Supervisors Hear Testimony on License Suspensions, Amnesty, Towing Fees and Collection Practices; Task-Force Idea Raised

"The city and county of San Francisco should not be in the job of impoverishing our working class and low income communities," Chair Supervisor Jane Kim said as she opened a Feb. 25 hearing examining how fines, towing and debt collection affect residents.

The hearing assembled city staff and community advocates to review a chain of practices that can lead from a citation to court-ordered debt and, in some cases, a suspended driver—6s license. Ruth Sapelt (Office of Economic & Workforce Development) summarized a statewide Traffic Tickets Infractions Amnesty Program (Oct 2015—1Feb 2016) that can reduce certain pre-Jan 2013 debt by 50—80% and lift DMV holds once an applicant sets up a payment plan and makes a first payment; she stressed implementation challenges, including county-by-county administration, multiple application fees and mail/phone-only processes that make access difficult for those without stable phone access.

SFMTA representatives described incentives and contract changes intended to reduce tows while recovering program costs. Dylan Al Young said towed vehicles were down about 45% since 2004 (from roughly 77,000 to 42,000 in 2015) and outlined a new towing-contract approach shifting to a flat facility-management fee plus per-tow payments; SFMTA staff provided a cost breakdown for the towing program (contractor/tow operators about $12.3 million; MTA enforcement/overhead about $9.1 million; rent for facilities, and a stated Seventh Street rent figure presented in testimony). Supervisors challenged the agency on how administrative fees are calculated and why some fees rise as tow volume falls, a dynamic SFMTA staff attributed to a full cost-recovery approach and fixed facility rents.

Representatives from Project 20 (the vendor-administered community service/payment program) and SFMTA said about 2,000 plans were enrolled in FY2015 and that the current structure (a $27 SFMTA fee plus vendor fees) will be consolidated in a forthcoming RFP to streamline enrollment and broaden eligibility. SFMTA and Project 20 staff discussed raising credit rates for community-service work toward San Francisco wage levels (proposals described were $10/hour for non-DPW work and $15/hour for DPW work) and simplifying enrollment so cases in collections may be eligible.

Michael Ewen, CEO of the San Francisco Superior Court, described the court—6s limited local control (it is a state entity) and noted a large statewide backlog of court-ordered debt (a figure cited at the hearing of roughly $20 billion statewide). He said failures to appear are a primary driver of debt accumulation locally and described steps the court had taken to stop placing new license holds during amnesty, to accept some amnesty applications through its collections vendor (Alliance 1), and to offer a petition-to-lift-license-hold process (adopted Aug. 2014) that has had very low take-up.

Advocates from Debt Free SF, Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights urged expanding amnesty, eliminating the $50 county participation fee and the $55 DMV reissuance fee, terminating or reforming the Alliance 1 contract, and creating a local debt-relief court or calendar with meaningful options calibrated to ability to pay. Public defenders and many residents described personal stories of job loss, repeated towing costs and long-running license suspensions, and asked supervisors to stop suspending licenses as a collection tool.

After extended public testimony, supervisors agreed to pursue follow-up work, including immediate "low-hanging" fixes and a longer task-force or coordinated program to address structural problems. The committee took a motion to file the hearing for follow-up; Chair Kim and Vice Chair Avalos said they would co-author a resolution to continue the work and the hearing record will be used to plan next steps.