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will now turn it over to you, Ms, Auditor General, whenever you're ready, turn it over to your colleagues, and we have the presentation up now. I will just full transparency. If it's looking at we're at a 35 minute mark, I will give us some time, some times, but whenever you're ready, you can go ahead and begin. 

as she's pulling up the presentation, we believe we can get through it very quickly. In this presentation, we'll talk a little bit about the commission. We'll talk a little bit about towing in Detroit. What are some of the city standards affecting towing, the proposed towing fees as recommended by this commission, and a few other related items, and we'll talk about the memorandum to city council, and then a few next steps about the Commission, the city charter Division five towing subdivision recommends the composition of this towing rate commission to be composed of the Auditor General as chairperson, the director of building safety engineering and environmental department, or designated representative, the chief of police, or designated representative, a representative of the public appointed by the mayor and a representative of the towing industry as appointed by city council. Our duty was to review the administrative toying service and storage fees for police authorized towing at least once every two years, and submitting a recommendation to city council by October 1 of the year of review in the event that the Commission failed to act the if the toy rate Commissioner fails to forward such a recommendation within 

the time provided City Council always has the authority to adopt a resolution to set the administrative towing service and storage fees without such recommendation. I just want to note that this towing commission was convened on Monday, January 22 by the public health and safety standing committee. We requested appointees and designees, and that took some time. Our first meeting was not held until june 13, 2024 and the final commissioner was not seated until July 2. So we've worked very hard to get to this point and to provide these recommendations to city council. With that I'd like you to meet the 2024, touring rate commissioners. Again, I'm Laura goodsby, the Auditor General as chairperson of this commission, then I'd like we have four, three of the other Commissioners here, good
very briefly to talk about police authorized tolls. The department, the Detroit Police Department, carry out those tolls under Michigan law. And I listed the relevant section as well as the city charter, it is the city's responsibility to maintain clean, safe and functional streets. Residents and visitors are entitled to a safe and well managed vehicle towing system for non consensual tolls that affords them a high level of customer service, convenience, courtesy and professionalism. DPD is responsible for enforcing the towing ordinance. The dpds towing and impound unit was established in 2018 and includes both towing and impound operations in 2023 and 2024 the Detroit Police Department, storing an impound unit, performed approximately 20% of all hooks ie tolls in the city. So what does that mean? The other 80% next slide was performed by our police authorized tours. The police authorized tours, I'll call them P, A T's are experts in toying and they are efficient, professional and organized. They have the capacity and are focused. They work side by side with the police on crime scenes, and are trained to maintain the chain of custody needed for evidence, and that's very important. Approximately 80% of all 
DPD hooks in 2023 and 24 were performed by the P A T, S police authorized toying is 80% to 100% of each of the P A T's business, and that's why this proposed, these recommended fees are so important to their business, so that they continue to serve The city as they work with Detroit Police Department in 2012 there were 27 PhDs in Detroit. However, as of August 2024 there are 5p, A, T, S, operating under D, B, D, contracts, which were approved by city council and are effective December 2020 22 through July 2027 next slide, just briefly to talk about city standards. There are two city standards that really impact the tours, and it's two that we looked at as we looked at all the costs we tried to look at all the costs impacting the police authorized toes. One is the city standards regarding bonding and insurance standards. These are the standards that would be included in the contract, any contracts that come before you administered through the Office of the Chief Financial Office, Office of contracting and procurement. We just want to know that these are the current and the proposed record of
standards. We the charter. The charter states that it is the board of police commissioners to set the standards, or not set the standards, to recommend the standards to City Council for approval. We noted we requested some information. We have not received the final response. So for our purposes, we are assuming no change in the bonding and insurance standards. Next slide. The next set of standards that affect tools is licensing and permits. These licensing and permits covered junkyards, scrap yards, other open storage yards and marijuana sites. We note that the current and and proposed rates are with the current the proposed rate is still in line with the current rates. And we received this information a confirmation from our very own Commissioner, Mr. Anu. Well, next slide.
documentation to support how the current weight guidelines came to be. You'll notice that there really is a break between 10,000 pounds and less, and then there's this large category of 10,000 to 60,000 pounds. And then it's over 60,000 pounds. We'll talk about very briefly how we came up with our proposed weight guidelines and our proposed fees. Next slide in terms of the category light versus medium and heavy duty tolls, you'll note that light duty tolls include motorized vehicles, which includes your SUVs, your minivans, your passenger trucks and recreational vehicles. In other words, this is the classification that that will mostly impact the residents. Your average Detroit resident. And going back, our current fee for light duty tows is $125 we are recommending an increase in that fee to $225 and again, the weight class is still the same, 10,000 pounds and less. Medium and heavy duty totals are usually commercial vehicles. And going back to the previous slide, we are recommending. The current rate for a medium duty tow is $175 we're recommending an increase in that rate to $425 and for heavy duty toes, currently $300 to a proposed a recommended fee of $700 I do want so in terms of the current weight guidelines. The reason for the changes, as I mentioned, we could find no support for how the weight guidelines were determined in 2013 we our current, our recommended way guidelines, however, are being proposed based on industry standards. The towing I think I have a note, the toying rate, administer toy towing recovery Association, which is their industry standards have provided us with the weight guidelines, and so we have voted and agreed to adopt those weight guidelines in terms of the proposed fees. It is their base research based they've been vetted and approved by a majority vote of the 2024 trc commissioners, I will note they are within the national and Michigan benchmarks, and then again, a proposed weight guidelines. Yet they are per the towing recovery Association of America. Next slide, I
terms of the boats, trailers and camp campers, the heavy we're recommending that all of the both trailers and campers fall into a heavy duty toll rate, and that's based on information from both the P, A, T's, as confirmed by D, P D, that the majority of those types of tolls would fall into the heavy duty toll rate. So in terms of, I don't want to say simplicity, we are proposing that we have one category, one single flat fee for all boats, trailers and campers, and again, the the amount the proposed proposed fee is consistent With the heavy duty toll fee for motorized vehicles. Next slide in terms of miscellaneous toes, This category includes motorcycles on and off road, all terrain vehicles ATVs, jet skis, scooters, mini bikes, four wheelers, line equipment, paddle boats, non engine row boats, etc. So there is a wide range of items that can fall into these miscellaneous toll categories. Through discussion, we agreed that most of those would fall into the light duty toll classification a current fee of $100 but we are recommending a different flat fee for this category, which is $200 it's a little bit less than
the motorized vehicles flat proposed rate. Given that we understand that these items may not necessarily be as large as a vehicle. Next slide out of town, retrievals. I've given the information as to when that would kick in, and we are proposing the current fee is for light and medium duty tow truck, that is if it has to leave the city of Detroit. And there are occasions where Detroit Police Department may request a tour to retrieve a vehicle out of town. Most of these tolls are handled by DPD, and they're towing an impound unit, but we wanted to make sure that in the event that the tours are requested, the police authorized tours are requested to do that, that they are compensated accordingly. So for light, medium and duty tolls, the current rate is $4 we're proposing $6 per mile. And for heavy duty toast. Current rate is $6.95 cent per mile. We are recommending $8.89 cent per mile. Next slide in terms of storage fees, we have categorized it by motivate motorized vehicles and RVs, boats, trailers and campers and motorcycles within the motorized vehicles and RVs, we are recommending three different rates for light duty, medium duty, heavy Duty. Current rates 1520, and 25 recommended rates are 3040, and $50 respectively, for both trailers and campus, consistent with our one rate toe heavy duty. Current daily fee is $25 and the proposed and again, these are daily fees $50 and for most motorcycles, $15 current daily fee. We're proposing an increase to $30 daily fee. The last component of our proposed rates is the administrative fee. The first administrative fee was included in the City Council's resolution in the 2012 Commission. It was codified in our charter in the 2021 toy division ordinance, and that really gives the Detroit Police Department to establish an administrative fee subject to the approval of this honorable body. The current fee is $75 DVD is proposing to keep that fleet, keep that fee the same at $75 I do want to note that our nation benchmark ranges from $10 to $100 the average was $49 there was about seven cities in our benchmark that had an administrative fee that we could glean from the information. I also want to point out that the 2012 trc recommended $50 however, City Council approved the $75 we could not find any
record of the dialog that took place before City Council with the $75 but we do want to note that it's within the authority of this honorable body to approve the fees as they deem appropriate. Next slide, this administrative fee is a service fee supporting the following operational costs within the Detroit Police Department towing an impound unit. It supports gov tow, which was actually recommended by the police authorized tours over the last few years. It is a vehicle tow management and tracking solution. It supports the Michigan's law enforcement enforced Information Network, which is a series of net networks that DPD can use in their operations. It supports staffing, including, but not limited to the toll desk staffing, which are our 24 hours, seven days a week, the auction and abandoned vehicle officers, impounding, officers, supervisors, office, managed, management assistance. I should have added there are folks in the the PT, IU, that review the invoices that are submitted by the by the PTS, and other operational costs that may not be specifically listed here. Next item, next slide, just a few other relevant items that we'd like to bring to the attention of the public in this body that the touring division ordinance, there is a hardship policy. This was put into place in the 2021 ordinance, and it requires that any toll contract initiated after calendar year 2021 shall be evaluated to determine whether an income based rate structure or toll hardship policy is feasible. Such findings shall be submitted to the city council via resolution for consideration. I'm not sure of we could not find that, but I do want to know that the current police authorized towards contracts with effective dates from 2022 to 27 that DPD implemented, they implemented a discretionary program which allows owners a vehicle stolen in the city of Detroit to apply for a poverty waiver for DPD authorized towing, to waive those DPD authorized touring and storage fees those if that fee is waived, it's the police authorized towards is still paid. It becomes a city cost. DPD also has the authority to waive or reduce fees, and they are responsible for reviewing, approving, and if applicable, waiving or reducing fees in accordance with the with the ordinance, I do know that they have included a in addition to this hardship policy for stolen vehicles, they have included, and I Like Captain Adam, speak briefly to that included other policies for the citizens of Detroit.
just want to talk briefly about this other item, regarding disposal fees. This came to our attention during our meetings, the P, A T's advised the commission that currently, there is no mechanism that allows them to recover the cost of disposing items not redeemed and left in their storage lots currently through the city's competitive procurement practices, DPD outsources disposal of items not redeemed on the city lots through the city contract. We did. We discussed it. We determined, at least the commission determined that we have no authority to set or even recommend disposal fees, since it was not specifically listed as one of the items or duties in the touring ordinance, as it relates to this commission, we resolve that it's an operational concern between Detroit Police Department and the police authorized tours in any resulting Changes in contract terms would go through the city procurement process for subsequent approval by city council. But we do wanted to bring it to your attention in case you want to address this important issue for the police authorized tours. Next slide. And with that, I don't know if it's attached, but we have submitted to you a formal record, a memorandum and recommendation for police authorized towing other fees. It is in the format of a fee schedule with all of the proposed fees, as we've outlined here attached, we are hoping that as a result of your approval of the fees, whatever they may be, that we do post those fees in a easy, readable and accessible fee schedule, such as the one attached to the memoranda next. Slide. What are the next steps? We are here as your commissioners to provide responses to any questions that you may have, and or, as you suggested, we will be
available next week, or whenever you decide to bring it back. We're expecting our final meeting of this towing rate commission. We're hoping for September 26 but again, that depends on your request to us, and we are expecting to convene in 2026 which is in two years, sometime in February, to review these whatever rates are in effect. Next slide with that. On behalf of this 2024, touring rate commission, I want to thank you. I first want to, first of all, want to thank as well, the commissioners we were able to jump in very quickly, and our goal was to meet this target date of providing you with these recommended fees way before the October 1 deadline. And I do want to thank them for showing up and being willing to discuss the fees and making concessions wherever it was needed for us to arrive at this point. Thank you.