Bexar Towing boss cleared of overcharging

Alex Garcia, right, part owner of Bexar Towing/Roadside Recovery Specialist Inc., walks with attorney Bebb Francis, left,to the Frank D. Wing Municipal Court Building for a pretrial hearing on pending citations, Tuesday, August 21, 2012. less Alex Garcia, right, part owner of Bexar Towing/Roadside Recovery Specialist Inc., walks with attorney Bebb Francis, left,to the Frank D. Wing Municipal Court Building for a pretrial hearing on pending ... more Photo: BOB OWEN, San Antonio Express-News Photo: BOB OWEN, San Antonio Express-News Image 1 of / 3 Caption Close Bexar Towing boss cleared of overcharging 1 / 3 Back to Gallery

As San Antonio proposes to more than double the amount drivers must pay to retrieve a towed vehicle, the president of one of the largest local tow companies was found not guilty Wednesday of overcharging in at least one instance.

Municipal Court Judge Robert Lipo did not explain the reasoning for his decision to find Alex Garcia, Bexar Towing president and shareholder, not guilty.

However, it followed an argument by Garcia's attorney that, as president, his client was not directly responsible for charging a driver $250 to get her towed vehicle back, well above the city's $85 limit on the fee.

“There is no basis being president of a company makes one liable for everything” that a company does, said Garcia's attorney, Mark Cannan.

Despite the adverse ruling for the city, it has no plans to drop the more than 400 overcharging citations against Garcia — all of them issued in a single day last May — even if that means trying him for five tickets a day, Samuel Adams, with the city attorney's office, said after the judge's ruling.

Adams maintains Garcia was in a position to direct the company's policy to charge the higher amount.



Cannan said the city's pursuit of more trials shows it wants “to intimidate Alex Garcia after he was found not guilty.”

What constitutes a reasonable towing fee has been at the center of a long-standing dispute between the city, which under the banner of consumer protection can regulate the amount, and towing operators who say the $85 limit is prohibitive.

Bexar Towing and several others decided to charge $250 instead, the maximum the state allows. San Antonio police then issued the slew of citations.

Lipo has not yet ruled in another overcharging case — one against Bexar Towing founder and de facto spokesman John DeLoach, whose trial was held immediately after Garcia's.

Police cited DeLoach eight times, but one ticket was dismissed. Lipo asked attorneys to send him written briefs by 5 p.m. Friday; he will rule that night or possibly Saturday.

The verdict in Garcia's trial came one day after it was announced that City Council will vote Jan. 31 on whether to raise the limit on what companies can charge for a tow from $85 to $177, a 108 percent increase.

The amount still is not as much as the towing companies want, but the city is willing to budge after studying towing fees. San Antonio hasn't raised tow fees since 2002, though every other major Texas city raised theirs in the meantime.

Bexar Towing did sue the city, arguing the state rules allowed the company leeway to charge above the city cap. It also alleged the city dragged its feet about raising the limit, even as Bexar Towing repeatedly had asked for a study re-examining the fee. State law allows towing companies to request a study, but there was no protocol in place in San Antonio.

Bexar Towing later dropped its suit, but the Municipal Court cases involving the tickets remained.

Besides raising the cap, the city is looking at other changes to its towing regulations. Tow companies would be required to pay $5,000 for the tow fee study “to defray the cost” of the work. Before, requesting a study was free.

The city also may require that two or three tow companies that collectively represent more than 50 percent of the market must request the study, said Deputy City Manager Erik Walsh. Previously, a single company could request one. But the city would also be required to do the study within 120 days. Previously, there was no time limit.

The city also has proposed making the drop fee — the fee drivers can pay if the tow truck has not yet left with their vehicle — half the cost of the entire tow.

If the fee is raised to $177, that would make the drop fee $88.50 — $3.50 more than the current drop fee. The city originally had proposed lowering the drop fee to $50, but that idea was scrapped by the Police Department, Walsh said.

Under the new ordinance, if passed, companies would have to report any tow to police within 45 minutes. The current rules give them a two-hour reporting window. It also includes provisions for additional signs notifying drivers of the towing policies for any properties with large or ambiguous entrances.

“All these little things were things the Police Department had encountered over the last 10 years that they wanted to be clarified,” Walsh said.

The city also would work out a fuel adjustment schedule that will allow tow companies to periodically increase what they collects for tows as fuel prices rise.

DeLoach said he'll accept the new fee limit, but grudgingly so. He says $177 still isn't enough to cover the cost of a tow, which his attorney Bebb Francis said is closer to $220. He also took issue with another stipulation in the city's proposed ordinance that wouldn't allow companies to request another tow fee study for four years.

“People that don't know anything about towing, $177 is a heck of a lot of money,” DeLoach said. “But until you're paying the cost of it, then you don't have any understanding of it. And I don't think anyone that is affiliated with doing the study has an understanding of the cost or what's involved in it. It's just, we have to take what they are going to give us.”

Walsh said the city determined the fee using figures from a previously state-commissioned study, but then updated the numbers.

The city had requested financial data from 23 towing companies, but Bexar Towing was the only one that responded.

vdavila@express-news.net