Mayor Tim Kelly on Tuesday vetoed an ordinance passed by Chattanooga City Council that had raised the maximum allowable rates charged by towing companies to $250 for towing passenger vehicles in the daytime and $275 during the evenings and weekends.
The rate increase, which the City Council passed on Dec. 6, would allow towing companies on the city’s call list "to charge tow prices on Chattanooga residents well in excess of the rate of inflation," he said.
Council Vice Chair Raquetta Dotley said it was "unfortunate that the city administration did not bring up the issue in a timely fashion" so there could have been dialogue on a possible compromise.
She asked City Attorney Phil Noblett to prepare a resolution for overriding the veto. That vote will be Dec. 20.
Mayor Kelly has proposed an alternative rate schedule with a daytime tow rate of $200 and a night/weekend rate of $215 - an adjustment that he said "accommodates the towing industry’s increasing costs, while not overcharging Chattanoogans for a service that has not fundamentally changed since 2004. Currently, tow companies can charge a maximum of $125 to tow passenger vehicles in the daytime and $135 during the evening and on weekends."
“While the $50 difference in my A Class rate proposal is not dramatically far apart from the Council’s proposed ordinance, that difference really matters to working-class Chattanoogans struggling with inflation themselves — especially when a towing fee is almost always an unexpected expense,” Mayor Kelly said in his Dec. 13 letter informing City Council of his veto. “Again, I understand the need to adjust these rates for inflation, but adding an extra 25 to 27 percent to an inflation-adjusted rate is not a proposal that I can support.”
Click here to read Mayor Kelly's letter to City Council leadership.