanted to check back with city attorney, just those two municipal codes, just for clarity on what that meant to the RFP.

So that references some provisions of our municipal code. One of those, 1067, just talks about our ability to tow abandoned wrecked vehicles generally. So it doesn't apply to the discussion this evening. The other is 485, and that talks about selection of a tow truck company. That does talk about the selection being made on recommendation of the chief of police. Tow truck company has to have a contract. I didn't see anything in that chapter that talked about the five mile radius. Thank you.

So actually I have a question for Kelly if you'd step up please. Yes. Have you been to the other facilities of the other two tow companies and toured their facilities?

No, I have not. I've just seen the outside of their buildings. I haven't been on the inside of their buildings because I was keeping this close to home.

So it is possible then that they have, even though yours may be acceptable, they may have a greater... greater is not the right word, a more advantageous yard to what you have. And that's maybe why they were rated higher.

I have seen photos of their facility. The inside stores that GNW has looks very similar to our large warehouse that they store their inside vehicles in. Southside, their photos, their inside evidence is stored at a different location where there's no personnel on site. And that photo there is what they have on the outside of their main business that if you want to come after hours, or visit the inside facility because no one's there, that you have to make an appointment. We have somebody at our location 24 hours a day with access 24 hours a day without hesitation. And then also they had mentioned that we share our space with HPPD and CHP. CHP actually has their own evidence. We only share with HBPD. So Southside and GNW both, they have four or more other city police that they tow for. So the facilities that they're showing you that has space, that's not only for Fountain Valley. That's for Costa Mesa and for Orange and for Newport Beach and for Sheriffs. and Fountain Valley. So you have to take that into consideration. We have just as large of a facility to be able to store the same amount of vehicles, 26, 27 vehicles between Southside G&W and Best Towing, we all have the ability to store the same amount of vehicles, but we actually have more ability to store more vehicles because we only work with two cities. So you're not competing for that inside storage with the other government agencies.

I hear what you're saying. My point is the only ones who have seen all three and evaluated were the four officers who were on that committee. And even though yours may be acceptable, it doesn't mean it's rated as high as theirs.

Were you able to see the photos of our inside facility?

So that's the other issue I have. My job, my real life, is all I do is government, city, county, state contracts. And what you told me was that on the date of the inspection, which is the date of record, that our officers went there and they saw it not as in good condition as it is today.

Correct.

So their evaluation to me is accurate because it wasn't, you guys told me that, that it wasn't as good then as it is today. And that's why they have to make their recommendations.

But what I'm asking for is you're going to.

What you're asking for is an exception and a do-over. Like we had it on this date. It wasn't as good, but we're good now. That's not the way contracts work.

But the structures are the same. We didn't build a new building. That's always been there, and it was addressed. And the fact that we have given you 40 years and we've made these improvements in a week,

But you should have made those improvements before the inspection.

I was unaware that Fountain Valley PD didn't think that we were a secure facility because we've been doing it this way for 40 years. And we have never had an issue of chain of custody. There's never been a problem there. So there was no cause to make changes. But like the officers that were out there today- They expressed that they prefer best towing. They would much rather keep us.

To get back to my point, there's many contracts that I have. And I've been selling software for years and years. And sometimes I lose because other vendors come in and they have upgrades to the software that we don't have today.

But why are we going to make an exception to go outside the radius?

So what you're asking for is an exception. Kelly, if you could just let the councilman speak, please.

Go ahead. I'm sorry.

I have no other questions.

If I may interject here, I understand the point of my colleague, Councilman Grannis, which he has a valid point. The only thing I would add to this is where Best Toying was given a notice, to cure of the facility to improve. If they were giving notice to improve, to cure the facility, hey, you will need to ship up your facility. Then if they don't cooperate, if they don't do anything, then yes, I could see that. So my question is, were you giving any notice to your facility that is not in the best, I guess, in the best possible compared to others?

Never. We have never. And the police officers that come into our facility are also going into GNW. So they've seen both facilities over the last five years or seven years that GNW has been there. So they had every opportunity to make a recommendation to us.

Council Member Bowie, I completely disagree with you. It is not the responsibility of the city to go and tell them how to run their business. Because they could have gone to the other two tow companies and said, well, improve this. And every contract we get, we have sometimes 20 bidders. So we're going to go back to each bidder and say, well, you got to do something here. No. That's not the way it works.

I agree with you on that, on the aspect. But on the different aspect, I don't agree is because if It doesn't matter whether it's with Beth Toying or Southwest Toying. When you want to have a relationship with the city or as vendors, you want to have a good relationship and communications. Hey, you need to improve this. You work at it. It's like a relationship. If the relationship doesn't work out, then yeah, okay, you're not good vendors. We got to let go. They've been around for 40 years. It's not like they've been five years or two years. So why can't we have that communication? I just don't understand that. So if the ruling of this is because of their facility is bad, well, do we try to work with them? Do we ask them to improve?

None of that. If that was the ruling of that. Is there further clarification? Is anybody willing to talk about this?

Mayor, if you're interested, you can call Chief Heredia down.

I think you're up, Chief. Yeah. Welcome.

Good evening, Mr. Mayor and Council.

Good evening.

So to answer your question, Council Member Bowie, from what I've learned is that there has not been communication from us, being the police department, back to Bestow regarding the evidence storage and the lack of security and also the state in which our inspectors found the facility. There were items that shouldn't have been in there, including including gas cans, shovels, trickle chargers, a golf cart, and an evidence storage area that should be clear of all of this debris. And I think you're right as far as a relationship, sharing information back and forth is a good idea. However, the onus is on the business owner to make sure that they're abiding by the conditions of the contract. And the contract clearly states what the expectations are. And our inspectors went out there and found that they were not meeting those expectations, hence the lower score.

Yeah, and Chief, maybe we could talk a little bit about just the scoring system itself because I think the way the RFP was laid out, there were two rounds. There was a round one with a certain amount of points and then a round two with a certain amount of points. And so the process, which is very common, I too see a lot of these kinds of RFPs where there's a short listing and then there's a second round of evaluation. Um, and, and best towing made it actually scored second in that second round, allowing, um, you know, kind of to be in a, in a good position. So in round two, I think the points were different. There was a thousand and one and 800 in the other. Um, I was just curious, you know, if there was something about the way the points were divided up, uh, that made a difference or, or, or what, what was maybe a decision and having different total points.

Understood. And I would defer to finance and Amanda here, as she is the purchasing coordinator for the city and would have a better explanation as to the overall process. Our police department folks participated in round two, and we did have one lieutenant, one sergeant, and two corporals that assisted with the inspections there.

Great. Thank you. Welcome, Amanda.

Thank you. The difference in that first one from 800 and 1,000, 800 is for the proposal itself, and then technically 200 is for cost. But because this is a revenue contract, we did not put that into the consideration.

Oh, I see.

Does that explain?

Yeah, that makes perfect sense.

Do all the tow companies pay us the same split? Is it the same amount per tow? Correct.

They charge the same amount, both of them, and we get the same amount.

Thank you.

And then in round two, when the on-site visit occurred, I know part of it was an inspection. But I also read that there was an interviewing process, so there was communication between our staff and a competing vendor. Is that correct?

Yeah, they have to talk to them and ask questions about their facility and what they do.

Yes. Great. Thanks so much.

Question. The contract is at will, right, Ryan? So it could be canceled any time, am I correct, even though it's five years? So the question here that comes to mind is there was, I guess, not a satisfaction on their facility in terms of securities, how they handle all that. During that five years, which is what, 2020, why was that never brought up to them? Says the contract is out, we'll cancel. Hey, you're not fulfilling your contract here.

It doesn't mean they weren't filling the contract. It means the other tow companies were rated higher for the way their environment was on that date.

But the chiefs just say that according to the contract, they must adhere to contract how they were supposed to maintain the facility. So therefore, the contract is at will. It can be canceled any time. So why do we send out notice, hey, shape up your facility or we'll cancel your contract? So they would have an option to cure.

I wouldn't have an answer for that.

Yeah, it's not typical that we tell our contractors.

I'm just saying that reference to the contract, so. Okay. Okay.

Councilmember Bowie, we are not in a position to ever babysit contracts. And there is police business. And things clearly have not been completely okay.

I disagree with you.

I don't understand what more you want here.

I disagree with you. In what respect? In respect that you said that we're not in the business of babysitting contract. We're not. Now, I'm going to tell you something about contract. When the other party breach a contract, that's what the chief is saying. We have an opportunity to come in and say, you're in breach of your contract or we cancel your contract. It's not a matter of babysitting. It's a matter of applying the rules in the contract. Thank you.

It's not relevant in this case.

And I don't know if it reached the level of a breach of contract.

Exactly.

I do want to say, though, I think it's great that, you know, the drivers and such and the family, and that is a wonderful thing. And all things being equal, I think we would have to consider that. But in the business world, how nice the business owner is, and she apparently is a very nice person, clearly, by the stories that we heard. But it's hard to put that into the rating on a contract.

And part of the reason why we wanted to convene this, this is really a special meeting. You recall, we didn't even get to this agenda item until pretty late that evening. And I think I felt like, yeah, it was pretty late, yeah. And I felt like if you had the chance to bring in some of the speakers like you did today, you would have at least felt good that you gave it a shot, right? That you had that ability. So I think part of what we're doing today is to accomplish that. And I do thank you for coming out and lifting up your owner and the business itself. because you have been servicing us through the city and through all of us as AAA customers. And so I just want to express my appreciation for what you've done for our community. But as Council Member Grandis mentioned, And as our Fountain Valley Municipal Code also mentions, this is the jurisdiction of the police department. And the police department has, in my opinion, done a proper job. And so the vote that I made on the last council meeting, I'm staying with that for those reasons and for what we heard today. um but i hope you felt like you were heard that you were able to come out and and support your company and to support your owner and um and so i if there's no other questions or comments that was really the intent of this meeting so we appreciate you coming out and any any last comments from council

it's a study session but the only one final thought that I have in mind here is what I've heard tonight and it's a little bit concerning for me although what we get about a little bit less than six hours before the contracts expire I would you know in my mind, do the right thing is to extend them three months and to evaluate this matter. The reason for it is because it will give us, the city, the opportunity to do the right thing. And what is the right thing? I hear bribery tonight. And this matter should be referred to the DA if there is a bribery.

Well, if they're willing to give more details on that, I might consider that. But I don't know who or what or how, what they're even talking. But somebody in the community said something to somebody.

I don't think that it is a position to hear that because that needs to go to the proper channel. That's the DA investigation, not us.

Well, if you want to consider- No, I don't agree. If somebody's going to come here and make an allegation, and that's what I was talking about before, we need to hear it now.

Mr. Attorney, am I correct that if it is a concerning matter, a bribery, we're not in a channel or preview to discuss this and let the law enforcement does its own investigations on that?

So legally or pragmatically?

Legally.

Legally, people can make comments at the dais.

Okay.

Pragmatically speaking, as the counsel, the investigator, that's a different question.

But when you ask your questions, it's going to lead to- Yeah, I don't know.

Did they mean a council member, a purchasing person, a community member? That would be my recommendation. So I think there's an elephant in the room that we need to talk about. There are more items that I've heard that were issues, and we're not bringing them up for some reason. And I think they should have the right to at least respond to that. So I think, Chief, you might know what I'm referring to? Sure. Would you mind? Sure.

Pardon me while I refer to my notes here. So the fact of the matter is we conducted a fair and objective RFP process with our inspectors, and two companies scored higher than Best Towing, and that is G&W and Southside. The things that I have heard and seen throughout this inspection process has caused me to lose confidence in Bess' ability to abide by the contract. Specifically, the evidence in storage and security were significant issues alongside some other business practices that are not consistent with departmental expectations. And some of the evidence concerns specifically, you go to the tow policy guidelines and requirements, where it states only items of evidence shall be in the evidence storage area. And our inspectors noted that there, as mentioned before, that there were shovels, gas cans, trickle chargers, a golf cart in the evidence area, in addition to personal vehicles, staff lockers, and the overflow evidence storage area. And the secure hold overflow area was also open to employees. It wasn't secure. There are chain of custody concerns with potential for compromise of investigations and criminal prosecutions. And the tow policy guidelines and requirement also states that evidence holds, meaning vehicles being held as evidence, shall not be touched, moved, or tampered with in any manner without Fountain Valley Police Department's written consent. And in 2024, Bestow unfortunately sold a vehicle that was supposed to be held as evidence and it was related to a criminal investigation resulting from a fatal traffic collision that was a vehicle versus a bicyclist and the vehicle was sold via the lien sale process without written consent by us and the matter had to be explained to the district attorney's office. There are security concerns, specifically with the secured structures are routinely left unsecured by roll-up and overhead garage doors that are left open. There's environmental neglect. Evidence vehicles are covered by dirt, dust, and debris alongside vehicle parts, lawnmowers, and gas cans. And those are significant issues that compromise the storage of our evidence vehicles. We also had a recent billing issue at the beginning of this year. On February 5, 2026, I got information that BEST sent us a bill for $21,678 for the storage of an evidence vehicle. The agreement is that we will pay them $15 for a total of 60 days. And that bill should have been for a total of $900. However, we were overcharged by $20,778. The fact of the matter is that was brought to best attention. And they corrected it. And we were only charged and only paid $900. However, that shows me that there's a lack of awareness in the contract that they're supposed to be bound to with us. We also, after this RFP process, we just had a recent refusal to provide service, which is another violation of the contract. On June 2nd, 2026, Bestow was requested to tow a stolen vehicle that was up on blocks. The driver responded and refused to tow the vehicle, citing there were other vehicles nearby that would make it impossible for that vehicle to be towed. So we called our other service provider, GNW. They responded without delay, and they towed that vehicle without incident. It was possible, and it was done, and it was done quickly. And so, you know, again, refusing to provide service is a violation of the contract. And then the last thing that, you know, I feel like I should mention, although there's been apologies tonight for the behavior at the last city council meeting where my staff was verbally berated with profanity. And in the contract, it says that they are not to be rude or discourteous. And I think that you saw an example of something that is not consistent with the values of what we expect from our partners as the Fountain Valley City and also as members of the Fountain Valley Police Department. That's not consistent with what we would expect out of our partners. We should be respectful to one another. And it's unfortunate that happened. And I do appreciate the apology and the acknowledgement of that tonight.

Thank you, Chief. Councilman Bowling?

I'd like Kelly to come up to response to what the Chief just said.

Welcome back.

Thank you.

Kelly, can you explain the situation in reference to the evidence the Chief just talked about?

Yes, with that, and you gotta take into consideration too, we're talking about 40 years of service and I think he just mentioned maybe four infractions that we've had. We're not perfect, nobody is, people make mistakes. In regards to that, that vehicle was towed to the Fountain Valley location as evidence vehicle. When the Fountain Valley PD had us pick it up from here and tow it back to our facility, the driver was told that it no longer needed to be on evidence. This is done all of the time. We never get written consent from a detective to say, okay, yeah, you can take that off evidence or you can move that outside to outside evidence. That's all just verbal. There's no documentation. So it's like if you're saying written, It's all verbal. So that's a he said, she said, and it's a mistake on either the officer that released the vehicle to the driver and said it's no longer on evidence because they had already performed whatever they needed to do, or it was a mistake on our driver thinking that that vehicle was off evidence as it was being taken. We don't know which one was the mistake. Like I said, none of that is ever conveyed through writing. It's all verbal over the phone.

Okay, can you talk about the error in the billing?

The error in the billing, that's a mistake by myself. I'll own it. It was a mistake. As soon as it was brought to my attention, I corrected it. You paid $900. I mean, like I said, 40 years, four infractions, remedied that situation immediately, and I apologize for the mistake.

And what about, can you talk about the refusal of not providing service?

The refusal, I'm not aware of. I haven't heard of that. I've never heard of that. I don't know what you're talking about in that sense. I wasn't notified by anybody that we refuse service. That's not our policy. Our drivers know. Do we refuse service to PD or CHP ever? We don't. So that's our policy. We don't refuse service. So in that case, I don't know. I'd have to investigate and find out which driver was there, what actually happened. I don't have an answer for that because our policy is that we Do not say no.

So I'll go back to the evidence, because evidence is a very crucial component for any law enforcement, especially when it's required on a criminal case or any other case that's required evidence. What would you do moving forward in your practice? Because you just told me it's only verbally. What practice were you going to move forward?

Well, moving forward, as you can see through the photos, we've already remedied a lot of these things that the PD has spoken about tonight. We're committed to remaining a secure facility and keeping it as you have my word that I commit to doing that for the city and the things that have been mentioned today. I will address and it will not happen again. As related to evidence, how will we move forward? Well, being that we're here tonight and I haven't had anything written about the vehicle that was misinformed on being off of evidence, I have no knowledge of a refusal. I made the personal mistake of the billing error. I don't know. Was there three or four?

It was four.

I had a 40-year. What was the fourth one?

Well, the fourth one was more behavior, which is you apologized at the beginning.

Yes. As you can see, we're very passionate, and this is going to hurt us significantly. And so you need to take into consideration emotions and that we are human and that we apologized for the things that we – the outbursts that we had. Like I said, we're human and everybody makes mistakes. But the fact that out of 40 years you can come up with four incidents, that tells me that we're pretty excellent at what we do. And that our facility is pretty top notch to secure evidence vehicles. We haven't had a chain of custody issue, four. You just heard four things out of 40 years. That's one thing a decade.

Did you receive any notice from the city about withholding that vehicle as evidence?

Did I receive any notice from the city withholding that?

That vehicle for evidence.

What do you mean?

Remember, the chief has mentioned that the vehicle was as a crime scene. So did the city inform you, hey, you must withhold this vehicle for evidence? Have you received anything?

No, that's what I'm saying is initially it was towed here to your facility and then investigate, because that happens all the time. Investigations happen here and then we tow back to our yard. It's no longer evidence. We store it for the RO to pick it up. If they don't pick it up, we go through the lien process of notification and then we sell it.

Maybe clarify a little bit more. What I mean by receive notice is a written notice, not verbally.

No, I've not received any written notice. Other than if you want to say the initial 180, it's an evidence vehicle. And we had it in our system as an evidence vehicle, as it was stored at C4 for Fountain Valley. And then when they had us pick it up, tow it back to our facility, we were then informed that it was no longer on evidence hold. And there's, like I said, nothing written ever about it's on evidence, it's off evidence.

Okay, I'm done.

I have a question.

Yes, Councilwoman Constantine.

So, Ms. Moses, is it customary for you guys to sell vehicles, especially related to the city of Fountain Valley?

Yes. So when a vehicle is brought into our yard, it has to be there for at least three days prior to the lien sale process starting. So the lien sale then sends all the notifications to anybody attached to that vehicle so they know that the vehicle is at our facility. It lists what the charges are, what the daily rate is. when the lien sell clear date is so that they know it's here. And if you don't pay and pick it up by this date, then we become the legal lien holder. And then we can sell the vehicle to salvage or whatever to get it off of our property. So yes, every company. Otherwise, we would never get rid of any of the vehicles that people don't pick up.

By the way, that's an industry standard, what she's talking about. It's not they're doing something, anything new. That's industry standard.

Yeah, I get that. And I think it would be good to have Chief Heredia come back up and maybe just kind of give some closure on this. Please? Thank you.

If you could approach, appreciate it. Thank you, Kelly.

I'm sorry?

Thank you, Kelly. Oh, thank you. The chief will step forward.

One thing that I would like to offer for clarification and for the council's consideration regarding that vehicle that was sold, the original explanation that was provided by Mrs. Moses to the DA investigator was that there was a systems issue with a computer, and the hold did not get transferred over to a newer system. And that is a discrepancy from what we're hearing tonight. Outside of that, I don't know if there's something else, Council Member Constantine, that you wanted me to clarify.

Yeah, no, that was perfect. Thank you.

So just for redundants for safety measure in the future, we understand that everybody rely on technology. Perhaps a letter they need to go out, the traditional way, so that way if we ever change system, they won't run into that problem. Hey, there's not only the system, but we also send you an official letter to withhold that vehicle. So that way, actually, it protects our city as well because we give proper notice as well.

Is that accurate that a police officer would verbally tell a tow truck driver whether it's evidence still or not? That sounds pretty loose to me. I agree with Council Member Booley.

That's a good question, and I don't know what standard practice here has been, but specifically when there's an evidence hold, there's a more formal process because we need to document the details of that in a supplemental report and to provide an update for record keeping specifically on criminal cases.

All the questions I have, thank you.

So I understand that tonight is a study session, but I still stand with what I said earlier.

I just wanted to give anyone in the audience one more opportunity to speak. I see a hand is raised. Do you want to, I think we need to fill out a blue card just with the formality, but you could. This will be the last speaker. Thank you, sir. Yeah, this will be the last speaker.

I truly appreciate that and I appreciate the council's time. Could you repeat your name just- Yeah, my name is Dave Moses. Thank you. And I am part owner of Best Towing. And again, I want to reiterate the 40 year relationship. And sir, in your message to the city, you talk about relationships and how important they are. And I stand right behind you with that. I think they are very important. In 40 years, yes, we got complacent and we saw that there was a blind spot, a big blind spot that could hurt investigations. Thankfully, none of those hurt any of your investigations, even the car that was sold, that was a conviction on that. And I commend you guys on getting that conviction. even without the evidence that we mistakenly let go because of miscommunication. But we did remedy those problems, sir. And all I'm asking is what Ted said, a three month grace period to where we have time to make arrangements so that we can keep. our relationships and our employees and maybe revisit looking at our yard and the improvements that we've made. One other thing that has not been touched on is the fact of the relationship that Southside has with known felons being part owners in their business, which automatically disqualifies them for working for any government. In a city, it automatically disqualifies them when they are known felons, convicted felons that are part owners in that business.

So with all of that said, yes sir? Sorry, we did mention that it's at will, this contract. If there's something that comes up that shows that they're ineligible, we'll deal with that.

And I thank you for that, but what I ask is that you guys see that they have known felons as part owners in that business. And do you guys really want to be involved with a company that has known felons that have committed crimes in the very field that you guys are hiring them on for? They are known felons. That is a known thing. Hadley is part ownership in that company, and they are convicted felons.

I appreciate that, and that's even more concerning. And I'm sure all police officers have done their due diligence to verify that, but if hearing from you, it doesn't hurt to even more pause. The contract extend three months and for the city to really look in depth of the matter before we Blindly jump into this. I hear two things today bright brain now if there's I Won't say Fallon's people that are not in a good standard the city should not have a contract with company that has Owners or part owners that does not have good standard. That's my my kid

And I do want to say one more thing to clarify. Before you do, did you bring anything, did anybody bring anything that shows that there are convicted felons that are part owners other than just hearsay of a contractor who lost a contract?

They are known felons. They are part owners in that business.

Did you bring anything?

I found that out this morning that they were- You said when we extend this three months- And sir, I do want to respond to your question. I will tell you exactly who said that they got the contract on a bribe. Was the owner of Southside that called one of our employees that said that they got the contract for $10,000. So although that might be hearsay, he called our employee trying to get him to come to his business to work for him since he now has the Fountain Valley contract. So again- And I'm sorry, you said who took $10,000? I didn't say who. I'm saying the owner is going around telling everyone that he paid $10,000 for the contract. By no means am I saying anyone that's up here. But I'm saying you're going into business with a gentleman who says stuff like that. Who calls up other people's employees and tries to woo them to him. And is in bed with known felons. So those are just some of the things, and I appreciate your time. And once again, thank you for letting us come up. And sir, I would love to have a conversation with you and revisit this. And Officer Pratt, I truly appreciate your time coming out here as well. So I thank you as well.

Thank you sir, appreciate it. Okay, I'll just give it one more request on the dais. What is the pleasure of the council? We've heard discussion, we've heard over two hours.

My- Councilman Bui. Yeah, so my direction to staff is we extend best for three months to evaluate this matter. This will give the city great length of opportunity to do the right things, particularly when this bestowing has four decades of service to our community. And for the concern matter that the gentleman I just brought up, I understand that he say or she say rules, but at the end of the day, it's not our job. That needs to refer to the DA, and the DA will make their recommendations if there's issue here or not. And it doesn't take them long to do an investigation. One month, if they say that there's nothing, remember, even though we give them three months, it's contracts to at will.

Councilman, are you making a motion?

I'll make a motion, yes, to extend them in three months, and we need to re-evaluate this case and refer this matter to the DA.

So because this is a study session, we can't take action on an item. The action would be to request an item be placed on a future agenda if there was any action. Normally, the direction to staff is things that staff can do within staff's authority, like, well, I don't have a good example on top of my head, but there's an approved contract now with the other agencies. So doing something different with that contract would take an agendized action.

So it's more like an item for future consideration? Would be. Okay.

So there's a... Well, I would say that at this point, we'll look into the allegations. It's at will. And if it's proven that they are of ownership that isn't allowed, or if... I don't know, Ted, I don't think it was you who took $10,000. Just kidding. You know, if there's some... real evidence of some misdoing, then we will look at that as well and we'll bring it back. We're done.

So the item for future considerations, I think that's what the motion needs to be at?

My understanding of the direction was that staff should take a look at some of the allegations that were made tonight.

We look at it or refer to the DA to look at it?

I did not hear referring to the DA. I just heard that.

The DA is not going to look at this unless there's names of people and not just my friend's neighbor told somebody.

No, that's incorrect. If the city requests, they will look into it.

I'm sorry.

Yeah, so would you want to make that motion?

You know what? It doesn't need a motion. It doesn't need future consideration. If something comes up that's illegitimate, we will take a look at it.

I think, Councilman McGee, the contract process requires that.

That's already built into the... And the burden of proof, I'm sorry, Mayor, the burden of proof is not on us to figure this out. The burden on proof is the person's making the allegation of bribery, allegation of... Show it to us, and if it is, we'll act on it.

Mr. Mayor, I think that's from a constant. Well, I think well first of all Sometimes I wonder you know, which team one of us plays for but that's another story This isn't what do you mean by that which time playing for what do you what you say that when you want to mean by that? Well, I'm not gonna go there. So the point of the matter is I The contract is at will. We are going to have the contract signed. I'd like to have the Chief come up, please, and if it turns out we will have one towing company in the future, is that even in the realm, or do we have to have two, or how do things work here?

By ordinance, we're supposed to have two tow companies. Sorry, Chief. I just looked at the ordinance. I'm trying to lead with that.

Good answer, Chief.

What he said.

Two or more is best practice, just to ensure that you have backup for situations when one tow company might be busy and you need another option. And it also presents the real idea of us wanting to be fair and open that process up to multiple companies.

Sure. Thank you.

If we had to operate with one, we could do so probably for a limited time depending on who that vendor is, but we would need to move swiftly to make sure that we were able to get that second vendor if we were to need to terminate a contract with somebody for any of the reasons that might have been discussed tonight. Sure. Thank you.

Vice Mayor Harper.

thank you so I'll just I'll just chime in appreciate all the speakers here tonight and appreciate your service with the city for the last 40 40 years or so my perspective on this is that you know the we had a request for a proposal although the five mile radius is could be worded a little better i am satisfied that the city was within its discretion to accept a bid outside the five mile radius which south side sewing was deemed to be in a tolerable distance The request for proposals, in my opinion, were evaluated in accordance with the procedures. And unfortunately, your company came in third, notwithstanding that you've been with the company a long time, with the city for a long time. And unfortunately, that's the way it works out sometimes. So I think that we continue with going forward the way we are. And if something comes up after the fact, then we can always revisit it. But that's my perspective. And once again, thank you, everybody, for coming out and for your service for the city.

Thank you.

Okay.

Any other council comments?

Nope.

Okay. Well, I will adjourn the meeting at 6.43. Have a good evening.

Thank you.